On Friday’s post I began writing about Hollis Hall which appears inconspicuously behind Thomas Knowlton on Page #47. Then I realized I should mention that the scene takes place in Harvard Yard. I visited last summer and took a bunch of great photos that I always intended to, but never actually remembered to, share with you. It was soon apparent I just needed to write a new post exclusively about historic Harvard during the American Revolution. So here it is…
If Alan turned his head to the left, he'd be staring at Joseph Warren's dormitory, "Massachusetts Hall."
Last summer when I was in Boston, Sam Forman took me on a brief tour of the historic parts of Harvard Campus before dropping me off at the airport.
There were three things I really hoped to see there: the dormitories used as barracks by the Continental Army, Dr. Joseph Warren’s dormitory, and the building used by Dr. John Warren as Harvard’s first school of medicine.
Hollis Hall barracked soldiers from the Continental Army during the siege of Boston.
After Bunker Hill, the Continental Army was established. Newly instated General George Washington came to Boston and set up headquarters for this ragtag group of misfit soldiers at Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Harvard Campus. Hollis Hall (above) was one such building used as barracks for the army. A plaque on the side of the building mentions this fact, rather nonchalantly, I might add. If I were a Harvard freshman I’d do whatever it took to make sure I lived here.
This plaque on Hollis Hall mentions the Continental Army's stay.
Adjacent to Hollis Hall in Harvard Yard is another historic, Revolutionary era building. This one is Massachusetts Hall. Most notably, to us Dreamers, this was the dormitory where Joseph Warren lived when he was a teenage Harvard student.
Dr. Joseph Warren lived here, but so did a few of his colleagues. Ever heard of the Adams cousins...? Mr. Hancock...?
Joseph Warren, John Hancock, John Adams, Elbridge Gerry, James Otis and Samuel Adams also lived here when they were students. It’s not really a surprise then that the president of the university has his office there now, is it?
Knock, Knock! Who's there? Dr. Warren! (And don't you dare say "Dr. Warren, who?")
There is a famous little story about Joseph Warren climbing up a rainspout to get into a locked room. No sooner had he jumped through the window, the rainspout fell away from the wall and crashed to the ground. Safely inside and back on his feet, Warren, unfazed, declared to his classmates that at least the rainspout had, “served it’s purpose.”
The tale might not be true, but if it is, Sam tells me the rainspout in question would, at that time, have been a hollowed out log. That the son of an apple farmer would be good at climbing trees doesn’t surprise me. (We also know Warren for another famous climb– into the Old South Meeting House!)
The site of Dr. Warren's famous teenage ascent?
Just because he could have doesn’t mean he did. It just means the story is plausible.
Massachusetts Hall was also converted into army barracks during the siege of Boston.
The fourth floor of Massachusetts Hall is still used as dormitories.
I love 18th century architecture before the Federalist style took over. It’s a good thing I had a flight to catch or I would have kept Sam there a lot longer that day…
Dr. John Warren taught at Holden Chapel.
Nearby was Holden Chapel. In 1783 this tiny little building was the site of new Harvard Medical School, established by none other than Dr. John Warren, Joseph Warren’s youngest brother who was also a Harvard alum.
Hurry up, you're late for class and we all know John Warren doesn't suffer fools.
The Two Nerdy History Girls just wrote a post about the ox heads carved above the doorframe here at Holden Chapel. Turns out, yup, soldiers stayed here too. I love the Nerdy History Girls, and if you haven’t been to their site yet, you should read this article then peruse the blog for more.
Our last stop at Harvard was the Wadsworth House.
George Washington slept here.
Homes large enough to house the Generals’s staffs were picked as temporary headquarters near where the army was staying. This was one that Washington used while in Boston.
The Continental Army may have stayed in dorms, but the commander-in-chief stays here.
Well, next time you’re in Boston consider making the trip out to Cambridge and check out the historic buildings at Harvard Yard. I think students even give tours once or twice a day, if you don’t have your own personal historian to show you around.
Washington was in Wadsworth House for only about two weeks before moving out to the empty Vassall house. I suspect he wanted to put more distance between himself and the men. Just in case any characters visit him from 15 July 1775 to 3 April 1776.
My list of places to visit “next time I’m in New England” only ever gets longer, not shorter.
Thanks!
