Cambridge Common

Cambridge Common Historic District (Boundary Increase and Decrease)
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. Historic district
View of the Cambridge Common, ca. 1808-9, with Harvard College on the left and Christ Church on the right.]]
Location:	Roughly NW of Waterhouse St. on Concord Ave. between Garden and Follen Sts., Cambridge, Massachusetts
Area:	27 acres (11 ha)
Built:	1770
Architectural style:	Greek Revival, Federal
Governing body:	Private
MPS:	Cambridge MRA
NRHP Reference#:	87000499
Added to NRHP:	January 26, 1987

A modern view of the common

Cambridge Common is a public park in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. It is located near Harvard Square and borders on several parts of Harvard University.

History

During the American Revolutionary War, General George Washington first gathered his troops here. The tree under which legend has it they gathered, called the Washington Elm, no longer stands but its location is marked with a commemorative plaque. Nearby is a trio of bronze cannons, a plaque for Henry Knox and another for Tadeusz Kościuszko.

Cambridge Common is also the site of an Irish Famine Memorial, dedicated on July 23, 1997 by then President of Ireland, Mary Robinson, and unveiled to an audience of 3,000 people. The Memorial sculpture was created by Maurice Harron, a sculptor from Derry, Northern Ireland. There is a very similar memorial in downtown Boston.

See also

• Cambridge Common Historic District

References

• Cambridge Common Irish Famine Memorial (archived 2007)