Brattle Hall

Brattle Hall
(2017)
Brattle Hall is located in Massachusetts
Brattle Hall
Location40 Brattle Street,
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Coordinates42°22′24.7″N 71°7′17.5″W / 42.373528°N 71.121528°W / 42.373528; -71.121528
Built1889, 1907
ArchitectLongfellow, Alden & Harlow
Charles Cogswell
Architectural styleColonial Revival
Part ofHarvard Square Historic District (ID86003654)
MPSCambridge MRA
NRHP reference No.82001925 [1]
Significant dates
Added to NRHPApril 13, 1982
Designated CPJuly 28, 1988

Brattle Hall is a historic building along Brattle Street near Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was constructed in 1889 for the Cambridge Social Union – established in 1871 – when that organization moved into the adjacent William Brattle House that year. Brattle Hall was built to house the organization's library, and to provide a space for larger meetings and social functions. Brattle Hall was designed by Longfellow, Alden & Harlow, originally in the Dutch Colonial Revival style, but it acquired more of a Colonial Revival feel with the 1907 addition of brick ends, designed by Charles Cogswell.[2]

The building continues to serve as a social center today. It houses the Brattle Theatre, a repertory movie house operated by a local non-profit since 1953, a restaurant in its basement, and a coffee shop on its first level.

The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982,[1] and included in an expansion of the Harvard Square Historic District in 1988.[2]

  1. ^ a b "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
  2. ^ a b "MACRIS inventory record for Brattle Hall". Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Retrieved March 7, 2014.