Home of Revolutionary Warrior to Give Place to College Gymnasium--John Hicks Slain in Brief Highway Skirmish

The tradition-surrounded home of John Hicks, one of the Minute Men of Revolutionary days, is to be moved from its present site on 64 Dunster Street this summer to make room for the projected University gymnasium. The small Colonial house has occupied its corner location for 166 years and the Harvard building authorities, who own the structure, plan to move it intact to adjacent property, if place can be made for it.

The house was built in 1762 by John Hicks who lived in it with his family until the outbreak of the Revolutionary War. Being an ardent sympathizer with the patriot cause, he received word on April 19, 1775, of the battle of Lexington. He gathered together three friends and rode with them, armed and provisioned, to the North Cambridge turnpike, where he prepared an ambush for the returning red-coats.

In the ensuing skirmish, the four townsmen were trapped by a flanking force and John Hicks, with two of his comrades, was slain.

Subsequently, the dwelling-place became the head-quarters for General Israel Putnam, the Commissary officer of the Revolutionary army. Putnam and his adjutants were quartered here until the battle of Bunker Hill, in which all of them participated. After the Boston affray, the American troops and General Putnam retired from Cambridge, leaving the Hicks house to remain open for civilian occupants the rest of its days.