On the night of April 18, 1775 while Paul Revere was bolting on horse from Charlestown to Lexington warning of the advancing British, his colleague William Dawes Jr. (1745-1799) was likewise galloping out of Boston in the opposite direction. Dawes was a second sergeant in the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Co. of Massachusetts. Earlier, having already managed to steal a couple of cannons out from under the nose of British soldiers, he was already active in acts of subterfuge.
Dr. Joseph Warren of Bunker Hill fame organized both men, believing two riders had a better chance of getting through than just one. The 30-year-old Dawes, member of the Sons of Liberty and father of six children, departed around 9:00 pm, about an hour before Paul Revere. Sticking to the Boston side of the river, Dawes crossed the Boston Neck (120 ft wide at high tide), successfully crossing through the British checkpoints. It is generally thought that because his profession as a tanner often required him to ride out on business (not to mention his pretending drunkenness in taverns to pick up intelligence from British soldiers), he was a familiar face to the sentries who let him through without question. This trip was no exception.
The Great Bridge
After crossing the Neck, Dawes galloped through what is now Roxbury, Brookline, and Allston, finally crossing over “The Great Bridge” to Cambridge. Most Cantabrigians are familiar with what is now known as the Anderson Memorial Bridge, which connects the Harvard Square side of the Charles River with the Harvard Stadium side. But did you know the role this bridge played in the Revolution?
Great Bridge location. Detail: Boston, 1775, Siege, Battle of Lexington & Concord, Framed Revolutionary War Map courtesy Battlemaps.us.
Built in 1660 from “Little Cambridge” on the south side of the Charles to Cambridge on the north, this timber bridge was the first to span the Charles River. Over the centuries, deteriorating conditions led to several repair iterations, including adding a draw for barges passing upstream. The bridge that we see today – the Anderson Memorial Bridge – was rebuilt in 1915.
After Dawes crossed the river late that night, well prepared Cambridge citizens removed its planks to impede British General Hugh Earl Percy and his troops from literally following in Dawes’s hoofprints. According to the diary of British Lt. Frederick Mackenzie in Gen. Percy’s army, the troops did not mobilize until 8:45am on the 19th:
“…that they were- to march out of town to support the troops that went out last night. A quarter before 9, we marched in the following order, Advanced Guard, of a captain and 50 men; 2 Six pounders, 4th Regt., 47th Regt, 1st Batt. Of Marines, 23rd Ret., or Royal Welch Fusiliers, Rear Guard, of a Captain & 50 men. The whole under the Command of Brigadier General Earl Percy. We went out of Boston by the Neck, and marched thro’ Roxbury, Cambridge and Menotomy, towards Lexington. In all the places we marched through, and in the houses on the road, few or no people were to be seen; and the houses were in general shut up.” (Diary of Frederick Mackenzie, officer of the regiment of Royal Welch Fusiliers during the years 1775-1781)
Thats a lot of soldiers! Percy’s troops found the bridge planks, reinstalled them, and eventually followed in Dawes’s path to Lexington.
(Later that summer, in July of 1775, George Washington also passed over the bridge to attend the funeral of Col. Thomas Gardner, who was wounded in the Battle of Bunker Hill and died on July 3, 1775 at home in Little Cambridge, now Brighton).
For more about the history of The Great Bridge see our 2022 Instagram feature from Historic Bridges Awareness Month.
Arriving on the north bank of the Charles, Dawes would have stepped onto a causeway crossing the mud flats, passing alongside the “Colledge” Wharf at the end of Wood Street. Wood St led up to what is now Harvard Square and was subsequently called Brighton Street in 1838, renamed to Boylston Street in 1882, and renamed to its current designation, John F. Kennedy (JFK) Street, in 1982.
The Route
It is startling to realize that along his way through Cambridge Village (as it was referred to at the time), Dawes would have passed by some of the same buildings and places that we still see today. Today, we see the house of carpenter John Hicks at 64 JFK Street, across from the Eliot Street intersection. Dawes would not have passed the house at its current location: it was originally built in 1762 on the corner of Dunster and Winthrop Streets and later purchased by Harvard and moved to its current location at 64 JFK St in 1928.
But Hicks, also an active patriot, having already taken part in the Boston Tea Party, was no doubt aware of Dawes’s travels just a block away. In fact, the next afternoon, April 19, while ambushing the retreating British soldiers at the corner of Mass Ave and Rindge Ave (then called Watson’s corner), Hicks was shot dead. Later, General Israel Putnam used the house for his office during the war.
The first location, still in the same place that Dawes would have passed, was the Market between Winthrop Street and Mount Auburn Street, then known as Long Street and Spring Street. This land was originally that of Sir Richard Saltonstall. Following his return to England, the lot was designated a public marketplace in 1635. In 1834, it was enclosed as a park and dubbed “Winthrop Square.” The current park reflects the restoration done in 1987.
And just past Mt. Auburn St on the left, Dawes would have passed the Ebenezer Bradish’s Blue Anchor Tavern, a popular watering hole for political discussions, where monthly meetings of Selectmen took place. The “joint was jumping” on the night of the 18th as news of the British troops arrival spread. The original tavern building is long gone, but the place is marked by a Cambridge Historical Commission blue oval. Today, this is the location of Union Square Donuts, 15 JFK St.
