Mount Auburn Street

Two other replications are at 130 Mount Auburn St. in front of University Green and the nearby 5-9 Gerry St.

Harvard University acquired the Mount Auburn Street site in 1980 to prevent a local developer from constructing two twenty-story office buildings, 150 town houses and condominiums, and 950 parking spaces. When the Historical Commission objected to the demolition of the houses at 134 Mount Auburn (1842) and 6 Revere Street (1856), Sullivan said, the architects decided to create a landscaped space in front of condos that would now be built at rear of site. They wanted a new building to balance the old ones, and asked the Commission to suggest a prototype that would be appropriate for the context. 

The Commission directed Harvard to 8 Ellery Street, an 1841 Greek-Revival whose identical mate at 6 Ellery had been demolished in 1974. Harvard adopted that plan, creating a forecourt for the condos with a garden designed by Cambridge landscape architect Carol Johnson.

 

At 5-9 Gerry St., a rowhouse that had been built on a streambed was sinking around the chimneys and was deemed too far gone to jack-up and level. In 1989 the Commission allowed demolition and replication.

 

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