1. Porcellian Club – The Porcellian Club is an all-male final club at Harvard University, sometimes called the Porc or the P. C. The clubs motto, Dum vivimus vivamus is literally Epicurean, the club emblem is the pig and some members sport golden pigs on watch-chains or neckties bearing pigs-head emblems. The club was started by a group of 30 students from Massachusetts who wanted to avoid the dining halls. The Porcellian is the iconic hotsy-totsy final club, often bracketed with Yales Skull and Bones, Princetons Ivy Club, Dartmouths Sphinx Club, Cambridges Pitt Club, a history of Harvard calls the Porcellian the most final of them all. According to a Harvard Crimson article of February 23,1887 and it occupies rooms on Harvard street and owns a library of some 7000 volumes. Its members are taken from the senior, junior and sophomore classes about eight from each class, the origin of its name is popularly supposed to be as follows, In the year 1791, a student brought a pig into his room in Hollis. In those days the window-seats were merely long boxes with lids, said student having an antipathy to the proctor who roomed beneath, was accustomed to squeeze piggys ears and make him squeal whenever said proctor was engaged in the study of the classics. The result would be a rush by the proctor for the students rooms, piggy, in the mean time had been deposited beneath, and no sound disturbed the tranquillity of the scene. On the departure of the hated proctor, a broad grin would spread over the countenance of the joker, but when it was rumored that his room was to be searched by the faculty, the joker determined to cheat them of their prey. So he invited some of his classmates to the room and the pig being cooked and they enjoyed their midnight meal so much that they determined then and there to form a club and have such entertainments periodically. In order to render historical the origin of the club and also to give it a classic touch, they decided to call it the Porcellian from Latin porcus. In 1831, the society bearing the name of the Order of the Knights of the Square Table was joined to the Porcellian and it is to Mr. McKean that the club owes not only its pig, but its principles. The Porcellian clubhouse is located at 1324 Massachusetts Avenue above the store of clothier J. August, the building was designed by the architect and clubmember William York Peters. Its entrance faces the Harvard freshman dormitories and the entrance to Harvard Yard called the Porcellian, or McKean, the gate was donated by the club in 1901 and features a limestone carving of a boars head. Access to the clubhouse is strictly limited to members, but non-members are allowed in the first floor room known as the Bicycle Room, hart wrote. To illustrate, may I invoke Harvards famous Porcellian, an undergraduate club of extraordinary exclusiveness. T is devilishly hard to join, but there is nothing there, hardly a club at all. The quarters consist entirely of a room over a row of stores in Harvard Square. There is a bar, a table and a mirror arranged so that members can sit
2. National Register of Historic Places – The National Register of Historic Places is the United States federal governments official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation. The passage of the National Historic Preservation Act in 1966 established the National Register, of the more than one million properties on the National Register,80,000 are listed individually. The remainder are contributing resources within historic districts, each year approximately 30,000 properties are added to the National Register as part of districts or by individual listings. For most of its history the National Register has been administered by the National Park Service and its goals are to help property owners and interest groups, such as the National Trust for Historic Preservation, coordinate, identify, and protect historic sites in the United States. While National Register listings are mostly symbolic, their recognition of significance provides some financial incentive to owners of listed properties, protection of the property is not guaranteed. During the nomination process, the property is evaluated in terms of the four criteria for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places, the application of those criteria has been the subject of criticism by academics of history and preservation, as well as the public and politicians. Occasionally, historic sites outside the proper, but associated with the United States are also listed. Properties can be nominated in a variety of forms, including individual properties, historic districts, the Register categorizes general listings into one of five types of properties, district, site, structure, building, or object. National Register Historic Districts are defined geographical areas consisting of contributing and non-contributing properties, some properties are added automatically to the National Register when they become administered by the National Park Service. These include National Historic Landmarks, National Historic Sites, National Historical Parks, National Military Parks/Battlefields, National Memorials, on October 15,1966, the Historic Preservation Act created the National Register of Historic Places and the corresponding State Historic Preservation Offices. Initially, the National Register consisted of the National Historic Landmarks designated before the Registers creation, approval of the act, which was amended in 1980 and 1992, represented the first time the United States had a broad-based historic preservation policy. To administer the newly created National Register of Historic Places, the National Park Service of the U. S. Department of the Interior, hartzog, Jr. established an administrative division named the Office of Archeology and Historic Preservation. Hartzog charged OAHP with creating the National Register program mandated by the 1966 law, ernest Connally was the Offices first director. Within OAHP new divisions were created to deal with the National Register, the first official Keeper of the Register was William J. Murtagh, an architectural historian. During the Registers earliest years in the late 1960s and early 1970s, organization was lax and SHPOs were small, understaffed, and underfunded. A few years later in 1979, the NPS history programs affiliated with both the U. S. National Parks system and the National Register were categorized formally into two Assistant Directorates. Established were the Assistant Directorate for Archeology and Historic Preservation and the Assistant Directorate for Park Historic Preservation, from 1978 until 1981, the main agency for the National Register was the Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service of the United States Department of the Interior. In February 1983, the two assistant directorates were merged to promote efficiency and recognize the interdependency of their programs, jerry L. Rogers was selected to direct this newly merged associate directorate
