Time for a Dip – Or, A Brief History of Swimming in the Charles River

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Laughing men in sodden bathing costumes on a dock, photographed ca. 1895-1905 by Ralph N. Smith. Cambridge Historical Commission, Ralph N. Smith collection.

Did you know that what we today call “swimming,” in the 19th century, was generally referred to as “bathing?” Hence, today we still use the terms “bathhouses,” (sometimes spelled as two separate words) and “bathing suits.” The early 1800s had already seen private bathhouses along the Cambridge shoreline – Harvard had one in 1810 and 1841 near Hawthorne and Bath streets, and in 1830 the Cambridge Humane Society had built one near today’s Anderson Bridge. This post, however, focuses on the history of 19th century municipal swimming places on the banks of the Charles River in Cambridge, beginning upstream at Gerry’s Landing and moving downstream to the floating bathhouse at River Street, and finally to Captains Island – now called Magazine Beach.

First, a little history.
The latter half of the 1800s saw a strong movement extolling the health benefits of bathing, especially for those without access to private swimming pools—or even a bathtub in their own home. This movement was one of the driving forces behind developing public bathing spots and “bathhouses” along the Charles.

By 1867 the Cambridge Alderman’s Committee on Health advocated for five free public bathing places. Decisions about the development of the beaches, including bathhouses, concessions, floats, and changes in location were entangled in complicated governmental structures created by the State legislature (creating the Metropolitan District Commission, and Parks Commission), and by Cambridge‘s own Aldermen and Parks Department. Even after the City of Cambridge conveyed responsibility for the entire Charles River Park system to the Metropolitan District Commission in 1921, there continued to be tussles and renegotiations.

Gerry’s Landing

“Gerry’s Landing Beach” July 12, 1928. Cambridge Hospital in the background
Cambridge Historical Commission, Photo Morgue Collection

Gerry’s Landing, pronounced with the hard “g” sound and not to be confused with “Jerry’s (soft “g”) Pit” in North Cambridge, was located at the same bend near what is now the intersection of Memorial Drive, Mount Auburn Street, Alewife Brook Parkway, and Greenough Boulevard.

Aerial view of the intersection of Memorial Drive, Mt. Auburn St, and Greenough Blvd. adjacent to the Browne & Nichols school. The Eliot Bridge is at the bottom of the photograph. This area is still referred to as Gerry’s Landing. Image: NearMap MapBrowser imagery captured 9 April 2026.

Before it became Gerry’s Landing, this bend in the river was called “Sir Richard’s Landing” after the leader of the first European settlers who settled in Watertown in 1603. It is also well known because of Harvard Professor Eben Norton Horsford’s (debunked) theory that Leif Erikson traveled up the Charles and landed there in the year 1000.

Gerry’s Landing was named after Elbridge Gerry (1744-1824), signer of the Declaration of Independence, Congressman, Governor of Massachusetts, co-author of the Bill of Rights, and Vice President under James Madison. These days, he is most well-known for his eponymous voter redistricting map in Massachusetts, whipped up in order to further his political interests. Called “gerrymandering” (erroneously with a soft g), political cartoonists made the plan to resemble a salamander, and as such it has passed down to us today.

Elbridge Gerry (1744-1814) by Nathaniel Jocelyn, c. 1845-1847. Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Louise E. Bettens Fund.
“The Gerry-mander” as printed in Magazine of American History, 1872. The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Picture Collection, The New York Public Library.
Detail: Atlas of the City of Cambridge, Massachusetts (G.M. Hopkins & Co., 1886) showing “The Ancient Road to Gerry’s Landing.”

Pinpointing who exactly was responsible for maintaining the Gerry’s Landing beach during the 19th century was complicated. The question arose in 1883 when the Cambridge Hospital was considering building the hospital on Mt. Auburn St., but wanted to assurance that that the landing was “secured for the city” so that their contagious disease patients, brought upriver on boats, could disembark without objection. Eventually, the Alderman agreed to take possession of the landing, and the hospital was built the following year.

In 1918, the city provided men and boys with a bathhouse; but it was not until 1920 that women were accommodated (sort of), with a portable iron voting booth for changing. This was rectified by 1934 when men and women each had seperate bathhouses, which the city provided until WWII.

“Beach Scene at Gerry’s Landing” as published in the Park Commissioners report in The Annual Reports Made to the City Council for the Year Ending March 31, 1925. Note the float on the river.

The demise of the original Gerry’s Landing beach arrived in 1947 with the extension of Memorial Drive westward to the intersection the Alewife Brook Parkway and Mt. Auburn St. In anticipation of this, the MDC committed to creating a “new” Gerry’s Landing beach a couple of hundred yards further up the river in the vicinity of the Browne and Nichols boathouse. This move involved a certain amount of excavating and constructing of a beachfront. On July 4, 1930, The Cambridge Chronicle reported that “The new beach, which has been covered with tons of sand by the Metropolitan district commission, is already proving popular with the patrons of the old Gerry’s landing beach.” By 1941, a bathhouse had been built at the new site.

The new Gerry’s Landing swimming beach also met its demise (along with all other beaches on the Charles) in 1949 when the Metropolitan District Commission closed all beaches due to pollution.

Gerry’s Landing today, with sculls of the Cambridge Boat Club. Image: Kathleen Fox, July 2026

The River Street Floating Bathhouse

This floating bathhouse actually began its life in 1888 at the foot of the Western Avenue bridge. Shortly after its installation, effluent from a nearby sewer was discovered. Consequently, the bathhouse was moved downstream to a mooring on the right-hand side of the River St. Bridge.

Floating bathhouses were popular in the 19th century. By 1897, Boston had about six of them on its various waterfronts, including one on the Charles River at Craigie’s Bridge, which Cantabrigians often used. These were generally wood frame enclosures with gaps that allowed the river to run through them while at the same time providing a sort of designated swimming pool area to secure bathers from the current. The bathhouses might be open to the sky or enclosed, providing deck space and even changing rooms. While to date we don’t have an illustration of the River Street bathhouse, it may have borne some resemblance to this bathhouse in New York City:

Interior of a Swimming Bath drawn by Stanley Fox and as published in Harper’s Weekly (August 20, 1870). Image courtesy New York Historical Society.

The overall dimensions of the River Street bathhouse were 70 feet long by 28 feet wide, with the swimming tank being about 35 by 18 feet. It featured a safety rope “so that small boys who cannot swim can enter the tank in perfect safety.”

