Cambridge’s first meeting house

Cambridge's first principal public building, the meeting house, was a little south of Dane Hall, near Harvard Law School today.

It was used both as a church and town house until 1708, when a building was erected in the middle of Harvard Square to serve for meetings and courts. Here, the first provisional Legislature provided for the organization of the Minute Men and for the establishment of the Committee of Safety during the American Revolution.

Cambridge Street was originally a military road built by George Washington to connect Cambridge Common with a battery in East Cambridge.