MIT Cambridge campus founding (Back Bay filled land, 77 Mass Ave)

Lateral historical aside on Cambridge geography and the conditions of MIT's land acquisition (~1900). The beaver/widow/class-of-1877 story explains the building number.

What's unique about the Stratton Student Center — it's floating. All of this was filled land. There's a stone down in Boston that says sixteen miles to Harvard. Everybody knows it's not sixteen miles to Harvard. It was, when they put the stone there, because you had to go around the Back Bay. And Beacon Street — you might know why it's called Beacon Street. Right on the other side is Boston Common, where everyone had a right to graze their cow, and you still do. You can bring your cow onto the Boston Common and graze it, and the police can't stop you. It's in the law. That's where you got your milk; they didn't have refrigerators back in those days.