The July 28, 1888 edition of The Cambridge Chronicle described it:
“On the left of the entrance is the keeper’s office while on the righthand of the house and in the rear are closets….It is boarded on all sides, although small openings allow the water to have a splendid circulation. The water is 4 feet deep and there is one pair of stairs that lead down into the water. The plans were drawn by City Engineer Barbour. In order to give flotation to the building and have enough water in the tank, eight oil casks with a capacity of 120 gallons have been used. There are also several ships’ spars on which the house floats…”

It cost only three cents for boys and men (judging from the newspapers, women and girls didn’t have use of the bathhouse) to pick up a clean towel and a key to one of the closets. After changing in the closet and locking it, the customer returned the key to the manager, who took his name and address and gave him the number to wear around his neck. At the end of the swim, the swimmer handed in the number and received the key to fetch his clothes, Generally, order was well maintained: “…though this is no easy thing to accomplish when the tank is as full of boys as it is possible to fill it, and the rest of the house is filled with others who are waiting their turn to get into the water. The utmost good nature generally prevails…the benefit this public bath is to the youth of the city cannot be estimated…There should be several more of them…” (The Cambridge Chronicle 14 June 1890)

Today we forget that the Charles was a tidal river as far up as the falls (now a dam) at Watertown. Tides, and the smelly mud flats they created, also played a significant role in how, when, and where to construct beaches and bathhouses. This quote the explains the situation: “There are times when the tide is not right when he is obliged to close the door [to the River St. bathhouse] to prevent the boys from bathing in a bath of mud.” (The Cambridge Chronicle, 14 June 1890)

Around the mid-1890s, The Cambridge Chronicle regularly ran a high tide chart to enable bathers to schedule their dip:

The Cambridge Chronicle August 26, 1899 

The floating bathhouse was a huge hit: “The River St. Bath house now going fully blast …Often on a hot summer morning when Mr. Clover arrives at the house, he finds a crowd of boys roosted upon the fences and railings of the bridge, some nearly stripped, ready to plunge into the tank as soon as the door is opened…A visit to this one public bath house in the city is interesting and very amusing. In the big tank will be seen boys of every size, nationality and color, reminding one in their evolution of a big pond full of eels.” (The Cambridge Chronicle, 14 June 1890)

After the season closed, the bathhouse was towed to its winter quarters at the rear of the Holmes & Rugg coal wharf, as seen below:

Detail: Atlas of the City of Cambridge, Massachusetts (G.M. Hopkins & Co., 1886) showing location of the winter mooring for the River St. Bathhouse

Sadly, the River St. bathhouse met its end when it was destroyed by fire in April 1899. Moves to build a replacement facility stalled with city government.

Captain’s Island, aka Magazine Beach

Detail: Map of Cambridge by W. A. Mason (1866)

Magazine Beach, originally called “Captain’s Island,” was developed on a small island in Cambridgeport surrounded by marshes. It was named after Captain Daniel Patrick (1605 England-1643 Connecticut) who emigrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630. He gained the title “Captain” after the Bay Colony enlisted him to build forts and monitor security. He was given a parcel of land in which included a hill surrounded by marsh, which for centuries was referred to as “Captain’s Island.”

After the Revolution, the property was owned by private families until, in 1817, it was sold to the Commonwealth for the purpose of building a defensive powder magazine (1818). Below is a photograph depicting the state of the powder house in 1890 after it was no longer in use.

“The Old Magazine” – ruins of the Magazine Beach Powder House, 1892. Image courtesy The Cambridge Room.

Later, the powder house was successfully converted into a bathhouse.

During the late 19th century, as the need for more residential space in Cambridge increased, the surrounding marshes began to be filled. At the same time, citizens were lobbying for more public bathing places in addition to Gerry’s Landing and the River Street bathhouse. The city paid attention and in 1894 took the land by eminent domain. This effort was part of a larger project to renovate the Charles River waterfront all the way up to Gerry’s Landing.

In 1899, the city engaged the Olmsted Brothers to draw up plans for landscaping, a new bathing beach, and bathhouse for women.

Cambridge River Parkway Section D – “Captains Island” by H.H. Batchelder. Annual Report of the Park Commissioners, 1899.

The city then renovated the old powder magazine to outfit it as a bathhouse for men and boys. Before the women’s bathhouse was built, as at Gerry’s Landing, a couple of iron voting booths were installed at one end of the beach. The beach itself was improved with river gravel along 430 feet of waterfront.

The Cambridge Chronicle 15 July 1899
The Cambridge Chronicle June 3, 1899

The June 3, 1899 edition of The Cambridge Chronicle outlined the new bathhouse protocol: “Bathers must provide their own suits, but the lockers are free. The man in charge will supply towels, if desired, at a small cost. … Mr. Joseph James, who formerly had supervision of the old city bath house at the foot of River Street is in charge of the present one, and will be assisted by a young man in a bathing suit…who will be on duty all the time, giving his special attention to guarding bathers against the danger from the strong current at this point.”

A month and a half later, on July 17, 1899, it was recorded that 750 bathers used the venue that day. In July, the city also acquired a row boat “for use in case of any danger to life in the water.” The Cambridge Chronicle remarked “the beach (how strange it seems to talk about a Cambridge ‘beach’) is thronged with observers, men, women and children, who go there for an airing and to see the bathers.” In January 1900, the paper reported that during the 1899 season “…about 30,500 people used the bathing beach.”

“Beach at Captains Island” Annual Report of the Park Commissioners by Cambridge Park Commissioners, 1899

In 1900, an extravagant proposal for a new bathhouse surfaced. It was designed by Architect George Moore but never built.

The Cambridge Chronicle February 17, 1900

By 1901, there were four bathhouses at Captain’s Island including a women’s bathhouse. The men’s facility featured four-foot-high lockers “to allow the men to hang their trousers full length without creasing them.” The new bathhouse use rates were slightly more than they had been at the floating River St bathhouse: “…Bathing suits and towels may be obtained from the attendant in charge of each bath house. The following prices will prevail: Suit, towel and locker accommodation, 10¢; suit, towel and dressing room, 15¢; dressing room, with towel, without suit, 10¢. extra towels, each 3¢…” (The Cambridge Chronicle June 15, 1901)

“Bathing Beach” [at Captain’s Island] Annual Report of the Park Commissioners by Cambridge Park Commissioners, 1901

Women’s bathing suits at the time would have looked something like those on these ladies at Long Beach California:

“Out for a Time, Long Beach. 661.” ca. 1898 by Shirley V. Bacon. SoCa Digitization Project, California State Library.
Bathers at Magazine Beach, 1906. Gas tanks of the Boston Consolidated Gas Company on Cambridge St can be seen across the river. Cambridge Historical Commission Collections, gift of Walter L. Colburn.
Swimming on Magazine Beach in 1935. Image courtesy MDC Archives/Boston Public Library

Pollution in the Charles had always closed beaches for days at a time. Much of the pollution arose from aging sewer systems that combined residential and industrial waste with storm water runoff. In 1949, pollution was so high it became a public health hazard and the MDC closed all beaches on the Charles permanently.

Two girls viewing the “No Bathing Beached Closed” sign at Magazine Beach in 1948, photographed by Kenneth J. Connant, Jr. for The Boston Globe.

In response to beach closures, the Metropolitan District Commission agreed to build a free public swimming pool at Magazine Beach. Designed by the John M. Gray Co., it opened in 1951. It is now the Veterans Memorial Swimming Pool and is still open and free to the public today.

MDC Bathhouse – 719 Memorial Drive photographed by Edward Jacoby ca. 1975. Cambridge Historical Commission collections.
Swimming pool at Magazine Beach. Image: Magazine Beach Partners.

The old Magazine Beach Powder House bathhouse was renovated in 2021 by the firms of Johnson Roberts Associates, Inc. and Clark and Green Architecture, who received a preservation award from the Cambridge Historical Commission.

The Magazine Beach Powder House won a Cambridge Historical Commission Preservation Award in 2022

Today, Magazine Beach includes a promenade, boat launch, and swimming pool. (The shoreline is currently under restoration.)

Magazine Beach Promenade and shoreline today. Images Kathleen Fox

The Clean Water Act of 1972 and the establishment of the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority in 1985 went a long way to clean up the river. First organized in 2013, the Charles River Conservancy Swimming Initiative now holds “City Splash,” an annual event that allows people to take a dip in the Charles in a circumscribed area by the Fiedler Dock on the Boston Esplanade.