John L. Bell is being modest. And apparently he’s a closet “Dreamer” fan, as am I. Washington started here in Cambridge and spent the rest of the long months of the Siege of Boston at the Longfellow/Washington Headquarters house on nearby Tory Row (still standing and a great place to visit). John has recently written a comprehensive tome for the National Park Service documenting the goings-on of Washington while resident at the Vassall house. Of particular interest to Dreamers, Dr. Joseph Warren helped defuse a volatile situation in early September 1774, as self-activated Patriot militias confronted Tory Governor-General appointed Mandamus Counselors, and publicly forced them to resign. Cool heads prevailed that day, as opposed to French Revolution severed heads-on-pikes of angry peasants (circa 1789). But for Joseph Warren and militia unit leaders, the Revolutionary War could have started right there and then.
Lora’s fictional Whaley parents’ experiences might be modeled in part on the historical Vassalls’ predicament and fates. But she isn’t telling us just now.
Also, in the 19th c. poet and author Longfellow lived in this very house and wrote that catchy ditty “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere.” Longfellow’s 1860 poem inadvertently overlooked the contributions of Joseph Warren, William Dawes, and many others – thereby contributing to the unjustified obscurity of the latter folks in our collective consciousness.
I’m not surprised that that is what Mr. Bell has been up to. He was quite at the ready to help us figure out when Hale was where during the siege.
In case anyone here hasn’t heard me mention J.L. Bell’s blog Boston 1775, you should all subscribe to it and follow him on Twitter.
I sure am I going to miss having you guys around when I move onto the Civil War this summer. I’ll have to find some new trusted advisors…
For the Civil War, or the War of Northern Aggression as my Southern friends are apt to call it, I suspect the history nerds are more numerous and just as friendly. Curious coincidence: my first radio interview for the new Warren biography was on a station serving Appomattox, Virginia. Folks love all kinds of history down that way..
Some great reference shots there, Lora. I remember our panel from Mid-Ohio several years back when you talked about how much research you have to do to make sure locations and clothing and everything reflected the times accurately. This definitely shows in today’s page!
Aww, thanks Trevor. Surprised you remembered that. That was quite a few Mid-Ohios ago.
Trevor, she does indeed do her homework and the legwork! “Dreamers” are in good hands. I suspect that they (we) know that.
I’ve had lots of help. :)
THOUGHTS!!!!! In no particular order…
-So…..John established a medical school almost a hundred years after the war? Coooooool…..though, may need correcting, that (and I may need to learn how to encode and link stuff so I can make an, “ERROR! Grasshopper disassembled!” Short Circuit joke)
-I really hope that drainspout story is true, cause that is awesome
- *clicks on the John link* Ohhhhh, I forgot how bad that foot was….
ha. 1783. Thanks.
No prob. So………..Dr. Warren who?
@Brent: Hollis Chapel (which Lora pictured in her blog), when restored for the umpti-umpth time a few years ago, turned up body parts and arsenic buried in the basement walls. The Harvard Crimson student newspaper was aflutter with tales of ancient murder and intrigue, but more likely these were leavings of Dr. John Warren and his medical students. Hollis served as his amphitheater for anatomy lectures from 1782 to the early 19th century, and the basement was a chemical lab during those same years.
Obtaining dead bodies for dissection was illegal in Massachusetts until the 1830s, so it is no wonder that Dr. John W.’s students were burying the “evidence” in the walls. Arsenic containing medicines were part of the pharmacopoeia of strong medicines in those days. Today we’d consider the storage bins of some of these as a toxic waste dump!
Ummm……..if this is cause I mentioned a foot, I was talking about that one in Jack’s first non-flashback appearance. Either way, I’m more curious about who Hollis was then what the Spunkers forgot to clean out….
That is so gross but interesting all at once. There was a fantastic story in J.L. Bell’s blog, actually, about John Warren’s son John C. bringing him a body to dissect in their class. http://boston1775.blogspot.com/2010/01/difficulties-of-medical-training-in.html That seems the obvious answer to the mystery. Those jumpy student reporters should have done more research. ;)
Bones were found in the basement of Ben Franklin’s London residence as well. He was living with a doctor at the time. I met a guy a few years back writing a screenplay about what those bodies might have been used for. This might spoil his “thesis” but the title of the work was “Ben Franklinstein.”
