Harvard Hall

Harvard Hall is a Harvard University classroom building in Harvard Yard, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The present Harvard Hall replaces an earlier structure which burned on January 24, 1764, destroying 4,500 of the College Library's 5,000 books as well as its collection of "philosophical apparatus" (scientific instruments). The Massachusetts General Court, which had been meeting in Harvard Hall to escape a smallpox epidemic in Boston, took responsibility for the fire and funded reconstruction. Thanks to generous donors including Thomas Hollis V and John Hancock, within two years the new Harvard Hall housed a library with more volumes than the College had owned prior to the fire.