Today’s post was written by Kathleen M. Fox

Sources

“1890s Bathing Costume” by Adam Lid on Lily Absinthe: Gowns & Corsetry (August 10, 2016). https://lilyabsinthe.com/1890s-bathing-costume/.

Archipedia listings for Massachusetts. Society of Architectural Historians. https://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/MA.

“Boston Takes a Bath: Part II” blog post published by Mark B. on January 30, 2012 in And This Is Good Old Boston. https://goodoldboston.blogspot.com/2012/01/boston-takes-bath-part-ii.html.

Building Old Cambridge: Architecture and Development by Susan E. Maycock and Charles M. Sullivan (2016).

Cambridge Park Department Annual Reports.

Cambridge Public Library’s Historic Cambridge Newspaper Collection.

“Charles River Reservation, Boston, Cambridge, Newton, and Watertown” in Report of the Board of Metropolitan Park Commissioners, page 53, 1896, Olmsted, Olmsted & Eliot (1895).

“Charles River Swimming Initiative” by Charles River Conservancy. https://thecharles.org/our-work/charles-river-swimming-initiative/.

City of Cambridge Annual Documents.

“Found: One of the Disappointed Charles River Swimmers.” Magazine Beach (March 3, 2015). https://magazinebeach.org/2015/03/03/found-one-of-the-disappointed-charles-river-swimmers/.

Historical sketches of Watertown, Massachusetts, compiled in part for history of Middlesex County, Massachusetts.  Pub by J. V. Lewis & Co, Philadelphia 1890, and by Solon F. Whitney of the Historical Society of Watertown, Massachusetts (1893).

History Cambridge (formerly the Cambridge Historical Society).

History on the Charles: The Story of Captain’s Island and its Powder Magazine by Nina S. Cohen and Marilyn Wellons. Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association (2013). https://magazinebeach.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/magazine-beach-history.pdf.

Inventing the Charles River by Karl Haglund, Charles River Conservancy (2003).

“Magazine Beach for Kids.” Kiddle. (last modified 17 October 2025). https://kids.kiddle.co/Magazine_Beach.

Magazine Beach Partners. https://magazinebeach.org/.

Mayor’s Address at the Organization of the City Government and Reports of the Committee on Finance, the Overseers of the Poor, the Chief Engineer, and the School Committee by City of Cambridge (various years).

Metropolitan District Commission Minutes by Massachusetts Metropolitan District Commission (various years).

Origin, Development and Activities of the Metropolitan District Commission by Massachusetts Metropolitan District Commission (1964).

“Our History: A Look Back at the Charles River Through the Years” by Guest Writer (February 18, 2023). Watertown News. https://www.watertownmanews.com/2023/02/18/our-history-a-look-back-at-the-charles-river-through-the-years/.

“The Public Bath Movement in Boston” by Queenie Chen, edited by Bob Potenza. The West End Museum. https://thewestendmuseum.org/history/era/immigrant-neighborhood/the-public-bath-movement-in-boston/.

“Report of the Committee on Gerry’s Landing” in Mayor’s Address at the Organization of the City Government and Annual Reports Made to the City Council (1884).

Report of the Preliminary Commission of 1893 by Massachusetts Metropolitan Park Commissioners.

Survey of Architectural History in Cambridge, Volume 3: Cambridgeport by Cambridge Historical Commission (1971).

Watertown Free Public Library.

Corinne Woodson Alleyne

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Today would mark the 119th birthday of Cantabrigian Corinne Woodson Alleyne. Alleyne, born Corinne Helen Woodson on July 21, 1907 in Cambridge, was a registered nurse, oral historian, videographer, and documentary filmmaker. For the first several years of her life, Corinne lived with her father Albert, who worked as a hotel waiter, her mother Emma, and her siblings in Cambridge. The family boarded at 16 Hubbard Avenue, one in a set of ten three-story brick rowhouses constructed by the New England Brick Company in 1872.

Detail of City of Cambridge, Mass : 1877 Map. Boston: Franklin View Co., 1877 via Digital Commonwealth, showing building that once stood at 16-34 Hubbard Ave

Mrs. Alleyne was licensed as a nurse in 1930, but was denied work for 12 years because she was African American. She was finally hired during WWII when there was a shortage of nurses. Through her long career, she worked as a nurse in Boston hospitals, as a private nurse, and as a Boston Public Health Commission nursing supervisor. In 1954, she was elected Chairwoman of the Massachusetts Nurses Association private duty nurse section.

“Corinne Alleyne, a video producer, oral historian and former nurse, works at a video editing machine at Continental Cablevision (photo by Cheryl A. Miller)” The Cambridge Chronicle, 9/27/1990

In her retirement, Mrs. Alleyne became an oral historian, videographer and documentary filmmaker, recording histories of Boston senior citizens. In 1986, Alleyne, Kathleen Walcott and E. Denise Simmons organized an exhibit for Black History Month titled “Cambridge Black History: The Invisible Years”. In a Boston Globe article about the exhibit, Alleyne said, “We want to build awareness in young peoples’ minds of their culture. History will die if not collected.” In 1998, she was honored by Mayor Menino and the City of Boston with a lifetime achievement award. She died in September 2000 at the age of 93. We thank Corinne Woodson Alleyne and recognize her work to collect, preserve, and share her community’s history.

To learn more about trailblazing women like Corinne Woodson Alleyne, visit the Cambridge Women’s Heritage Project database: https://cwhp.cambridgema.gov/

Barbara Ward Armstrong at the ICA

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Barbara Ward Armstrong (1940–2013) was a gifted visual and performing artist who was born and raised in Cambridge. She was an accomplished musician, dancer, and seamstress who fashioned many of her own clothes and designed theatrical costumes. Barbara’s design and fabric artistry culminates in her richly textured African-inspired fabric sculptures, also known as soft sculptures, a medium she helped to define. These soft sculptures range from doll-size to life-size and are constructed entirely of dark-hued fabric and are adorned from head to toe in colorful fabrics, beads, and other artifacts representing all corners of the African Diaspora.

Barbara Ward Armstrong. Image courtesy Cambridge Black History Project

Although most of the sculptures are held in private collections, a family of four, called New Race II, was recently donated to the Cambridge Public Library and is currently on exhibit at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) “Say It Loud” exhibition through August 2. “Say It Loud” is an historic collection of the works of thirty-nine artists affiliated with the African American Master Artists-in-Residence Program (AAMARP) at Northeastern University.

Images from Lot 79: Barbara Ward Armstrong, 1940-2013, Lot of two sculptures, Black Art Auction (2021)

The Cambridge Black History Project is hosting a special tour of “Say It Loud” on July 23. There are a limited number of spaces available. Please contact the CBHP by July 18 at info@cambridgeblackhistoryproject.org for further details if you would like to join them on this special tour.

Introducing the Dudley Borland Card Collection

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Do you know what this is?

A historical property listing card containing handwritten notes and details including dates, room layouts, financial information, and owner contact details.
Property card for 140 Upland Road. Dudley Card Borland Collection, Cambridge Historical Commission

The white card above is an example of a property record card from the Dudley & Borland Real Estate and Insurance Company of Cambridge. The company was founded circa 1927 by Robert Parker Dudley (1900-1983) and James Post Borland (1900-1979). Focusing primarily on properties in West Cambridge, their offices were appropriately located at 1374 Mass Ave in Harvard Square.

