Harvard Lampoon Building
building in Massachusetts, United States
The Harvard Lampoon Building (sometimes referred to as the Lampoon Castle) is a historic building in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which is best known as the home of The Harvard Lampoon, and for its unusual design.
Architecture and design
The building was constructed at 44 Bow Street not far from Harvard Yard and close to the "Gold Coast" of residences for undergraduates of Harvard College before the creation of Harvard's "house system" (some of them now part of Adams House). Designed by Edmund M. Wheelwright, who also oversaw the construction, it was first opened on February 19, 1909. Wheelwright had attended Harvard University and was one of the founders of the Harvard Lampoon. Wheelwright's design was inspired in part by an old church in Jamestown, Virginia, and by the Flemish Renaissance details of Auburn Street buildings in its vicinity. The building has been described as a "Satirical Castle".
During the construction phase of the project Wheelwright traveled to Europe to procure appropriate furnishings and windows. He purchased leaded windows in Belgium and an Elizabethan mantelpiece in England. The building also features 17th-century Delft tiles that were imported from the Netherlands. The Delft tiles are blue, white, and aubergine.
The public source identifies “Harvard Lampoon Building” as building in Massachusetts, United States. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Harvard, Lampoon and Building.
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The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5676473. Authority coordinates are 42.372, -71.117. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1909.
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This entry incorporates text from “Harvard Lampoon Building” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.