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Gannett House

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1838. 1511 Massachusetts Ave.
  • Gannet House (Keith Morgan)

Littauer Center assertively holds its position above the traffic speeding through Harvard Square (HS1). It represents the stripped classicism that became widespread during this period, when American architects abandoned elaborate ornamentation yet still evoked historic sources. Originally the home of the Graduate School of Public Administration and later the Kennedy School of Government, Littauer Center recalls Charles Bulfinch's Massachusetts General Hospital pavilion (WE3) in massing and materials. Another monumental portico fronts the adjacent Gannett House, a Greek Revival residence that now serves the Law School. Gannett survives relatively intact, although it originally faced the street. In 1938, Harvard repositioned it to provide a visual terminus for a long mall proposed, but never built, to run east to Oxford Street.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Maureen Meister
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Data

What's Nearby

Austin Hall
Littauer Center
Cambridge Common
Harvard-Epworth Methodist Church
Law School Quadrangle

Citation

Maureen Meister, "Gannett House", [Cambridge, Massachusetts], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/MA-01-NY3.2.

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, 324-324.

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