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Cambridge Common.
One of the most interesting spots in our historic city is the public Common in
Ward One, situated on Massachusetts Avenue, with Harvard College on one side and Radcliffe College on the other.
This tract of about ten acres was set apart by the Proprietors of Common Lands for public uses from the earliest settlement of the town.
The title, however, was not formally transferred to the town until November 20, 1769, when at a meeting of the proprietors it was voted, ‘That all the common lands belonging to the Proprietors, fronting the
College, commonly called the
Town Commons, be and the same are hereby granted to the town of
Cambridge to be used as a training field, to lie undivided and to remain for that use forever, provided, nevertheless, that if the said town should dispose of, grant or appropriate the same or any part thereof at any time hereafter, to or for any other use than that aforementioned, then and in such case the whole of the premises hereby granted to said town shall revert to the Proprietors granting the same, and the present grant shall thereupon be deemed null and void.’
As early as 1636, the annual elections of the colony for the choice of Governor, Deputy-Governor, and Assistants were held under a large oak-tree which stood on the easterly side of the Common, opposite Holmes Place. One of the most remarkable of these elections took place May 17, 1637, the contest being between
Governor Harry Vane and
Ex-Governor John Winthrop.
The day was clear and warm, when, at one o'clock in the afternoon, the freemen of the colony gathered in groups about this tree.
Most of the noted men of the colony, including the magistrates and clergy, were among the large number present.
Governor Vane, in English fashion, beneath the open sky, announced the purpose of the meeting to be the annual