Portrait of Robert Parker Dudley as published in History of the Class of Nineteen Hundred Twenty-three, Yale College, Volume 1 (p. 112)
Portrait of James P. Borland as printed in The Magazine of Cambridge, January 1946 (p. 28)

Both Dudley and Borland were active in the Cambridge Boy Scouts and various Cambridge organizations. Among other professional activities, Dudley served as a member of the board of the Cambridge Savings Bank and was President of the Society of Real Estate Appraisers. Borland served on the Boston Real Estate Board, Brokers Division, in the Cambridge Chamber of Commerce.

Advertisement for Dudley & Borland real estate and insurance firm in the 1928 Cambridge City Directory

The Cambridge Historical Commission acquired the Dudley & Borland Card Collection in 2021 through the generosity of long-time Cambridge real estate broker Robert (Bob) Crocker, then-owner of the company’s final iteration, Dudley & Borland Ellis & Andrews. Mr. Crocker was a member of the Cambridge Historical Commission and former vice-President of the Cambridge Historical Society, now History Cambridge.

The Dudley Borland Card Collection covers the period from 1927-1979. Each of these white cards contains a record of all the transactions on a single property over a period of years, scribbled in different colored inks. This detailed content on nearly 3,000 properties on 366 Cambridge streets is stunning! Details include the names and contact numbers of owners, the number of floors, the number of rooms and their layout, and the number of baths. Also included are financial town assessment and mortgage histories, construction details, land improvements such as shrubbery and general landscaping, and whether a garage was built on the premises. It is interesting to note that proximity to nearby local grade schools was included on the cards, giving us a clue to the company’s target audience and marketing strategy.

Equally stunning are the nearly 900 photographs in the collection. Visual representation is important in historical preservation and research. In some instances, these photographs provide the Commission with its first photographic record of a home. Often, these photographs fill a visual void and allow us to see what a particular building looked like before subsequent additions, alterations, or demolition.

Black and white photograph of a large, Victorian-style house surrounded by bare trees and a leaf-covered yard.
Example of an image from the collection: 101 Washington Ave circa 1955. Before this collection was donated, the CHC had only one historical photograph of this house, taken in 1890.

In addition, there are photos of land that was less developed than we might see today, such as this photograph showing the corner of Reservoir and Highland Streets:

A black and white photograph of a winding dirt path surrounded by lush greenery and trees, leading to an out-of-focus building in the background.
Dudley Borland Card Collection, Cambridge Historical Commission
Neighborhood views of Coolidge Hill. Dudley Borland Card Collection, Cambridge Historical Commission

A particular property may often contain a “Comparative Sales Chart” document. This is another source of general information about housing costs in similar neighborhoods at the time:

Comparative Sales Chart form for 7 Riedesel Ave. Dudley Borland Card Collection, Cambridge Historical Commission

Additional color-coded, cards in the collection include typed information in brief on date of sale and owner or seller—perhaps tracking real estate deals made by other brokers on houses that might eventually come under the Dudley Borland purview.

Also present are clippings of obituaries from local newspapers featuring many property owners. The inclusion of these clippings adds to the understanding of Dudley & Borland’s market and the essence of the times.

Some of the homes that Dudley & Borland bought or sold had previously passed through the hands of the Ellis Andrews Company real estate firm operating in the same territory. Founded in 1888 (and going through several name changes), Ellis & Andrews was Cambridge’s oldest real estate company. In 1994, the Cambridge Historical Commission received a collection of Ellis & Andrews’ correspondence covering years primarily between 1893-1936. The collection is memorable for the late 19th and early 20th century social conditions and biases revealed in its correspondents. For more information on this collection, see our blog post from 2017: The Ellis & Andrews Real Estate Collection.

The Cambridge Chronicle March 16, 1889 showing ad for William R. Ellis (1846-1903)

There was an overlap in the years both firms were active, especially in the earlier part of the 20th century:

The Cambridge Tribune August 23, 1930

After the original founders of both companies passed on, each company was bought or associated with other real estate/insurance companies. Around 1995, the companies merged, forming Dudley & Borland Ellis & Andrews. This version of the company also passed through several owners.

The Cambridge Chronicle September 21, 1995

These two collections represent over 100 years of real estate transactions in Cambridge. Not only do they contribute to our understanding of the evolution of specific properties and neighborhoods, but they also fill out an overall sense of the times.

Today’s post was written by Kathleen M. Fox

An Intrepid Lady of Brattle Street: Sara Chapman Bull

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Beginning in 1879, until her death in 1911, Sara Chapman Bull lived in Cambridge, first at “Elmwood” (the Oliver-Gerry-Lowell House), and from 1889 until her death at 168 Brattle Street. A number of facts about her should pique our interest:

  • At age 20, she was married in a semi-secret ceremony in Norway to a 60-year-old renowned Norwegian concert violinist Ole Bull.
  • She was an early adherent and supporter of Swami Vivekananda, who introduced the Indian philosophy of Vedanta to the West. 
  • She initiated and funded the Cambridge Conferences, a series of seminars at her home which drew important secular and religious lecturers.
Sarah Thorp Bull and Family, ca. 1890 (3.01BC)
Left to right: Joseph Thorp, Jr., Sarah Thorp Bull, Annie Longfellow Thorp, unidentified woman, Olea Bull, Mrs. Amelia Chapman Thorp, (and seated) unidentified woman. Likely taken at 168 Brattle Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Image courtesy History Cambridge.

Sara Bull was born Sara Chapman Thorp in 1850 in Oxford, New York. Her parents later moved to Eau Claire, Wisconsin where her father, Joseph G. Thorp, became wealthy in the lumber business. The family moved to Madison in 1866 after Joseph was elected to the State Senate. Her mother, Amelia, was a formidable individual who played a prominent role in Madison society. Sara was raised in a conventional manner under the controlling eye of her mother. This somewhat sheltered upbringing changed dramatically when she was introduced to Ole Bull, an internationally renowned Norwegian violinist who came to Madison on an American concert tour.

Portrait of Ole Bull by Franz Hanfstaengl. Image courtesy Bergen Public Library Norway.

Despite strong objections from her father–but with the encouragement of her socially ambitious mother–Sara Thorp and Ole Bull became engaged in early 1870, she age 20, he 60. Sara and her mother then accepted Ole’s invitation to visit Norway where, in a private ceremony, they were married in June, 1870. In the fall of that year, a splendid formal wedding took place in Madison. A daughter, Olea, was born in March, 1871.

Sara Olea Bull Vaughan posed, 1893. Courtesy of National Park Service, Longfellow House-Washington’s Headquarters National Historic Site (1006/004.002.010).

For the next ten years Sara, when not at Madison, traveled with Ole to concerts throughout the United States and Europe, occasionally serving as his piano accompanist. After beginning his college career at the University of Wisconsin, Sara’s brother, Joseph G. Thorp, Jr., graduated from Harvard College in 1879. That same year, the Thorp parents, Sara, Ole, and Olea moved from Madison to Cambridge, where they rented Elmwood from James Russell Lowell. In 1880 Ole, aged 70, died in Norway with Sara at his side.

Elmwood, 33 Elmwood Avenue (built 1767). Photo ca. 1895–1900, showing the gardener’s cottage that was attached to main house. CHC collections.

Following her husband’s death, Sara continued to make her home in Cambridge and began a productive life of her own. She lived at Elmwood until 1889, when she and her family moved to a new house her father had built at 168 Brattle Street.

In 1883, Sara published Ole Bull: A Memoir. She also published a journal article supporting the claim that Norsemen discovered New England and raised funds for the statue of the Norseman presently standing at the western terminus of Commonwealth Avenue in Boston. Sara entered the Boston social scene and became close friends with such luminaries as Annie Fields, Celia Thaxter, Julia Ward Howe and Sarah Orne Jewett. Important connections were further cemented when her brother Joseph married Anne Allegra, youngest daughter of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. 

