21 Sights in Cambridge, United States (with Map and Images)
Legend
Welcome to your journey through the most beautiful sights in Cambridge, United States! Whether you want to discover the city's historical treasures or experience its modern highlights, you'll find everything your heart desires here. Be inspired by our selection and plan your unforgettable adventure in Cambridge. Dive into the diversity of this fascinating city and discover everything it has to offer.
Sightseeing Tours in Cambridge1. John Harvard Statue
John Harvard is a sculpture in bronze by Daniel Chester French in Harvard Yard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, honoring clergyman John Harvard (1607–1638), whose deathbed bequest to the "schoale or Colledge" recently undertaken by the Massachusetts Bay Colony was so gratefully received that it was consequently ordered "that the Colledge agreed upon formerly to bee built at Cambridg shalbee called Harvard Colledge." There being nothing to indicate what John Harvard had looked like, French used a Harvard student collaterally descended from an early Harvard president as inspiration.
2. Harvard Square
Harvard Square is a triangular plaza at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue, Brattle Street and John F. Kennedy Street near the center of Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. The term "Harvard Square" is also used to delineate the business district and Harvard University surrounding that intersection, which is the historic center of Cambridge. Adjacent to Harvard Yard, the historic heart of Harvard University, the Square functions as a commercial center for Harvard students, as well as residents of western Cambridge, the western and northern neighborhoods and the inner suburbs of Boston. The Square is served by Harvard station, a major MBTA Red Line subway and a bus transportation hub.
3. Harvard Art Museums
The Harvard Art Museums are part of Harvard University and comprise three museums: the Fogg Museum, the Busch-Reisinger Museum, and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum, and four research centers: the Archaeological Exploration of Sardis, the Center for the Technical Study of Modern Art, the Harvard Art Museums Archives, and the Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies. The three museums that constitute the Harvard Art Museums were initially integrated into a single institution under the name Harvard University Art Museums in 1983. The word "University" was dropped from the institutional name in 2008.
4. Saint Paul Catholic Church
St. Paul Church is a parish of the Roman Catholic Church located at 29 Mount Auburn Street near Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the Archdiocese of Boston. As well as serving as the local parish church, it is the home of St. Paul's Choir School whose students serve as the choristers in the Choir of St. Paul's, and the Harvard Catholic Center serving the academic community of Harvard University.
Wikipedia: St. Paul Church (Cambridge, Massachusetts) (EN), Website
5. Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology
The Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology is a museum affiliated with Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1866, the Peabody Museum is one of the oldest and largest museums focusing on anthropological material, with particular focus on the ethnography and archaeology of the Americas. The museum is caretaker to over 1.2 million objects, some 900 feet (270 m) of documents, 2,000 maps and site plans, and about 500,000 photographs. The museum is located at Divinity Avenue on the Harvard University campus. The museum is one of the four Harvard Museums of Science and Culture open to the public.
Wikipedia: Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology (EN), Website
6. Harvard College Observatory
The Harvard College Observatory (HCO) is an institution managing a complex of buildings and multiple instruments used for astronomical research by the Harvard University Department of Astronomy. It is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, and was founded in 1839. With the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, it forms part of the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian.
7. Boston Duck Tours
Boston Duck Tours is a privately owned company that operates historical tours of the city of Boston using replica World War II amphibious DUKW vehicles. Boston Duck Tours first started running tours in Boston, Massachusetts on October 5, 1994. The company has three departure locations throughout the city of Boston: the Prudential Center, the Museum of Science and the New England Aquarium.
8. W15 MIT Chapel
The MIT Chapel is a non-denominational chapel designed by noted architect Eero Saarinen. It is located on the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, next to Kresge Auditorium and the Kresge Oval, which Saarinen also designed. Though a small building, the Chapel is often noted as a successful example of mid-century modern architecture in the United States. Saarinen also designed the landscaping surrounding all three locations.
9. The First Parish in Cambridge
First Parish in Cambridge is a Unitarian Universalist church, located in Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is a Welcoming Congregation and a member of the Unitarian Universalist Association. The church is notable for its almost 400-year history, which includes pivotal roles in the development of the early Massachusetts government, the creation of Harvard College, and the refinement of current liberal religious thought.
10. Harvard Bixi
The Harvard Bixi is a 17-foot high, 27 ton Chinese marble stele with a turtle pedestal located at Harvard University, north of Boylston Hall and west of Widener Library in Harvard Yard, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The stele was presented to the university by the Chinese Harvard Alumni for its Tercentenary in September 1936.