Wood Street ended at what was then a small common and is now is now Harvard Square. Dawes passed The Courthouse on the left, situated about where the Harvard Coop is today. The small common is now the traffic island and entrance to the MBTA.
Across from the Courthouse was the Fourth Meeting House, built in 1758. This is now the site of Lehman Hall, across from the Harvard Square Kiosk.
If Dawes looked to his right while riding past the Courthouse, he would catch a fleeting view of Wadsworth House, located just to the right of the Fourth Meeting House. Built in 1726, Wadsworth House was the residence of Harvard presidents until 1849. It served as Gen. Washington’s first command center for two weeks before moving to the Vassall estate on Brattle St (now the Longfellow House). While Washington’s HQ was in Wadsworth, then-president of Harvard, Samuel Langdon, was permitted to continue living in one of its rooms. The two small wings seen below were added in 1783.
Continuing out what is today Mass Ave, Dawes passed five Harvard buildings that in 1775-1776 were used as barracks for Provincial troops. The Paul Revere print below (1767) shows three of these five buildings (left to right): Harvard, Stoughton, and Massachusetts Halls. Hollis Hall, not visible in the print, is tucked in behind the northeast corner of Harvard Hall, and Holden Chapel is also out of view to the left of Harvard Hall. Both were in existence at the times of Dawes’s ride. Massachusetts Hall accommodated 640 soldiers; Stoughton: 240; Harvard Hall an indeterminant number; Hollis Hall 640; and dinky Holden Chapel, believe it or not, housed 160 men.
Massachusetts Hall (above right)was built in 1720 as a student dormitory. Today, the first two floors are taken up with the office of the president, provost, general counsel, vice presidents and their support staff. The upper two floors still serve as dorm rooms for about 24 Freshmen.
Stoughton Hall (middle building in the Revere print above) was completed in 1700 and served as a student dormitory. Over time it was deemed in such need of repair that it was declared “an unsubstantial piece of masonry,” and taken down in 1780. The current University Hall, built between 1813-1815, took its place. The second brick Stoughton Hall is seen today is on Mass Ave to the left of the Holden Chapel. It was opened in 1806.
Theodore Roosevelt Collection 560.12-021, Harvard University
Harvard Hall (left building in Revere’s print above). The first Harvard Hall, built in 1682, served as the university library, chapel, lecture hall, dining hall and meeting place. When it was destroyed by fire in 1764, lost were nearly of the Library’s books, along with various “philosophical apparatus” such as telescopes, medical instruments, and microscopes. By 1766 it had been rebuilt. The Harvard Hall in the Revere engraving represents the rebuilt building.
Hollis Hall. In a quirk of fate, Hollis Hall (completed in 1763), had been designed by Thomas Dawes, who it turns out, was a cousin of our man William Dawes.
Holden Chapel was erected in 1744 by the wife of the Honorable Samuel Holden (1675-1740). He was a member of the British Parliament who was “…deeply interested in the cause of learning and religion in New England.” After his death, Holden’s wife donated four hundred pounds sterling to erect the Chapel in his honor.
Recently, Holden Chapel underwent an historic preservation project which restored the western pediment that Dawes saw to its original colors.
After being dismissed in May of 1775, Harvard students resumed their classes in October of that year in Concord, Mass. When the British departed Boston in 1776, so did the provincial soldiers quartered at Harvard. Jamming so may mostly young soldiers (average age around 22) into such cramped and uncomfortable quarters resulted in substantial damage, requiring sizeable renovations.
Back across Mass Ave, past the Courthouse on the left, just before today’s intersection of Garden St and Mass Ave was the Old Burying Ground (est. 1636), looking much as it does today, including this way sign to Boston:
The Burying Ground was adjacent to Christ Church, which was built in 1761 facing the Cambridge Common. Services were few during the Revolution, although General Washington is said to have occasionally worshipped there. As were the Harvard buildings, Christ Church was also used as a barracks, with the same sad results of damage by the soldiers. It was not fully back to use until around 1790.
Finally, just before heading out the Road to Menotomy, Dawes would have passed the Cambridge Common on his left. Originally, this “Cow Common” extended all the way up to Linnean Street. In 1724, the Common was reduced to the size we see today. In the 1770’s, prior to April 1775, it was used as a training ground for the local militia. As the story goes, it was on the Common that George Washington officially took command of the Continental Army. During the war, thousands of militia men not already housed in Harvard buildings camped on the Common in wretched conditions. On the northwest side of the Common, Dawes might have noticed the home of Dr. Benjamin Waterhouse at 7 Waterhouse Street, which still stands today. The street was named after Dr. Waterhouse, a Harvard professor of medicine who introduced the small pox vaccine.
Today, Cambridge Common is a National Historic Landmark.
William Dawes and his heroic gallop the night of April 18, 1775 is remembered today by Dawes Island, a traffic island between Garden St, Mass Ave, and the Common. His name is inscribed in the pavement, along with brass replicas of his horses hoofprints. Dawes fought in the Battle of Bunker Hill. In 1776, he was commissioned as major of the Boston Militia and served as a quartermaster in central Massachusetts. He died in 1799. His great-great grandson, Charles Dawes, was President Calvin Coolidge’s vice president.
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Today’s post was written by CHC volunteer Kathleen M. Fox
Sources
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