Title page of Ole Bull: A Memoir (1910) by Sara Chapman Bull

Sara Bull likely met Swami Vivekananda, founder of the Vedanta philosophy, in Boston or Cambridge in 1892. This encounter initiated her extensive sponsorship and financial support of the Swami’s work, both in the United States and India, particularly Vedanta schools. She traveled a number of times to India to lend support to these and other schools—particularly for girls–that were being established there.

In 1896 Sara initiated, hired a director for, and financially sustained what she titled the Cambridge Conferences. These weekly “class lectures” ran from November through May for four years and were held at her house at 168 Brattle Street. This was a wide-ranging intellectual endeavor, its purpose being “to afford opportunity for the comparative study of Ethics, Philosophy, Sociology and Religion”.  A significant number of important philosophers and religious leaders of the day lectured at the Conferences.

Members of the Bull and Thorp family stand outside 168 Brattle Street, Sara Thorp Bull’s residence. Courtesy of National Park Service, Longfellow House-Washington’s Headquarters National Historic Site (1006/004.002.010).

Sara also encouraged and financially supported important efforts of Dr. J. C. Bose, an Indian scientist doing pioneering work on remote wireless, and Okakura Kakuso, an expert on Japanese art who carried out the first classification of Asian Art at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. She met both these gentlemen in their home countries, and later opened her Cambridge home to them and promoted their work in this country.

When Sara Chapman Bull died in 1911, she was cremated at Mt. Auburn Cemetery and her ashes spread at Lysøen, Norway, the site of an island house she inherited from Ole Bull.

Bull villa in Lysøen, photographed 10 June 2005 by Sean Hayford O’Leary. Image obtained via Wikimedia Commons under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Today’s post was written by Cambridge resident Ted Hansen, a community volunteer and former President of the Cambridge Historical Society (now History Cambridge).

Members Sought for Three Cambridge Neighborhood Conservation District Commissions

Posted on by cambridgehistoricalcommission

Are you looking to become more involved in your neighborhood? Cambridge City Manager, Yi-An Huang, is seeking to fill vacancies for members and alternate members for the following Cambridge Neighborhood Conservation District (NCD) Commissions: Avon Hill, Half Crown-Marsh, and Mid Cambridge. Homeowners and renters alike are welcome!

Apply here: https://cambridgema.iqm2.com/Citizens/Board/Vacant. Read on for more information.

A mansard style single family residence at 41 Gibson St, situated within the Half Crown-Marsh Neighborhood Conservation District

What is a Neighborhood Conservation District?

Neighborhood Conservation Districts were established by city ordinance in 1983. Conservation district designation recognizes a distinctive physical environment that reflects the architectural, cultural, political, economic, or social history of the city. NCDs foster wider public knowledge and appreciation of such neighborhoods. Designation encourages the conservation and maintenance of these areas so that the city may be a more attractive and desirable place in which to live and work.

Ware Hall, an historic residential apartment building at 383 Harvard St, situated within the Mid Cambridge Neighborhood Conservation District

Each NCD commission includes five members and three alternates. Most members must reside in the respective district; renters, as well as homeowners, are encouraged to apply.

More information is available through the following links: 

Mid Cambridge NCD: cambridgema.gov/midcambridgencd

Avon Hill NCD: cambridgema.gov/avonhillncd

Half Crown-Marsh NCD: cambridgema.gov/halfcrownmarshncd

What are the Membership/Meeting Expectations?

The volunteer commissions meet monthly and are supported by the professional staff of the Cambridge Historical Commission. Applicants should have knowledge and concern for improvement, conservation, and enhancement of the district. The composition of each Commission shall represent the diversity of the designated neighborhood in terms of age, race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, and property ownership or tenancy.

Who Should Apply?

Individuals interested in being considered should apply through the city’s online application system at https://cambridgema.iqm2.com/Citizens/Board/Vacant and select the respective commission.  A cover letter and resumé or summary of applicable experience can be submitted during the online application process.

Questions?

If you have questions about the application process or need assistance, please contact the City Manager’s Office at 617.349.4300 or boardsandcommissions@cambridgema.gov.

For general questions, please contact our office at histcomm@cambridgema.gov or 617.349.4683

A street view of colorful Victorian-style houses with a clear blue sky, featuring a 'One Way' sign and parked cars along the brick-paved road.
View of houses along Lancaster St, situated within the Avon Hill Neighborhood Conservation District

The Story of an Ordinary House: 91-93 Windsor Street

Posted on by cambridgehistoricalcommission
91-93 Windsor St in December 1937. Cambridge Historical Commission photo. Cambridge Photo Morgue Collection.
Detail of Atlas of the City of Cambridge, Massachusetts (Philadelphia : G.W. Bromley & Co., 1894) showing the location of 91-93 Windsor St.

This is the story of an ordinary house that was demolished. For 59 of the 105 years that this house stood at 91-93 Windsor Street on the corner of School Street, it was owned and lived in by Richard Beckett and/or his descendants. His is an interesting immigrant story…but let’s start at the beginning:

The land on which 91-93 Windsor Street was built in 1836 was originally part of the estate of Spencer Phipps (1635-1757), who was Lieutenant Governor and Commander in Chief “in and over his Majesty’s Province of the Massachusetts Bay in New-England” from 1732 to his death in 1757.

In 1793, Andrew Boardman IV (1745-1817) (later known as Bordman) inherited a portion of the Phipps estate upon the death of his mother, Sarah Phipps. In 1801, he and others laid out Windsor Street through his estate. This was followed in 1803 by surveying building lots in the area west of Windsor St and south Harvard St. (Andrew Bordman also donated the land for the school named after him, located on the opposite corner of School and Windsor Streets. The name of the street was originally spelled “Winsor;” it was not until around 1841 that the spelling changed to Windsor.)

View of the Boardman School building (built 1868) at 105 Windsor Street as photographed by Richard CHeek in July 1968. Cambridge Historical Commission photo.

Subsequently, Josiah Wellington Cook (1805-1891) acquired the land, and in 1836 built this house. Meant as an investment rental property, it was a simple vernacular wood frame double house, with two front doors centered, and a side gable roof with slight returning eves. At the time of its construction, the house was in a working-class neighborhood.

Josiah Cook was in the grocery business until he was elected a director and secretary of the Cambridge Mutual Fire Insurance Company, later becoming president. (The Cambridge Mutual Fire Insurance Company building, built in 1888, still stands in Central Square on the corner of Mass Ave and Inman St.) Cook was a member of the Cambridge Anti-Slavery Society, served as Deputy Sheriff, City Marshall, Assessor of Cambridge, and was a Justice of the Peace for Middlesex County. He is buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery, in Lot #2050 Honeysuckle Path.

The Cambridge Chronicle April 1, 1847

Cook owned the building at 91-93 Windsor St until at least 1847. By 1852, it was owned by Charles Hancock, a carpenter who was later partner in the Hancock & Greeley Company, lumber dealers and carpenters. Hancock later dissolved his relationship with Greeley and by 1879 was in the real estate and insurance business, providing “special attention…to collecting rents and the care of Real Estate.” (The Cambridge Chronicle September 10, 1881)

In 1873, the double house was owned by Daniel Gregory Stone, a box-maker who died in 1876 at the age of 55. His wife, Lucy A. (Parker) Stone, was the administrator for her husband’s estate. Following Lucy’s death in 1882, Richard Beckett purchased the property from George A. Parker for $1400 (George’s relation to Lucy A. Parker is unclear). Beckett’s life is interesting as it exemplifies the classic entrepreneurial immigrant success story.

