Cambridge, MA – Lesley University recently announced the purchase of the historic buildings formerly owned by the Episcopal Divinity School (EDS). The purchase makes Lesley the sole owner of the 4.4-acre Brattle Campus and positions the university to support its strategic planning initiative, Lesley 2030.
The purchase includes five buildings and the remaining half of a shared structure, including a number of Roxbury puddingstone buildings trimmed with limestone or red brick:
- St. John’s Memorial Chapel, an 1867-built chapel of about 10,000 square feet, at 91 Brattle St.
- Wright Hall, a former library built in 1911, at 99-1 Brattle St. This two-level structure is approximately 6,300 square feet.
- Burnham Hall, a three-story former dormitory and refectory of just under 10,000 square feet, at 99-2 Brattle St. It was built in 1879.
- Reed Hall, an 1873-vintage, 8,700-square-foot structure that originally housed a library and recitation rooms in its two floors at 99-3 Brattle St.
- 4 Berkeley St., a 9,800-square-foot, Victorian-style structure built around 1851. It is of frame clapboard construction over a fieldstone foundation and has a gabled roof, reaching 2½ stories in height.
- The remainder of Sherrill Library at 89 Brattle St., constructed in 1965, a striking, limestone-veneer, 52,000-square-foot building that houses the bulk of the university’s collection, as well as classrooms, lecture halls and offices. Since 2008, Lesley and EDS had jointly owned this three-story building with a lower level as part of the schools’ condominium agreement.