Heh. My book group is discussing Frankenstein on Wednesday night, and I plan to wear my Spunkers shirt!
I’m a Harvard undergrad, and I’ve had a chorus rehearsal in Holden Chapel every week for the last three years. Never knew about its history or its connection to The Dreamer! This is fascinating, thanks Lora! (Or about the Continental barracks in Mass Hall or Hollis, so cool. Unfortunately didn’t get to live in either – freshmen are randomly assigned to dorms.)
Holden Chapel (mistakenly called it Hollis above…) has a rather macabre history. Dreamers will insist that you share news of any auditory hauntings – Phantom of the Opera style or otherwise. Or you can make some up to scare the freshmen.
Teehee. If I’d had the bucks and the brains, I’d have gone to either Harvard or Yale (for obvious reasons). As it stands though, I never have and never will regret being a Baylor Bear. :D
I still say some of the buildings on Baylor campus must have been modeled after Boston architecture. (And don’t pretend that Harvard would have even been an option, you would have gone to Yale without a question! :P)
Why weren’t my history textbooks in school as cool as this blog is?? Seriously. This is why I’m becoming a writer, and why I’m more and more convinced that I need to make my genre history.
Thank you so much for combining your artistic and your writerly gifts with your love of history and sharing it all with us, Lora!
I think it has something to do with the fact that the newsposts (sic) are almost written in the present tense, or at least the very-recent-past tense. This is opposed to school history books which tried to cram every major detail of an era into 20 to 30 pages, leaving little space for the hows (no, not those howes) and supporting players (Knowlton’s Faramir (hey, another ranger!) to Washington’s Aragorn) of History
OMGosh! LOTR reference!!! Washington… Aragorn… Knowlton Faramir…. I think my day just got brighter. :D
Well the Wahington-Aragorn one makes sense, but I had trouble with Knowlton, so if there’s a better…….
Nay, that makes *perfect* sense to any LOTR junkie, of which illustrious band I am proudly and happily a member. *high five* YOU should write history books, mellonamin.
Nah, I’m more a hard-working hobbit than an elven lore-master. Just give me some grub and a tiller and point me to the nearest emerald-hued fire-lizard and i’ll be fine.
XD I’ll take the title of junior loremistress, maybe.
@Brent Grub? Give Me Elvish Lembas bread. One bite is enough to fill the stomach of a grown man. Either that or give me those apples Aragorn keeps throwing at Merry.
@Amber: Oh, that stuff? Doesn’t work. Trust me, I’ve had, like, four already, and I’m still hungry.
LOL @ this entire conversation. Warms my wee hobbit heart.
(I’m also more habit-like in my hobbits… er, that is, hobbit-like in my habits…!)
no lembas for me either–give me a big ol’ bowl of mushrooms and bacon, thank you kindly :)
Oh, shucks, why do we not go off to the Green Dragon and have a drink? Although I do not drink.
Wait a minute.. The patriots in Boston frequented the Green Dragon for the sons of Liberty meetings. Does that mean they were Hobbits?
Maybe that’s where Tolkien got the name?
I’d noticed that correspondence, too…I hope you’ll forgive me for freaking out like a LOTR fangirl when I first heard of it instead of going into a history fangasm. :P
Hmm. There was also the battle of Brandywine (where my ancestor supposedly fought, no less). We’re on to you, Tolkien.
So, as soon as I saw the first picture of the drain pipe I thought of Joseph’s climb. You know, I’m going to believe it because it makes a truly entertaining story. :P
It does! I have always chuckled at that story. Tehe. I can just see the student’s faces when he jumps inside the room. LOL!
This looks great! Man, I wish I’d known all of that when I went to Boston last fall – I might have enjoyed the visit to Harvard a bit more. When I went, it was just super-crowded and touristy, and that just didn’t do it for me.
And I love all the little anecdotes you added in here, like the rainspout story. lol – who would have thought that the Founding Fathers and other historical figures would get into shenanigans like that? But it’s those stories I like the most, because they are the ones that remind me that these are still people. So thanks for sharing!
WOW. I sit on the steps of that house ALL THE TIME waiting for the bus! I had no idea it had housed the Generals staff! That is so cool!
I can’t believe I never knew about all these buildings! Thanks for posting! :D