Richard Beckett was born in Tyrone County Ireland in 1833. He was just 18 when he emigrated to the U. S. in 1851. In 1853, he married Ann McClean (1830 Ire. – 1891 Cambridge). Just six years later in 1857 at the age of 24, he became a naturalized citizen and bought his first property at the corner of Eliot Street and Brighton Ave (now called JFK Street) near Harvard Square. Beckett is listed on the deed as a “laborer.” He and his family lived there from 1875-1877. The building was originally a schoolhouse on Garden Street, subsequently moved to Eliot St. Beckett built a brick foundation and added a second story with a French roof.

Detail: Atlas of the City of Cambridge, Middlesex Co., Massachusetts (G.M. Hopkins & Co., 1873) showing the location of Richard Beckett’s property near Harvard Square

Beckett worked at the Cambridge Gas Co. for 40 years – rising to the rank of “supervisory foreman” by 1880. Just nine years after arriving in the U. S., the census of 1860 lists Beckett’s worth as $1000, and by 1870 it was $2800. By 1886, he owned a total of four adjoining buildings along Brighton Ave.

Detail: Atlas of the City of Cambridge, Massachusetts (G.M. Hopkins & Co., 1886) showing the location of Richard Beckett’s property near Harvard Square

Beckett’s next purchase, in 1875, was a brick townhouse at 11 Broadway. Moving in with his family in 1878, he lived there until his wife’s death and his own, both occurring in 1891. In addition to working for the gas company, the City Directory of 1885 listed Beckett as a purveyor of “liquors, Wines, Etc.”

11 Broadway storefront at center as photographed on December 10, 1899. These buildings were razed in 1935. Cambridge Historical Commission photo.
Detail of Atlas of the City of Cambridge, Massachusetts (Philadelphia : G.W. Bromley & Co., 1894) showing Richard Beckett’s property at 11 Broadway

At his death, Beckett’s three properties (28 Boylston, 11 Broadway, and 91-93 Windsor St) were bequeathed to his heirs. His daughter Annie Maria (1859-1936) lived at 91-93 for 30 years, from 1916 until her death in 1936. In 1879, she married cabinet maker James Edwin Stewart Sr. (1862 Canada -1910 Worcester, MA). Edwin emigrated from New Brunswick, Canada in 1872 and petitioned for citizenship in 1888. The couple lived at Annie’s father’s property at 11 Broadway, where the Stewarts raised their four daughters and two boys until James’s Stewart’s Sr. death in 1910. Both are buried in the Cambridge Cemetery.

Portrait of Anne Maria “Annie” (Beckett) Stewart via FindAGrave. Photo added by David M. Carrig.
Portrait of James Edwin Stewart via Ancestry. Photo uploaded by user cw_cook.

James Stewart appears in an amusing anecdote in The Cambridge Chronicle (January 14, 1905) about the thousands of households permitted to raise chickens in Cambridge. He was listed as having 12 chickens on his property at 11 Broadway.

James Stewart died in 1910 and was only 48 years old at the time. His death may have occurred under tragic circumstances, as it was recorded at the state hospital in Worcester, known as the Worcester Asylum for the mentally ill. Their eldest son was by that time out of the house, but Annie was left to raise the remaining children on her own.

Two years after her husband’s death in 1912, a notice ran in The Cambridge Tribune advertising a public auction of the “Stewart Estate,” comprised of the three properties owned by Richard Beckett. The lots were referred to as the Stewart Estate because they had been passed down to Anna Marie Stewart, daughter of Richard Beckett. In the notice, 91-93 Windsor St is described as a “Double frame dwelling with small barn in rear, about 3,274 feet of land; Assessed Valuation, $3,000.”

The Cambridge Chronicle April 27, 1912

The 1920 Census shows Annie carried a mortgage on 91-93 Windsor; by 1930 she owned it free and clear. Annie’s daughter Ruth lived in the building from 1914-1915, and again after her marriage to Herbert E. Adams, a Chauffer, from 1928-1941.

Others who had lived at #91 included:
1904-1912: Joseph and Helen Marsh. Joseph was foundryman/mechanic
1910: Charles E. Kelley, building mover
1913: Edward A. Gorvina, Driver
1918-21: Mrs. Helen Blanche

Occupants at #93 next door included:
1905 -1906: John W. Green, Tailor
1907 -1911: Mrs. Margaret Gunning, groceries
1911 – 1917: Bernard T. Phelan, Teamster and Mrs. Isabella Phelan, Grocer
1913: Charles H. Burns, Clerk and William J. Burns, laborer
1913: Mr. John C. Phelan, clerk, and Mrs. C. Shaughnessy, Baker
1915-1916: Edward L. Powers, Clerk
1918 -1920: Frank (a driver) and Hattie Fleet
1921: Thomas S. Graney, Laborer, and his wife Sarah.
1925-: Paterson, John (a painter) and Agnes Paterson, along with George K. Paterson, a coremaker
1930: Arthur Villemaire, Chauffer

The Final Act

In 1941, Annie Stewart’s heirs sold the property to Paul Rudak, who razed it, and built a new store on the property. In 1950, Paul Gauthier opened “Paul’s Grocery” on the corner. In 1979, the Gauthier family bought the property, and it became the famed Newtowne Variety until it closed in 2016.

The Cambridge Chronicle March 16, 1950
David Gauthier, Burt Gauthier, and John Gauthier, pictured left to right, are the three brothers who ran Newtowne Variety in The Port. Photo courtesy of Wicked Local

In 2004, the Cambridge Historical Commission awarded the Newtowne Variety store a Certificate of Merit “for their contribution to the streetscape and respectful treatment of historic aspects of the building.” After the Newtowne Variety store closed, the property was purchased by “Windsor Ninety Three LLC” and later occupied for a short time by cafe Brew on the Grid. By 2025, the property sold again to Windsor Units LLC for $1,270,000. As of December 2025, 93 Windsor Street is an empty storefront.

Then…and now…

Exterior of a closed coffee shop 'brew on the grid' with brown awning, windows covered in paper, and a parking meter out front.

Today’s post was written by Kathleen M. Fox

Sources
Ancestry.com
Bunting, Bainbridge and Robert Nylander Survey of Architectural History in Cambridge: Old Cambridge (1973).
Cambridge City Directories
Cambridge Historical Commission
Cambridge Public Library’s Historic Cambridge Newspaper Collection
Hail, Christopher. Buildings and Architects of Cambridge
Library of Congress
Paige Lucius R. History of Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1630-1877, with a Genealogical Register
Boston 1877, H. O. Houghton and company; New York, Hurd and Houghton
Middlesex South Registry of Deeds
Wikitree

“The Magic Incubator”: MIT Building 20 (1943-1998)

Posted on by cambridgehistoricalcommission
Building 20 – MIT – from blimp – Aug. 1945. Courtesy MIT Museum.

MIT’s Building 20 was built at 18 Vassar Street in 1943 as part of the war effort to improve existing radar capabilities. In 1940, the National Defense Research Committee (NDRC) appointed the president of MIT, Karl T. Compton, to head up special research projects to advance the development of what turned out to be “micro-wave” radar. Given the size of the project, Compton quickly realized MIT needed a new building to accommodate the task at hand—hence: Building 20. The administration and business affairs of the work done there were handled by MIT, but its funding and research agenda were determined by the NDRC.

