Cambridge: History, Harvard and Culture

Cambridge offers visitors several points of interest: historic sites, cultural attractions around Harvard, and opportunities for walking, running or cycling. If you’re looking for a hotel in Cambridge, focusing on a particular aspect of your trip can help you find your way around. Cambridge Common and Fort Washington Park represent different historical connections; Harvard and Harvard Square, campus history and culture; and Fresh Pond and Bluebikes, different ways to get active.

History in Cambridge

Cambridge Common is a National Historic Landmark. More than 10,000 pedestrians and cyclists use the paths and sidewalks of Cambridge Common every day. Historic recognition and everyday use of the pathways coexist here.

Fort Washington Park in Cambridge preserves another historical trace: the last surviving physical remnant of the many fortifications that the Continental Army built around Boston during the Revolution. The park thus points to a larger network of fortifications; unlike Cambridge Common, the emphasis here is on a surviving relic from the Revolutionary era.

Harvard: Campus History and Culture

Harvard Yard is the oldest part of the Harvard University campus and its historic center. Harvard also offers the Cambridge Public Art & Culture Tour, which explores outdoor art, architecture and cultural institutions. Campus history and a tour covering several cultural themes are therefore distinct Harvard highlights.

You can explore Harvard Square on a self-guided walking tour. A walk through the Square takes you to the Fogg, the Busch-Reisinger Museum and the Sackler Museum, all under the umbrella of the Harvard Art Museums. In the Harvard area, you can experience both a walk through the Square and a tour focused on art, architecture and cultural institutions.

Walking and Cycling

At Fresh Pond, you can walk, run and cycle along a 2¼-mile shoreline road. The road provides the same specific reference point for all three activities, with a clearly stated route length.

Bluebikes offers a bike-sharing system in Cambridge and the Greater Boston metro area, providing an accessible, affordable and sustainable way to cycle. This differs from Fresh Pond: there, a single 2¼-mile shoreline road is associated with three activities; Bluebikes refers to a bike-sharing system serving Cambridge and the Greater Boston metro area.

Danehy Park is home to the Louis A. DePasquale Playground, the first playground in Cambridge to fully incorporate universal design into all of its play features. The scope is an important detail: this feature applies to every play element, not just one part of the playground. For visitors interested in universal design, this site adds a specific aspect of playground design to the historical and cultural themes.

Discover more destinations: Lexington, Malden, Natick, Marlborough, Woburn, Tyngsboro, Townsend, Watertown

For the regional travel overview: Middlesex.