Cambridge, MA

Cambridge, MA is a city located in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 105,924. Cambridge was one of the two cities in Massachusetts to be named after an English university town; the other is Boston. The municipality of Cambridge has a total area of , of which is land and (1.5%) is water.

The first inhabitants of what would become Cambridge were Native Americans who hunted and gathered in the area for thousands of years. The first European settlers arrived in 1630 when Reverend John Winthrop and his followers founded the settlement that would become Harvard University. In 1638, King Charles I granted a charter to the colony of New England to Sir William Phips, which included Cambridge as its capital. The original town center consisted of three small villages: North Cambridge (now Porter Square), South Cambridge (now Harvard Square), and Central Cambridge (now Kendall Square).

In 1846, following the American Civil War, many refugees from Confederate states settled in Cambridge. These new residents increased the population from 1,500 to 10,000 within five years; by 1870 it had reached 20,000 people. In 1852–53 Frederick Law Olmsted designed what is now known as Central Park for this burgeoning community; it opened to public use in 1857. In 1861–62 Trinity Church built its current Gothic Revival structure on Broadway near Massachusetts Avenue; it remains one of downtown's most prominent landmarks today.

In 1865–66 construction began on what would become MIT's Main Building; it was completed in 1869 and remains MIT's primary administrative center today. That same year saw completion of Harvard's Memorial Hall; it now houses both Harvard University's Museum of Fine Arts and Radcliffe College's women's dormitory/library complex known as Houghton Library (named after benefactor James Houghton). Other notable architectural projects from this period include Trinity Church's St Paul’s Chapel (1872) and All Saints’ Episcopal Church (1875).

In 1888–89 architect Henry Hobson Richardson designed Emmanuel College’s neoclassical main building on Mount Auburn Street near Hampshire Street; it opened that same year and remains one of Emmanuel College’s most iconic structures today. In 1897 construction began on Northeastern University’s $2 million Main Building on Huntington Avenue near Storrow Drive; it was completed four years later and still serves as Northeastern University’s primary administrative center today