Elmwood

Now owned by Harvard University, the house is a private residence.

Quick Facts

Location:

33 Elmwood Avenue, Cambridge, MA

Designation:

National Register

OPEN TO PUBLIC:

No

MANAGED BY:

Harvard University

Elmwood, also known as the Oliver-Gerry-Lowell House, was built around 1767 by master builder John Nutting for Thomas Oliver, a son of a prominent Massachusetts family who made their fortune from a vast plantation in Antigua. As part of the “Powder Alarm,” a mob swarmed down Brattle Street in 1774 and forced Oliver to resign his position as Lieutenant Governor of the Colony. When the Continental Army arrived in Cambridge, they used Elmwood as a hospital and to house troops, including Benedict Arnold’s Connecticut militia. From 1787 to 1814 the house was home to Elbridge Gerry, who served as a US Representative, a diplomat, a Governor of Massachusetts and a Vice President of the United States. The house was once again the site of mob violence when protestors burned Gerry in effigy after reports of his diplomatic negotiations with France in the “XYZ Affair” reached the United States.

In the nineteenth century, James Russell Lowell, a well-known poet, diplomat and editor, and his wife, Maria White Lowell, who would become known for her poetry posthumously, lived in the house. Lowell made alterations to bring the house into a more Victorian style. However, when Harvard University acquired the house in 1962, it largely returned the structure to its mid-Georgian design. The house is now the residence of the president of Harvard University and is not open to the public.