3. Historic districts in the United States – Buildings, structures, objects and sites within a historic district are normally divided into two categories, contributing and non-contributing. Districts greatly vary in size, some have hundreds of structures, the U. S. federal government designates historic districts through the United States Department of Interior under the auspices of the National Park Service. Federally designated historic districts are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, state-level historic districts may follow similar criteria or may require adherence to certain historic rehabilitation standards. Local historic district designation offers, by far, the most legal protection for historic properties because most land use decisions are made at the local level, local districts are generally administered by the county or municipal government. The first U. S. historic district was established in Charleston, South Carolina in 1931, Charleston city government designated an Old and Historic District by local ordinance and created a board of architectural review to oversee it. New Orleans followed in 1937, establishing the Vieux Carré Commission, other localities picked up on the concept, with the city of Philadelphia enacting its historic preservation ordinance in 1955. The Supreme Court case validated the protection of resources as an entirely permissible governmental goal. In 1966 the federal government created the National Register of Historic Places, conference of Mayors had stated Americans suffered from rootlessness. By the 1980s there were thousands of federally designated historic districts, Historic districts are generally two types of properties, contributing and non-contributing. In general, contributing properties are integral parts of the historic context, in addition to the two types of classification within historic districts, properties listed on the National Register of Historic Places are classified into five broad categories. They are, building, structure, site, district and object, all but the eponymous district category are also applied to historic districts listed on the National Register. A listing on the National Register of Historic Places is governmental acknowledgment of a historic district, however, the Register is an honorary status with some federal financial incentives. The National Register of Historic Places defines a historic district per U. S. federal law, a district may also comprise individual elements separated geographically but linked by association or history. Districts established under U. S. federal guidelines generally begin the process of designation through a nomination to the National Register of Historic Places, the National Register is the official recognition by the U. S. government of cultural resources worthy of preservation. While designation through the National Register does offer a district or property some protections, if the federal government is not involved, then the listing on the National Register provides the site, property or district no protections. If, however, company A was under federal contract the Smith House would be protected, a federal designation is little more than recognition by the government that the resource is worthy of preservation. Usually, the National Register does not list religious structures, moved structures, reconstructed structures, however, if a property falls into one of those categories and are integral parts of districts that do meet the criteria then an exception allowing their listing will be made. Historic district listings, like all National Register nominations, can be rejected on the basis of owner disapproval, in the case of historic districts, a majority of owners must object in order to nullify a nomination to the National Register of Historic Places
4. Cambridge, Massachusetts – Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, and is a part of the Boston metropolitan area. According to the 2010 Census, the population was 105,162. As of July 2014, it was the fifth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, Worcester, Springfield, Cambridge was one of the two seats of Middlesex County prior to the abolition of county government in 1997, Lowell was the other. The site for what would become Cambridge was chosen in December 1630, because it was located safely upriver from Boston Harbor, Thomas Dudley, his daughter Anne Bradstreet, and her husband Simon, were among the first settlers of the town. The first houses were built in the spring of 1631, the settlement was initially referred to as the newe towne. Official Massachusetts records show the name capitalized as Newe Towne by 1632, the original village site is in the heart of todays Harvard Square. In the late 19th century, various schemes for annexing Cambridge itself to the city of Boston were pursued and rejected, in 1636, the Newe College was founded by the colony to train ministers. Newe Towne was chosen for the site of the college by the Great and General Court primarily—according to Cotton Mather—to be near the popular, in May 1638 the name of the settlement was changed to Cambridge in honor of the university in Cambridge, England. Hooker and Shepard, Newtownes ministers, and the colleges first president, major benefactor, in 1629, Winthrop had led the signing of the founding document of the city of Boston, which was known as the Cambridge Agreement, after the university. It was Governor Thomas Dudley who, in 1650, signed the charter creating the corporation which still governs Harvard College, Cambridge grew slowly as an agricultural village eight miles by road from Boston, the capital of the colony. By the American Revolution, most residents lived near the Common and Harvard College, with farms and estates comprising most of the town. Coming up from Virginia, George Washington took command of the volunteer American soldiers camped on Cambridge Common on July 3,1775, most of the Tory estates were confiscated after the Revolution. On January 24,1776, Henry Knox arrived with artillery captured from Fort Ticonderoga, a second bridge, the Canal Bridge, opened in 1809 alongside the new Middlesex Canal. The new bridges and roads made what were formerly estates and marshland into prime industrial and residential districts, in the mid-19th century, Cambridge was the center of a literary revolution when it gave the country a new identity through poetry and literature. Cambridge was home to some of the famous Fireside Poets—so called because their poems would often be read aloud by families in front of their evening fires, the Fireside Poets—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, James Russell Lowell, and Oliver Wendell Holmes—were highly popular and influential in their day. Cambridge was incorporated as a city in 1846, the citys commercial center began to shift from Harvard Square to Central Square, which became the downtown of the city around this time. The coming of the railroad to North Cambridge and Northwest Cambridge then led to three changes in the city, the development of massive brickyards and brickworks between Massachusetts Ave. For many decades, the citys largest employer was the New England Glass Company, by the middle of the 19th century it was the largest and most modern glassworks in the world