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Harvard University
Free student-led tours leave from the Events & Information Center in Holyoke Center, 1350 Mass. Ave. (tel. 617/495-1573). They operate during the school year twice a day on weekdays and once on Saturday, except during vacations, and during the summer four times a day Monday through Saturday. Call for exact times; reservations aren't necessary. The Events & Information Center has maps, illustrated booklets, and self-guided walking-tour directions, as well as a bulletin board where campus activities are publicized. You might want to check out the university website (www.harvard.edu) before you visit.
The best-known part of the university is Harvard Yard, actually two large quadrangles. Daniel Chester French's John Harvard statue, a rendering of one of the school's original benefactors, is in the Old Yard, which dates to the college's founding in 1636. Most first-year students live in the dormitories here -- even in the school's oldest building, Massachusetts Hall (1720). The other side of the Yard (sometimes called Tercentenary Theater because the college's 300th-anniversary celebration was held there) is home to the imposing Widener Library, named after a Harvard graduate who perished when the Titanic sank.
The Harvard Hot Ticket--One ticket covers admission to Harvard's art museums and natural-history museums. You don't have to visit them all in a day, either -- the pass is good for a year. It costs $10 for adults, and $8 for seniors and students, and is available at the museums and at the Harvard Collections store in Holyoke Center, 1350 Mass. Ave., Harvard Square.
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