11. Gift of the Wind
Gift of the Wind is a large-scale public kinetic sculpture, by Susumu Shingu, located in Porter Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts at the Porter, Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority subway and commuter rail station. The artwork consists of a tall white pole with three red "wings" attached to the top that are "designed to shift in response to the movement of the wind, not only turning clockwise and counterclockwise, but tumbling over and over in various sequences". It is considered by some to be "Cambridge's most visible landmark".
12. William Dean Howells House
The William Dean Howells House is a house built and occupied by American author William Dean Howells and family. It is located at 37 Concord Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts. The house was designed by Howell's wife, Elinor Mead, and occupied by the family from 1873 to 1878. Authors including Mark Twain, Henry James, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Thomas Bailey Aldrich visited the Howells in this house, as did President James Garfield, and Helen Keller lived there afterwards while attending school.
Wikipedia: William Dean Howells House (Cambridge, Massachusetts) (EN)
13. Asa Gray House
The Asa Gray House, recorded in an HABS survey as the Garden House, is a historic house at 88 Garden Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts. A National Historic Landmark, it is notable architecturally as the earliest known work of the designer and architect Ithiel Town, and historically as the residence of several Harvard College luminaries. Its most notable occupant was Asa Gray (1810–88), a leading botanist who published the first complete work on American flora, and was a vigorous defender of the Darwinian theory of evolution.
14. Statue of Charles Sumner
A bronze statue of Charles Sumner, by sculptor Anne Whitney, is installed in General MacArthur Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The plaster model for the statue is on display indoors at the Watertown public library. The sculpture of Sumner, a popular local statesman, was commissioned by the Boston Art Committee shortly after his death in 1874.
Wikipedia: Statue of Charles Sumner (Cambridge, Massachusetts) (EN)
15. Cambridge Junction Road
The Poland Covered Bridge, also known as the Junction Covered Bridge or the Cambridge Junction Covered Bridge is a covered bridge that carries Cambridge Junction Road across the Lamoille River off State Route 15 in Cambridge, Vermont. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. The bridge is of Burr arch design, built by George W. Holmes in 1887.
16. Grist Mill Covered Bridge
The Grist Mill Covered Bridge, also known as the Scott Covered Bridge, the Bryant Covered Bridge, and the Canyon Covered Bridge, is a covered bridge that carries Canyon Road across the Brewster River, off Vermont Route 108 in Cambridge, Vermont. Built in the 19th century, it is one of a small number of surviving Burr arch truss bridges in the state, and is one of three left in Cambridge. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.
17. Gates Farm Covered Bridge
The Gates Farm Covered Bridge is a covered bridge that crosses the Seymour River off State Route 15 in Cambridge, Vermont. Built in 1897, it is last bridge to be built during the historic period of covered bridge construction with the Burr arch design. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.
18. Transparent Horizon
Transparent Horizon is a 1975 black Cor-ten steel sculpture by Louise Nevelson, installed on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. The artwork was among the first funded by MIT's "Percent-For-Art" program, which allocates $500,000 for art commissions for new architectural renovations on campus. The sculpture is an amalgam of two of Nevelson's previous works, Tropical Tree IV and Black Flower Series IV. The sculpture has been the target of vandalism.
19. Galaxy: Earth Sphere
Galaxy: Earth Sphere is a 1989 fountain and sculpture by Joe Davis, installed in Kendall Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. The artwork was designed to emit streams of low-temperature steam from time to time, but the pipes sourcing this emission have been broken for some time.
20. Edward Dodge House
The Edward Dodge House is a historic house at 70 Sparks Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The 2+1⁄2-story wood-frame house was built in 1878 to a design by Longfellow and Clark. It has asymmetrical massing typical of Queen Anne styling, and also has a style of half-timbering on its upper levels that was popular in England in the 1860s. The exterior surfaces have a variety of textures, create by different sheathing types, including vertical boards, wood paneling, and brick patternwork.
Wikipedia: Edward Dodge House (Cambridge, Massachusetts) (EN)
21. University Park Common
University Park at MIT is a mixed-use urban renewal project in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, occupying land near Central Square between the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) campus and the primarily residential neighborhood of Cambridgeport. It is a joint project of the City of Cambridge, MIT, and Brookfield Asset Management. It is not part of the MIT campus.
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Disclaimer Please be aware of your surroundings and do not enter private property. We are not liable for any damages that occur during the tours.