On a weekday morning, there’s a certain silence in Harvard Yard before the tour groups show up and the students interrupt with their headphones. Just beyond the iron gates, the old brick buildings withstand the cacophony of Massachusetts Avenue, and any remaining quiet is absorbed by the grass, which is consistently greener than you might think. It’s difficult to stand there without feeling the place’s weight, both mentally and physically. It’s Cambridge, Massachusetts. For better or worse, American higher education was built around this address.
Harvard University is located about three miles northwest of Boston’s downtown in Cambridge, a mid-sized city across the Charles River. About 209 acres make up the main campus, which is centered on Harvard Yard, the oldest portion of the property. Here, freshman dorms are grouped around a central green, and John Harvard’s statue, which has been rubbed for good fortune by students for decades, is shiny at the left shoe. To put it mildly, it’s unclear if that actually helps. However, the ritual continues, which reveals something about the effects this place has on people.
Just sixteen years after the Mayflower landed, in 1636, the university was founded, making it the oldest university in the United States. It was approved by the Massachusetts General Court, and the name came about after John Harvard, a Puritan clergyman, passed away two years later and left the fledgling college half of his estate and personal library. Simply put, it is a colonial origin story that stems from the desire to train ministers and maintain a learned class in the New World’s wilderness. Clearly, over the course of nearly four centuries, that mission has changed. The address hasn’t, though.
The fact that Harvard isn’t solely a Cambridge institution is something that many people are unaware of. With a sizable medical campus in the Longwood neighborhood and a growing presence in Allston, which is just across the river, the university extends into Boston proper. There, Harvard Medical School is affiliated with teaching hospitals such as Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Brigham and Women’s. Harvard is actually spread across two cities, connected by the Charles River and an intricate transit system that passes through the Harvard stop on the MBTA’s Red Line. Therefore, the answer to the question of where Harvard is located is a little more nuanced than a single ZIP code would suggest.
For most people, however, the experience is defined by Cambridge. Harvard Square, which is right next to the campus, feels like a neighborhood that has chosen to be charming despite knowing how important it is. Thousands of students’ intellectual lives have been shaped by this small urban setting, which includes coffee shops, bookstores, a historic theater, and an underground passage that leads to the subway. The city and the university seem to have developed into one another over centuries, each adapting to the goals of the other.
Even a skeptic would find the numbers associated with Harvard to be truly astounding. It is the richest university in the world, with an endowment of $55.7 billion. The Harvard Library is the world’s largest academic library system, with over 20 million volumes spread across more than 70 libraries. In addition to individuals as diverse as Matt Damon, Natalie Portman, and Mark Zuckerberg—who famously left before graduating—the university boasts eight U.S. presidents among its alumni. The current acceptance rate is 3.6 percent, which prompts a lengthy discussion about exclusivity and access.
Perhaps more than anything else, Harvard’s location has given it access to intellectual and geographic power. The concentration of hospitals, government agencies, financial institutions, and other academic institutions in Boston has produced an ecosystem that continuously supports the research mission. The Charles River, which divides Cambridge from Allston, has come to represent the university’s constant expansion and pursuit of new ideas while the Yard remains firmly established. Perhaps the most honest message Harvard’s location conveys is the conflict between ambition and permanence. It is more than just a location on a map. It’s a debate over what a university should be.
