Cambridge Common

{{Infobox NRHP

| name = Cambridge Common Historic District

| nrhp_type = hd

| nocat = yes

| image = Cambridge Common from the Seat of Caleb Gannett 1808.jpg

| caption = View of the Cambridge Common, ca. 1808–09, with Harvard College on the left and Christ Church on the right.

| location = Roughly SE of Waterhouse St., bordered by Garden St. and Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, Massachusetts

| coordinates = {{coord|42.37651|N|71.12049|W|source:placeopedia|display=inline,title}}

| locmapin = Boston Metro#Massachusetts#USA

| map_caption = Location in Massachusetts##Location in United States

| built = 1770

| customarchitect = Anne Whitney, et al.

| customarchitect_title = Sculptor

| architecture = Greek Revival, Federal

| added = January 26, 1987

| area = {{convert|8.5|acre}}[http://www.historicmapworks.com/Map/US/8143/Plate+021/Cambridge+1916/Massachusetts/ G. W. Bromley map showing area in square feet]

| mpsub = {{NRHP url|id=64000275|title=Cambridge MRA}}

| refnum = 87000499{{NRISref |refnum=87000499|version=2010a}}

| map_label = Cambridge Common

}}File:Cambridge Common (90040p)2.jpg

Cambridge Common is a public park and National Historic Landmark in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. It is located near Harvard Square and borders on several parts of Harvard University. The north end of the park has a large playground. The park is maintained by the Cambridge Department of Public Works.Community Development Department. Public Parks, Playgrounds, and Reservations. August 2012.

History

Cambridge Common was established in 1630 as a common area, intended to serve as grazing pasture for ox, sheep, and cows as well as a woodlot.{{Cite web |title=The Cambridge Common |url=https://historycambridge.org/Cambridge-Revolution/Cambridge%20Common2.html |access-date=2024-12-30 |website=historycambridge.org}}{{Cite news|last=Harris|first=John|date=August 17, 1986|title=Some great moments on Cambridge Common|work=Boston Globe}} It was also used as a military training ground.{{Cite book|last=Farrington|first=Charles|title=Historic Cambridge Common|publisher=The Bedford Print Shop|year=1918|location=Bedford, Mass.|pages=5}} It originally extended from what is now Linnaean Street in the north all the way south to Harvard Square between Massachusetts Avenue and Garden Street, an area comprising roughly 85 acres.{{Cite book|last=Farrington|title=Historic Cambridge Common|pages=6}}

Public executions took place in the northern portion of this space, known as Gallows Hill, located today west of Massachusetts Avenue around Lancaster Street.{{Cite book|last=Baltrusis|first=Sam|title=Ghosts of Cambridge: Haunts of Harvard Square and Beyond|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|year=2013}} Executed at this site on September 22, 1755, were two enslaved African Americans, Mark and Phillis, who were both accused and convicted of poisoning their enslaver, John Codman of Charlestown.{{Cite journal|date=1882–1883|title=The Murder of Captain Codman|journal=Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society|volume=20|pages=122–157}}{{Cite book|last=Higginson|first=Thomas Wentworth|title=Old Cambridge|publisher=The MacMillan Company|year=1899|location=London|pages=19}} Phillis was burned at the stake, and Mark was killed by hanging on gallows some ten yards away from the stake.{{Cite news|date=September 22, 1755|title=Boston|work=Boston Evening-Post}} His body was subsequently exhibited publicly for decades in Charlestown, such that even Paul Revere remembered passing by its site while on his famous ride.{{Cite journal|last=White|first=Shane|date=April 2003|title=Slavery in the North|journal=OAH Magazine of History|volume=17.3|pages=18–19}}{{Cite journal|last=Slotkin|first=Richard|date=March 1973|title=Narratives of Negro Crime in England, 1675–1800|journal=American Quarterly|volume=25.1|pages=3–31}}{{Cite journal|last=Lepore|first=Jill|date=Summer 2011|title='Paul Revere's Ride': Awakening Abolitionists|journal=American Educator|volume=35.2|pages=30}}{{Cite book|last=Allen|first=William|title=Memoir of John Codman, D.D.|publisher=TR Marvin and SK Whipple & Co.|year=1853|location=Boston|pages=12}} Phillis was later described by a newspaper as "the last recorded victim" of this punishment in New England.{{Cite news|date=March 20, 1909|title=Negress Burned to Death|work=Cambridge Chronicle}}

Legend has it that George Washington took command of the Continental Army in a ceremony underneath the Washington Elm. Yet historical research suggests no such ceremony took place.{{Cite journal|last=Anderson|first=Fred|year=1999|title=The Hinge of the Revolution: George Washington Confronts a People's Army, July 3, 1775|journal=Massachusetts Historical Review|volume=1|pages=20–48}}

After the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the area was used to house soldiers in makeshift barracks and temporary shelters. The conditions were crowded, unkempt, and malodorous. As a result, the men housed there were often quarrelsome and prone to conflict.

The current space was not enclosed until 1830.

Barracks were constructed on the common during World War I as the Navy Department built structures for its Radio School on the grounds.{{Cite book|last=Farrington|title=Historic Cambridge Common|pages=3}}

Cambridge Common has long been a site for public gatherings in which groups met before marching to Boston Common as part of protests for Civil Rights or against the Vietnam War.{{Cite web|title=Mass Gathering at Boston Common Will Protest Birmingham Arrests {{!}} News {{!}} The Harvard Crimson|url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1963/5/9/mass-gathering-at-boston-common-will/|access-date=2020-12-25|website=www.thecrimson.com}}{{Cite web|title=60,000 War Protestors Rally on Common {{!}} News {{!}} The Harvard Crimson|url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1970/4/16/60000-war-protestors-rally-on-common/|access-date=2020-12-24|website=www.thecrimson.com}}

Matt Damon recalled how Ben Affleck helped him in a fight during a football game on the Common in the mid-1980s.{{Cite news|last=Slane|first=Kevin|date=November 6, 2019|title=Ben Affleck once saved Matt Damon from a fight in Cambridge|work=The Boston Globe}}

Monuments and memorials

A commemorative plaque marks the location of the Washington Elm, a tree under which legend claims Washington stood as he first assumed command of the Continental Army. The tree itself perished in the 1920s.{{Cite web |title=Cambridge Common (U.S. National Park Service) |url=https://www.nps.gov/places/cambridge-common.htm |access-date=2024-12-30 |website=www.nps.gov |language=en}} Nearby is the Prince Hall Monument by Ted Clausen and a trio of bronze cannons, a plaque for Henry Knox, and another for Tadeusz Kościuszko.

In the northeast corner is the Statue of John Bridge, also known as The Puritan, by Thomas Ridgeway Gould.

Slightly southeast of the center of the Common is a memorial to the American Civil War with a statue of Abraham Lincoln in a covered area near the base of the memorial. On top of the memorial is a statue of a soldier.

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.{{Cite news|last=Cullen|first=Kevin|date=July 24, 1997|title=Memorial to Irish famine dedicated|work=The Boston Globe}} The Memorial sculpture was created by Maurice Harron, a sculptor from Derry, Northern Ireland. There is a similar memorial in downtown Boston.