Gates of Harvard Yard


the oldest part of the Harvard University campus in Cambridge, Massachusettsis bounded by a perimeter fence punctuated by a series of gates, all built since 1880.

Northwest

Johnston Gate

The Johnston Gate was completed in 1889 after a Georgian Revival design by McKim, Mead, and White, it opens onto Peabody Street just north of Harvard Square. Costing some $10,000, it was the gift of Samuel Johnston. Each Harvard Commencement Day for several hundred years, the sheriffs of Middlesex and Suffolk Counties have arrived at Harvard Yard on horseback, preparatory to the Middlesex Sheriff's ritual calling of the celebrants to order. It has become traditional for them to enter via the Johnston Gate.

Class of 1874 Gate

Class of 1870 Gate

Class of 1886 Gate

North

Class of 1881 Gate

The inscription on the Class of 1881 Gate invites the reader to "come within its gates, in order that in whole-hearted service to the truth, they may enter into life and so be free". It has been locked for many years.

Class of 1876 (Holworthy) Gate

The Class of 1876 Gate is also known as Holworthy Gate; Holworthy Hall, a freshman dormitory, is immediately inside it. A plaque at its apex reads, "In Memory of Dear Old Times."

Class of 1879 (Meyer) Gate

Meyer Gate was given by George von Lengerke Meyer
in 1901.
Like the Holworthy Gate, it connects the Yard to the Science Center Plaza.
The words on a plaque set in the gate's brickwork are from Ralph Waldo Emerson's journal for 1836:

Bradstreet Gate

Bradstreet Gate is a wrought-iron gate across Quincy Street and Cambridge Street from Memorial Hall. In 1997 it was dedicated to Anne Bradstreet on the 25th anniversary of female students living in Harvard's freshman dormitories. A plaque with a quote from one of Bradstreet's poems was added in 2003.

Classes of 1887 and 1888 Gate

Fire Station Gate

East

Robinson Gate

Class of 1885 Gate

Emerson Gate

Class of 1908 (Eliot) Gate

Loeb House Gate

17 Quincy Drive Gate

Dudley Memorial Gate

South and southwest

Class of 1880 (Bacon) Gate

Class of 1890 (Dexter) Gate

Class of 1877 (Morgan) Gate

Class of 1889 Gate

Porcellian Club (McKean) Gate

Class of 1857 Gate

The 1857 Gate is a triple-arched gate which Harvard Magazine called "a very touching memorial to the unbroken bonds of friendship that this class had" despite the fact that its members had fought on both sides of the American Civil War. Students on both sides helped fund the gate. It has a Latin inscription from Horace's Odes.
The gate was relocated 40 feet in 1924, and is now on axis with the 1876 Gate.

Class of 1875 Gate