City Hall (Cambridge, Massachusetts)

42°22′02″N 71°06′20″W / 42.36712°N 71.10563°W

Cambridge, Massachusetts City Hall (2006)

The Cambridge, Massachusetts City Hall is the city hall for Cambridge, Massachusetts, located at 795 Massachusetts Avenue, and built in the Richardsonian Romanesque style.^[1] The building additionally serves as a centerpiece of the surrounding City Hall Historic District and adjacent Central Square Historic District.

History[edit]

The hall was built between 1888 and 1889, and was largely funded through a donation from Frederick Hastings Rindge.^[2] The architects were Longfellow, Alden & Harlow (Alexander Wadsworth Longfellow Jr., 1854–1934; Frank E. Alden, 1859–1908; and Alfred B. Harlow, 1857–1927). The building is three stories tall, with a bell tower that rises to 158 feet. Load-bearing stone walls are of Milford granite trimmed with Longmeadow brownstone.

Cambridge City Hall houses offices for the city council, the city manager and several municipal departments. In addition to the main building, the city of Cambridge also houses several other departments a couple of city blocks away in the City Hall Annex, located at Broadway and Inman Street.

On May 17, 2004, shortly after midnight, the first legal applications in the United States for marriage licenses for same-sex couples were issued at Cambridge City Hall. At 9:15 a.m. that day, the Cambridge City Clerk began solemnizing same-sex marriages.^[3] See same-sex marriage in Massachusetts.

References[edit]

^ Library of Congress, Historic American Buildings Survey, Cambridge City Hall, 795 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Middlesex County, MA
^ "The Rindge Gifts to the City of Cambridge, Massachusetts". Cambridge, Mass. 1891.
^ "Same-sex couples exchange vows in Massachusetts - May 17, 2004". CNN.com. Retrieved May 18, 2022.

External links[edit]

Media related to City Hall, Cambridge, Massachusetts at Wikimedia Commons
Official page for city of Cambridge
Datasheet at Towerclocks.org

[1] Library of Congress, Historic American Buildings Survey, Cambridge City Hall, 795 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Middlesex County, MA

[2] "The Rindge Gifts to the City of Cambridge, Massachusetts". Cambridge, Mass. 1891.

[3] "Same-sex couples exchange vows in Massachusetts - May 17, 2004". CNN.com. Retrieved May 18, 2022.

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v t e Cambridge, Massachusetts
History	Timeline
Squares	Central Square Harvard Square Inman Square Kendall Square Lechmere Square Porter Square
Neighborhoods	East Cambridge (Area 1) MIT Campus (Area 2) Wellington-Harrington (Area 3) The Port (Area 4) Cambridgeport (Area 5) Mid-Cambridge (Area 6) Riverside (Area 7) Agassiz (Area 8) Neighborhood Nine (Area 9) West Cambridge (Area 10) North Cambridge (Area 11) Cambridge Highlands (Area 12) Strawberry Hill (Area 13)
Education	Cambridge PSD Amigos School Rindge and Latin Community Charter Prospect Hill Academy Charter Buckingham Browne & Nichols School St. Paul's Choir School Harvard University template Massachusetts Institute of Technology template Lesley University Cambridge Public Library
Landmarks	List of tallest buildings and structures City Hall Harvard Book Store Mount Auburn Cemetery
Transportation	Bus routes MBTA Green Line (Lechmere) MBTA Red Line (Alewife Central Harvard Porter Kendall/MIT) MA-2/MA-2A, MA-16, MA-28, MA-60, US-3
This list is incomplete.