Skip to main content
Menu
Access to material may be restricted.
View All Records View On Map
Gordon McKay Laboratory
Access to material may be restricted.
Access to material may be restricted.

Gordon McKay Laboratory

Address9, Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA, United States of America, 02138
Site Number436
Building Root Number 03763
Architect (Original)
Land Acquired 1924
Constructed 1952
Building Acquired 1952
StatusActive
Site Name HistoryThe site is named after Harvard donor, industrialist, and entrepreneur Gordon McKay, (1896 Hon.). His endowment of 1906 provided much of the funding for engineering research at Harvard in the twentieth century.Historical NotesThis Gordon McKay Laboratory of Applied Science opened in 1952. It was designed for Harvard by Coolidge Shepley Bulfinch and Abbott of Boston. Another building, located on the east side of Oxford Street, with the same name existed on campus. The old Gordon McKay Laboratory was built in 1918 and at one point housed Harvard's first cyclotron.
Additional Information
General Information by and About the Gordon McKay Laboratory of Applied Science. Harvard University Archives HUB 1546.
General Information by and About Dunbar Laboratory. Harvard University Archives call number HUB 1341.2.
Maycock, Susan E., and Charles Sullivan. Building old Cambridge: architecture and development. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2016. Print. Lamont Library call number NA735.C28 M39 2016; Loeb Design Library call number NA735.C28 M39 2016.
“McKay Opens in June; Labs Near Completion.” The Harvard Crimson, 4 Dec. 1952, https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1952/12/4/mckay-opens-in-june-labs-near/.
“Harvard to Construct Two Buildings: New Classroom and Laboratory Space for Harvard.” The Christian Science Monitor, 27 Mar. 1951, p. 6.
Heskel, Julia. Shepley Bulfinch Richardson and Abbott: Past to Present. Shepley Bulfinch Richardson and Abbott, 1999.
Related Projects