Building 20 was erected in only six months. Since war-time steel production was limited to use for armaments, the building was constructed of wood and built like a three-story barracks. It had five wings: the “B” wing was parallel to Vassar Street, while the A, C, D and E wings extended perpendicularly towards the central MIT campus. The roof was flat, the shingles were asbestos (a product not yet firmly considered toxic), and the windows were stacked hoppers. Because it was considered a temporary building, Building 20 was also built without the need to adhere to some of the usual building constraints of the time, like prevailing fire codes. After the war, the MIT Acoustics Lab was attached to the C wing. At the time of its demolition in 1998, Building 20 and its additions had a combined floor area of approximately 222,000 square feet.

Detail of Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Cambridge, Middlesex County, Massachusetts. 1950. Sanborn Map Company via Library of Congress. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gmd/g3764cm.g03701195001.

The main event when the building was completed was housing the “Radiation Laboratory” or “Rad Lab,” a somewhat vague name intentionally chosen to conceal its true operations: developing microwave radar to improve the accuracy of bombing. Once this new technology was ready for action, the urgency of this need caused the Rad Lab to start manually building “blind bombing sets” in Building 20 until industrial manufactures could gear up to produce them in large quantities.

Radio Frequency (Group 53), MIT Radiation Laboratory. Image courtesy Jewish Women’s Archive via Wikimedia Commons.

Other inventions included “… airborne bombing radars, shipboard search radars, harbor and coastal defense radars, gun-laying radars, ground-controlled approach radars for aircraft blind landing, interrogate-friend-or-foe beacon systems, and the long-range navigation (LORAN) system. Some of the most critical contributions of the Radiation Laboratory were the microwave early-warning (MEW) radars, which effectively nullified the V-1 threat to London, and air-to-surface vessel (ASV) radars, which turned the tide on the U-boat threat.” (MIT Radiation Laboratory)

According to The Cambridge Chronicle (August 16, 1945) the real purpose of Building 20 was made public just a half hour after Truman announced the surrender of Japan:

In 1998, the year the building was to be demolished, The New York Times ran an article called “Last Rites for a ‘Plywood Palace’ That Was a Rock of Science,” which stated that the building was home “for almost 4,000 researchers in 20 disciplines. At one time, more than 20 percent of the physicists in the United States (including nine Nobel Prize winners) had worked in that building.”

What made Building 20 such a hotbed of creative innovation?

It all had to do with what biologist Stuart Kauffman [not at MIT] called “the adjacent possible.” His description of the term perfectly describes Building 20: “…its physical and social environment continually expanded the realm of what was thinkable and doable. Its open, makeshift design and its mix of disciplines made it easier for researchers to stumble upon the next possible thing that hadn’t yet been imagined. The proximity of minds from different domains allowed ideas to leap boundaries and merge into novel possibilities, showing that innovation is less a flash of genius and more a product of evolving connections in the right conditions.”

Those who worked in Building 20 agreed: 

“It turned out to be absolutely perfect for research…you can knock down a wall, you can punch out a ceiling, and you could get space. In academics, space is everything.” (Morris Halle, Professor of Linguistics in “A Building with Soul” by Alex Beam, The Boston Globe, June 29, 1988).

Interior image of Building 20. Courtesy MIT Museum.

“Life in Building 20 was homey with a family-like atmosphere. Any excuse would serve for having a party. People ignored the shabbiness and dirt because the atmosphere encouraged creativity and the exchange of ideas.” (RLE Undercurrents, Vol. 9, no. 2, Fall 1997)

“People got together and shared ideas without worrying who you were.”

“It was so informal nobody considered rank or previous training.”

“…it was so easy to build experiments there – pull wires, bolt things to walls, come and go at any hour.”

It was unpretentious in all aspects.

A hallway in Building 20. Courtesy MIT Museum.

A 1945 statement by the Department of Defense noted that the research in the Rad Lab “pushed research in this field ahead by at least 25 normal peacetime years.” (“Building 20: What Made It So Special and Why It Will (probably) Never Exist Again.”)

Among those working in the building during the war years were:

  • Jerome Wiesner: worked on microwave radar, later at Los Alamos National Laboratory, later chairman of President Kennedy’s Science Advisory Committee (PSAC), and later President of MIT
  • Amar Bose: his invention of improved loudspeakers led to the founding of the Bose company
  • Leo Beranek: an acoustical engineer, who went on to found Bolt, Beranek & Newman
Site visit to Building 20, MIT. Photographed by Charles M. Sullivan. 1998. https://cdash.cambridgema.gov/s/cdash/item/136333.

Building 20 After the War

After WWII some programs closed down, opening up space for other projects. While scientific research continued, over time a myriad of “non science” programs like linguistics, history, arts, music, and student affairs also occupied space in the building, further adding to its quirky allure. The list below is far from inclusive but serves to convey the range of programs that shared the space.

  • Department of Linguistics and Philosophy. In 1976, Morris Halle and Noam Chomsky, pioneers in linguistics research, together founded the MIT Linguistics program
  • Jerome Lettvin, cognitive scientist and Professor of Electrical and Bioengineering and Communications Physiology
  • MIT Dean of Humanities Office
  • History of Science and Technology Program, including Elting Morrison, historian of technology, and founder of the Science, Technology, and Society program
  • Anthropology section of the Humanities Department
  • Music Department
  • MIT Electronic Research Society (MITRE)
  • Research Lab of Electronics Photography: Harold “Doc” Edgerton who developed stroboscopic, stop-action photography, including the famous milk drop “Considered one of the most important photographs of all time.”
Milk Drop Coronet, photographed by Harold Eugene Edgerton. 1957. Courtesy MIT Museum. https://mitmuseum.mit.edu/collections/object/HEE-NC-57001.
  • MIT Council on Arts
  • The Atomic Energy Commission, Cambridge Office
  • MIT-Wellesley Upward Bound Program
  • Model Railroad Club
  • ROTC: Army, Air Force, Navy
  • Biotechnology Process Engineering Center
  • Center for Space Research, Gravity & Cosmology
  • The Institute for Learning and Teaching
  • Graphic Arts
  • Biologic Process Engineering Center
  • Center for Materials Research in Anthropology & Ethnology
  • Center for Environmental Health Sciences

The Denouement of Building 20 

Building 20 finally reached the end of the road in 1998. Having outlived its original planned lifespan by decades, by any standard Building 20 was a ramshackle place. The Cambridge Historical Commission initially advocated for giving the building protected status. However, after hearings on the subject, the Commission, noting the comprehensive history of the building maintained by MIT and the fact that it no longer could support “modern science and engineering,” gave MIT permission to raze the building.

MIT Building 20 being demolished. Courtesy City of Sound blog. https://cityofsound.com/2004/06/23/designing-adaptability-into-mit/.

Building 20 was replaced by the Ray and Maria Stata Center (Building 32), designed by Frank Ghery. It opened in 2004.

MIT’s Stata Center photographed July 31, 2004 by User:Raul654 via Wikimedia Commons.
Building 20 along Vassar Street framed with wood recovered from flooring of the demolished building. Private collection.

The frame for the photo above was made with wood of floorboards from Building 20. The name carved into the bottom of the frame, Parker & Stearns, was a lumber company in Johnson, VT and is presumed to have provided lumber for the building’s construction.

