The old gambrel-roofed Wadsworth house has an interesting history. It was built in 1726 as the official residence of the college presidents. Wadsworth was the first to occupy it, the building being finished the year after his inauguration. For a hundred and twenty years it was occupied by successive presidents. Wadsworth, Holyoke, Loeke, Langdon, Willard, Weber, Kirkland, Quincy, and Everett lived in it.

No building in Cambridge, probably, has sheltered so many great men. Washington slept in it several times, before taking the Vassall house as his residence, in 1775, and he was received in Wadsworth house when he visited Cambridge in 1789.