NEW GATE FOR YARD BEGUN | STRUCTURE IN MEMORY OF THOMAS DUDLEY
Cambridge, Mass. Work on the new Dudley Memorial Gate has been begun within the last few days. The structure is the gift of the late Miss Caroline Phelps Stokes who bequeathed to her nephew, Mr. I. N. Phelps Stokes, the architect, a sum of money to be expended in erecting at Harvard a memorial to her ancestor, Governor Thomas Dudley of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
As first planned the memorial was to be simply a clock tower. It was at the suggestion of President Lowell that the plan was modified so as to make this tower a part of a large gateway. This with its ample wings fills the last and one of the most important gaps in the Harvard fence.
The gate will stand on the line of Quincy street between the president’s house and the old Peabody house. The iron and brick fence of the structure will continue from the south end of the structure to the corner of the Yard. The other end will extend to the edge of the president’s driveway.
The structure is recessed back from Quincy street with an arched passageway for pedestrians on each side of the great centre gate. On the inner or yard side the gate will be flanked by semi-circular brick walls about four feet high, the quadrant of each curve nearest the gate containing a stone bench.
Built of brick and limestone the new gate will conform both in the material and general style to that established by Mr. McKim for the whole college fence from the pioneer Johnston Gate. The style of the tower might properly be called Georgian or Colonial.
On the Yard face of the clock will be a large relief of Governor Dudley against a back-ground of colonial street and houses. The relief will be cut in American Travertine stone of the same color as the limestone used for the trimmings and ornaments of the Gate. The tower will be thirty-six feet high and eight feet square at the base. The inscription will be on a tablet set in the Quincy street face of the tower.
Inside the gate there will be a circular courtyard from which the main drive way will lead up to the president’s house. A brick walk will continue down to the new Widener Library. – March 16, 1915
| Plaque Reads: Thomas Dudley Governor of the Colony of the Massachusetts Bay | |
| Baptized October 12, 1576 at Yardley Hastings England Married at Hardingstone, England Dorothy Yorke Apr 25 1603 and at Roxbury, Massachusetts Catherine Hagburne Widow April 14 1644 – Died at Roxbury July 31, 1653 In 1597 He received a Captain’s Commission from Queen Elizabeth and was at the Siege of Amiens under Henry IV of France One of the Twelve signers of the Cambridge Agreement Aug 26, 1629 Sailed from Southampton England in the Arbella, March 22, 1630 Chosen Deputy Governor of the Colony of the Massachusetts Bay at a Court of Assistants on Board the Arbella, March 23, 1630 Arrived at Salem Massachusetts June 12, 1630 Founder and the First Householder of Cambridge, 1631 Deputy Governor of the Colony of the Massachusetts Bay 1630-34, 1637-40, 1646-50, 1651-53 Governor of the Colony of the Massachusetts Bay 1634-35, 1645-46, 1650-51 Assistant of the Colony of the Massachusetts Bay Chosen one of the Standing Counsell for the Tearme of his Life May 25, 1636 Appointed in 1637 by the General Court Held at Newtown One of twelve men to take order for a College at “Newetowne” Commissioner of the United Colonies 1647-48, 1649-50 Appointed Sergeant Major General, The Military Forces of the Colony May 29, 1644 Signed the Charter May 31, 1650 of Harvard College Buried in the Old Cemetery at the corner of Eustuis and Washington Streets. | |
Harvard Crimson: Structure in Memory of Gov. Thomas Dudley (1915) (March 16, 2020)
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