Milford granite and Longmeadow brownstone give Cambridge City Hall at 795 Massachusetts Avenue its Richardsonian Romanesque weight, under a bell tower rising 158 feet above you. Built between 1888 and 1889 and largely funded through a donation from Frederick Hastings Rindge, this three‑story building was designed by the firm Longfellow, Alden & Harlow — Alexander Wadsworth Longfellow Jr. (1854–1934), Frank E. Alden (1859–1908), and Alfred B. Harlow (1857–1927). The load‑bearing stone walls use Milford granite trimmed with Longmeadow brownstone, giving the façade the muscular, textured presence of the style.
A bell tower rises to 158 feet, announcing the building’s civic purpose. Inside and around it, Cambridge City Hall houses offices for the city council, the city manager and several municipal departments, while other departments sit a couple of city blocks away in the City Hall Annex at Broadway and Inman Street. This place has also been the scene of momentous civic acts: on May 17, 2004, shortly after midnight, the first legal applications in the United States for marriage licenses for same‑sex couples were issued here.
Picture the moment in 2004 when the first same-sex marriage licenses in the United States were issued just inside.