The CHC shares space at 831 Massachusetts Avenue at the corner of Bigelow Street in Cambridge with other city departments. Our neighbors include the IT Department, Inspectional Services, License Commission, and Weights and Measures, among others. However, this building was not built to house offices for the City of Cambridge.
In fact, the early history of this property indicates it was well-suited to medical professionals. It was originally the site of two Mansard houses; number 825, on the corner of Bigelow Street, built by soap manufacturer Franklin Brazier in 1869, and 837, built by Rev. Joseph W. Eaton in 1871. Both men had died by about 1875, and their houses soon proved attractive to medical doctors.
Dr. Augustus Clarke, an 1860 graduate of Brown University who served as a surgeon in the Civil War and was a pioneer in antiseptic surgery, occupied the corner house until his death in 1925. His daughters, Drs. Genevieve Clarke and Inez Louise Clarke, both Tufts Medical School graduates and gynecologists who practiced with him, remained in the house. After Genevieve died in 1930 Inez became a recluse. She allowed the building to decay, and died alone in 1942; her house was demolished in 1944.
Next door, 837 Massachusetts Avenue was the home and office of Canadian-born physician Dr. Joseph S. Lockhart. For a brief period, a relative of Dr. Lockhart’s, Dr. James Proctor Lockhart, a dentist and 1902 graduate of Tufts College, also lived and practiced in the house.
Joseph Lockhart continued his medical practice at 837 Massachusetts Avenue until his death on March 1st, 1927. Soon after, Dr. William C. Archibald moved into the house and opened his own practice. Dr. Archibald had also relocated to Cambridge from Canada just a few years prior and soon shared his office with Dr. Ralph Gross, a local dentist. The house was demolished in 1949 to make way for a brand-new medical facility.
Construction for the two-story cast stone building to be known as The Brusch Medical Center was commissioned by Dr. Joseph A. and Dr. Charles A. Brusch. Charles was John F. Kennedy’s doctor while he was a Massachusetts senator.
In the first week of October 1950, the Cambridge Chronicle reported that ground had been broken for the new center with final costs estimated at over $400,000. As you can see from the basement floor plan, there were rooms for physical therapy, soaking, cystoscopy, and radiography, among others.
Drs. Brusch were known for incorporating treatments that were thought of as revolutionary for the time such as prescribing herbal remedies and providing acupuncture. Dental offices were housed on the first floor, along with a fountain centerpiece.
In addition to several offices, treatment suites, and exam rooms, architect Edward T.P. Graham made plans for a pharmacy to be included on the first floor. The Medical Arts pharmacy was considered “outstanding” by some residents as it offered comfortable waiting room accommodations, such as rocking chairs and air conditioning.
The Brusch Medical Center closed in 1980 and the family sold the building to the Catholic Foreign Missionary Society of America (better known as the Maryknoll Fathers), which used it as a residence. The City of Cambridge acquired the building, along with the adjoining house at 8 Bigelow Street, in 1987 and renovated it for municipal offices. When it opened in 1988 it was named the Michael J. Lombardi Municipal Building after the former state representative who died in 1988.
Currently flanking the front entrance of our building are two lions that were carved by Cambridge sculptor Gaetano Schipilliti. According to our architectural inventory form for this address, the lions had previously been housed inside the building lobby.
If you would like to learn more about our building or research other buildings around Cambridge, please call us at 617.349.4683 or e-mail our archivist, Emily, at egonzalez@cambridgema.gov to make a research appointment.
A big thanks to CHC Executive Director Charles Sullivan for aiding in the research and composition of this blog post.
