For most Harvard students, Winthrop Square Park is just a small patch of grass wedged between Peet’s Coffee and JFK St. However, this small plot of land has played an outsized role not only in American history, but also in the current controversy over development in Harvard Square. According to the Cambridge Historical Commission, Cambridge—then called Newtowne—was founded at the current site of the park in 1630 by Governor John Winthrop and Deputy Governor Thomas Dudley. In the mid 1890s, prominent architect Frederick Law Olmsted’s firm helped develop the space, after it was enclosed as a public park in 1834. According to some Cambridge citizens, that makes it the oldest such park in the country.
