Harvard University Campus Tour

Free Harvard University Campus Tour with Roamee Pro

Roamee Pro offers a free Harvard University campus tour with audio narration. Explore Harvard Yard, Widener Library, Memorial Hall, plus hidden spots like Annenberg Hall and Adams House, at your own pace without booking a group tour.

• •Harvard Yard — The historic heart of campus, enclosed by iron gates and anchored by red-brick dormitories dating to the early 1700s. Founded in 1636, the Yard is America's oldest college quadrangle, featuring Massachusetts Hall (1720, the oldest surviving Harvard building, designed in Georgian style) and University Hall (1815, designed by Charles Bulfinch). Visitors see freshmen heading to class past the John Harvard statue, whose left shoe gleams from the touch of thousands of tourists seeking good luck.
• •Widener Library — Completed in 1915 by architect Horace Trumbull, this Beaux-Arts monument was built as a memorial to Harry Elkins Widener, a book collector who perished on the Titanic. Its grand Corinthian portico with twelve columns faces the Yard, and inside lie over 3.5 million volumes across ten levels, including three underground. The memorial room preserves Widener's personal collection behind glass, including a Gutenberg Bible and a Shakespeare First Folio.
• •Memorial Hall — This High Victorian Gothic masterpiece was completed in 1878 to honor Harvard's Civil War dead, designed by William Robert Ware and Henry Van Brunt. Its cathedral-like exterior features a polychrome roof, a soaring tower, and stained glass windows. Inside, Sanders Theatre
• •Harvard Museum of Natural History — Housed in a Romanesque Revival building dating to 1859, this museum is best known for the Blaschka Glass Flowers

• •Widener Library — Beaux-Arts main library opened in 1915, funded by Eleanor Elkins Widener in memory of her son Harry Elkins Widener, who died on the Titanic in 1912. Holds millions of volumes across extensive stacks.
• •Memorial Hall — High Victorian Gothic building designed by William Robert Ware and Henry Van Brunt and completed in the 1870s to honor Harvard men who died for the Union in the Civil War. Houses Sanders Theatre and Annenberg Hall, the first-year dining hall.
• •Memorial Church — Georgian Revival church in Harvard Yard, dedicated in 1932 to commemorate Harvard members who died in World War I; its white steeple faces Widener Library across the Tercentenary Theatre quad.
• •Sever Hall — Richardsonian Romanesque classroom building completed in 1880, designed by H. H. Richardson; known for its brick ornamentation and a whispering-arch acoustic effect at the recessed entrance.
• •Harvard Art Museums (Fogg) — Three museums (Fogg, Busch-Reisinger, and Arthur M. Sackler) unified under a glass-roofed Renzo Piano renovation that reopened in 2014 at 32 Quincy Street.

• •Annenberg Hall — Hidden inside the soaring nave of Memorial Hall, this grand freshman dining hall was restored in 1996 with hammer-beam timber trusses, stained glass windows depicting Harvard's history, and portraits of university luminaries. Modeled after Christ Church Hall at Oxford, it seats 1,000 freshmen for meals and is closed to the public, making glimpses through the doors a coveted moment for campus visitors.
• •Adams House — One of Harvard's twelve residential houses, tucked between Bow Street and Linden Street, Adams House features a gold-domed library, a Coolidge-era indoor swimming pool that FDR used during his Harvard days, and a tradition of eccentric student theatricals. Its interconnected yellow-brick buildings date to the 1890s and contain hidden courtyards accessible only through interior passageways.

• •Mr. Bartley's Burger Cottage on Massachusetts Avenue, a Harvard Square institution since 1960 known for burgers named after public figures.
• •Felipe's Taqueria, a popular Mexican spot with a rooftop bar near the Square.
• •Tasty Burger, a quick burger-and-fries joint off JFK Street.
• •Flour Bakery + Cafe for sandwiches and pastries.
• •Clover Food Lab, a local vegetarian fast-casual chain with a Harvard Square location.

Did you know? The John Harvard statue in Harvard Yard is nicknamed the Statue of Three Lies: the inscription reads "John Harvard, Founder, 1638," but Harvard was a benefactor rather than the founder, the university was established in 1636 not 1638, and the figure is not actually John Harvard, since no portrait of him existed when sculptor Daniel Chester French made it in 1884, so a student was used as the model.

The Harvard Information Center in the Smith Campus Center (1350 Massachusetts Ave) offers free student-led historical tours of Harvard Yard; check harvard.edu/visit for current schedules and to register, as tours can fill. A self-guided walking tour and app are also available. Harvard Yard's main gates are open to the public during the day (access may be restricted to ID holders during certain periods). The campus is highly walkable from the Harvard MBTA Red Line station, which exits directly into Harvard Square; public parking is very limited and expensive, so transit is recommended over driving. Admissions information sessions are run separately by the Admissions Office (86 Brattle Street) and require their own registration.