The MIT Building 20 Time Capsule is located the Stata Center, part of an exhibit dedicated to Building 20 and the Rad Lab. The capsule is to be opened in 2053, 55 years after Building 20 was demolished. Perched on top of the box holding the time capsule is another relic from the war research: a SCR-615B Radar Antenna.

Designers and builders of the Building 20 Time Capsule (left to right): Tanisha Lloyd, Sonia Tulyani, and their UROP supervisor, Professor J. Francis Reinties, 1999. Courtesy MIT Museum.
Rad Lab Exhibit, Stata Center, MIT. Image courtesy S. N. Johnson-Roehr. https://astronomy.snjr.net/blog/?p=559.

Today’s post was written by Kathleen Fox

Sources

Adams, Steve. “The Hottest Property: MIT’s Building 20.” Banker & Tradesman. Sept 11, 2022. https://bankerandtradesman.com/the-hottest-property-mits-building-20/.

Beam, Alex. “A Building with Soul.” The Boston Globe. June 29, 1988.

“Building 20 at MIT Innovation Story: A humble wartime lab that sparked a legacy of innovation and collaboration.” https://conversational-leadership.net/mit-building-20/.

“Building 20: The Magical Incubator 1943 – 1998.” https://web.mit.edu/fnl/vol/104/Bldg20.html.

Cambridge Historical Commission Architectural Survey file for Building 20: https://cdash.cambridgema.gov/s/cdash/item/136317.

Campbell, Robert. “The End of the ‘Magic Incubator’.” The Boston Globe. June 5, 1998.

“Celebrating the History of Building 20.” https://wayback.archive-it.org/7963/20190701202448/https://libraries.mit.edu/archives/mithistory/building20/.

Garfinkel, Simson. “Building 20: A Survey.” https://ic.media.mit.edu/projects/JBW/ARTICLES/SIMSONG.HTM.

Halle, Morris. “Rooms to Grow In.” Preservation, Vol. 51 No. 5, September-October, 1999. https://web.mit.edu/morrishalle/pubworks/papers/1999_Halle_Rooms_to_grow_in.pdf.

MIT Distinctive Collections. https://libraries.mit.edu/distinctive-collections/.

“MIT Radiation Laboratory.” Lincoln Laboratory, MIT. https://www.ll.mit.edu/about/history/mit-radiation-laboratory.

Subject summary for objects: Building 20. MIT Museum. https://mitmuseum.mit.edu/collections/subject/building-20-37.

Happy Women’s History Month!

Posted on by cambridgehistoricalcommission

Every March, Women’s History Month invites us to pause and look at the people that built our communities. Some of the stories are well‑known—names etched into monuments or printed in textbooks. But many others, often those of women, live quietly in the margins: teachers who shaped generations, activists who pushed for justice, artists who reimagined the world, caregivers who held neighborhoods together. These women influenced Cambridge in a myriad of ways, yet for centuries their contributions were scattered, forgotten, or never recorded at all.

The Cambridge Women’s Heritage Project (CWHP) was created to change that. It is, at its heart, a restoration project—not of buildings, but of remembrance. This effort seeks to bring women’s contributions into focus, ensuring that they are included in city’s rich history.

Dr. Ruth Marguerite Easterling
Pathologist, first African American woman admitted to Tufts Medical School

The project began in 1996, sparked by a community effort to honor writer May Sarton with a memorial at the Cambridge Public Library. What started as a single tribute quickly revealed a larger truth: Cambridge history was rich with women whose stories deserved recognition. That realization grew into a city‑supported initiative to document women’s lives from Cambridge’s founding in 1630 to the present day.

Today, the CWHP is a living, evolving archive. Volunteers, historians, and community members work together to research and write biographies of Cambridge women and women’s organizations. Some entries are detailed portraits; others are fragments waiting to be expanded. To date, more than 900 women and groups have been nominated, and the project continues to grow as new stories surface.

Flyer for Bread and Roses Restaurant
Gourmet vegetarian restaurant and center for feminism (1974-1978)

The work is meticulous and often challenging. Many women left few written records, and their contributions were not always preserved in traditional archives. The CWHP addresses this by gathering information from published sources, obituaries, local history collections, and community submissions. Each entry is carefully edited, fact‑checked, and organized so that future researchers, students, and residents can explore the city’s history through a more inclusive lens.

But the project is more than a database. It is also a catalyst for public engagement. Over the years, the CWHP has hosted International Women’s Day celebrations, walking tours, lectures, and other programs that bring women’s history into the public square. It invites the community to participate—by nominating women, sharing photographs, offering corrections, or volunteering to help with research.

Helen Wendler Markham (born Helen Wendler Deane)
Biologist, histochemist, humanitarian

The CWHP was created as a joint project of the Cambridge Commission on the Status of Women and the Cambridge Historical Commission and relies on volunteers from the community to keep growing. The mission is both simple and profound: to celebrate the women of Cambridge, to preserve their stories, and to ensure that future generations can see themselves reflected in the city’s past.

During Women’s History Month, the project feels especially resonant. It reminds us that history is not fixed; it is something we build, revise, and enrich. We invite you to follow us on social media as we highlight a selection of these individuals and organizations where the stories of women—long overlooked—are finally being given the visibility and honor they deserve.

Visit the Cambridge Women’s Heritage Project database:
https://cwhp.cambridgema.gov/

Follow the Cambridge Historical Commission on social media:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cambridgehistoricalcommission/
WordPress blog: https://cambridgehistoricalcommission.blog/

Reminder: Submit Your Preservation Awards Nominations!

Posted on by cambridgehistoricalcommission

Each year, the Cambridge Historical Commission honors projects that have made outstanding contributions to the preservation of the city’s historic character and built environment. The 2026 Preservation Awards will recognize individuals and organizations for projects completed within the last year. The awards will be announced and presented at a ceremony in late May or early June 2026.

2025 Preservation Award winner Edward & Julia Joyce three-family, 95 Fayerweather Street (1910). In 1991, this building was redeveloped by Homeowner’s Rehab as limited equity condos for moderate-income homeowners. After a few decades the building began to deteriorate. Just-A-Start came in with a home improvement program and utilized Community Preservation Act funds from the Cambridge Historical Commission’s grant program as well as their own assistance to redevelop and restore this house.

Seven project categories are eligible for Preservation Awards: restoration, rehabilitation, adaptive use, neighborhood conservation, landscape preservation, archaeology, and education. The award-winning projects will be selected based on the following:

  • historical and architectural significance of the preserved property;
  • exceptional quality of the project;
  • extent to which the project contributed to the preservation of the property; and
  • impact of the project on the preservation of the city’s historic resources.
2025 Preservation Award winner First Baptist Church, now Central Square Church, 5 Magazine Street (1881). For many years the building suffered from an inability to address deferred maintenance issues. For this project, masonry was restored, clock faces were repaired, and the bell deck has been sealed and reroofed. Now the church continues to be a landmark of Central Square.
Before and after images of Central Square Church roof repairs
Before and after images of Central Square Church masonry repairs

To nominate a project, including your own, please submit a completed nomination form and supporting documentation by Noon on Friday, March 13, 2026 to:

Cambridge Historical Commission
831 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139

Or electronically to: histcomm@cambridgema.gov

All submitted materials become the property of the Cambridge Historical Commission and will not be returned.

For more information on the Cambridge Preservation Awards, or if you have questions regarding the nomination form, please contact the Commission.

Telephone: 617 349 4683 | Email: histcomm@cambridgema.gov

URL:  https://www.cambridgema.gov/historic/aboutchc/preservationawards