You are here

Metropolitan Boston » Cambridge » Brattle Street » Elmwood

Elmwood

-A A +A
c. 1767. 33 Elmwood Ave.
  • Elmwood (Peter Vanderwarker or Antonina Smith)

The home of Tory Lieutenant Governor Thomas Oliver until he was forced to flee in 1774, this house was used as a hospital during the Revolution. The handsome three-story clap-boarded block is still surrounded by substantial grounds, suggesting its colonial grandeur. In 1787 Elbridge Gerry, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and later vice president of the United States—the man who inspired the term “gerrymander”—purchased the Oliver house. The Reverend Charles Lowell acquired the property in 1818 and his son, poet James Russell Lowell, lived here most of his life. Elmwood was left to Harvard University in 1962 and now serves as the residence of the president. Across the street, the Watson House (c. 1750) at 30 Elmwood Avenue (NRD/LHD, moved here in 1965) represents the more modest colonial architecture built by comfortable but less wealthy individuals in the eighteenth century.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Keith N. Morgan
×

Data

What's Nearby

Hugh Stubbins House
Ruggles-Fayerweather House
Henry Van Brunt House
Joseph Thorpe House
Arthur Astor Carey House

Citation

Keith N. Morgan, "Elmwood", [Cambridge, Massachusetts], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/MA-01-BS17.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of Massachusetts

Buildings of Massachusetts: Metropolitan Boston, Keith N. Morgan, with Richard M. Candee, Naomi Miller, Roger G. Reed, and contributors. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2009, 353-353.

If SAH Archipedia has been useful to you, please consider supporting it.

SAH Archipedia tells the story of the United States through its buildings, landscapes, and cities. This freely available resource empowers the public with authoritative knowledge that deepens their understanding and appreciation of the built environment. But the Society of Architectural Historians, which created SAH Archipedia with University of Virginia Press, needs your support to maintain the high-caliber research, writing, photography, cartography, editing, design, and programming that make SAH Archipedia a trusted online resource available to all who value the history of place, heritage tourism, and learning.

,