Harvard University Police blocked entry to Memorial Hall in Cambridge Monday morning after a bomb threat prompted an emergency shelter-in-place alert, sending officers and emergency personnel to establish a perimeter around the historic building. The alert, sent around 8:45 a.m., told people near Memorial Hall to shelter in place while others were told simply to avoid the area. Within roughly 35 minutes, police lifted the shelter order, though they continued urging people to stay away from the building and the adjoining plaza.
What Happened Monday Morning
According to The Harvard Crimson, the Harvard University Police Department responded to the bomb threat at Memorial Hall Monday morning, with officers and emergency personnel establishing a perimeter that kept students from entering the building. HUPD lifted the shelter-in-place order at around 9:20 a.m., but the department advised affiliates to continue avoiding both Memorial Hall and the nearby Zimmer Hall plaza, the student newspaper reported. Shuttle service near the building was also halted, per the same account, after riders were told to steer clear of the area.
Classes in adjacent Zimmer Hall continued as scheduled even as the perimeter remained in place around Memorial Hall, the Crimson's report noted. The Boston Globe similarly reported that a bomb threat targeting Harvard's Memorial Hall had prompted a shelter-in-place order for the area, with the university's alert instructing people to follow instructions from law enforcement on the scene.
Conflicting Reports on the Exact Location
Not every outlet identified the same building. Boston 25 News reported that Harvard asked people to shelter in place or avoid the area around Science Center Hall until further notice, a detail that differs from the Memorial Hall location cited elsewhere. NBC10 Boston, meanwhile, reported that Harvard was investigating a bomb threat at Memorial Hall Monday morning, adding that no further details were immediately available and that the station had reached out to police for more information, according to NBC10 Boston.
The discrepancy between the two locations named across coverage has not been officially clarified. Boston 25 News, which named Science Center Hall, described its own report as developing, noting that readers should check back for updates as the situation continued.
A Building Steeped in Campus Life
Memorial Hall houses Sanders Theatre, one of Harvard's largest lecture halls, and is adjacent to a cafeteria, per the Crimson's reporting. The building also adjoins Annenberg Hall, the College's first-year dining hall, according to the same outlet's account of the campus landmark now sitting inside a police perimeter.
Harvard's police department has also flagged a broader pattern behind Monday's incident. A community advisory posted by the Harvard University Police Department said the agency had received reports of multiple bomb threats emailed to various university officials on campus, and that similar threats had also been sent to other local colleges and universities.
Echoes of a 2015 Threat
Monday's lockdown recalls a November 2015 incident in which Harvard received an emailed bomb threat against several buildings in Harvard Yard, according to a Boston Globe report from that time. Those threats named four buildings — the Science Center, Sever Hall, Emerson Hall, and the Thayer Hall dormitory — and Harvard said a search of all four turned up no explosives before they reopened for normal business, per Reuters' coverage of that earlier scare. It remains unclear whether Monday's threat at Memorial Hall will follow a similar resolution, and no additional details about the investigation, any suspects, or how the matter concluded were available as of Monday morning.
