February, 2020 - The Cambridge Historical Commission Blog

Aaron Molineaux Hewlett: Harvard’s First Gymnasium Professor

Posted on February 19, 2020July 16, 2021 by cambridgehistoricalcommission

Aaron Molineaux Hewlett (ca.1819-1871) was born in New York City to Isaac and Rachel Hewlett. As a young Black man in Brooklyn, Aaron worked as a barber and delivery man; between jobs, he frequented local sparring gyms, eventually earning a reputation as one of the best boxers in town. In 1854 he opened his own sparring academy, Molineaux House, at his residence and began instruction in the benefits of physical wellness. Hewlett, a respectable sparring master, despised prizefighting and always distanced himself from that association. (After his death, one of his sons wrote to a newspaper defending his father against the prize-fighting characterization)

Aaron Molyneaux Hewlett [photographic portrait], ca. 1860 — 1861 image of Aaron Molineaux Hewlett posing with medicine ball, dumbbells, boxing gloves, Indian clubs, and a wand. Photo courtesy of Harvard University Archives.

Aaron Hewlett married Virginia Josephine Lewis, herself a gymnast. Together they had at least seven children: Virginia, a suffragist who became the wife of Frederick Douglass Jr.; Emanuel, the first Black graduate of the Boston University School of Law and one of the first Black attorneys authorized to argue before the U.S. Supreme Court; Paul, a Shakespearian actor in Europe and the U.S., who brought his signature Othello to Boston; Aaron Jr.; Aaronella, who married Dr. Edward D. Scott of Washington, D.C.; Isaac; and Pocanontas, who died at the age of two.

In 1855 the family moved to Worcester, Massachusetts, where they opened a gymnasium, which coincided with the health and physical culture movement in urban areas of America. The movement saw middle-to-upper class whites fearing diseases and the belief that they were more harmful to those who were not physically and mentally fit. Health reformers urged many individuals to improve their bodies to battle the effects of “urbanization” and sedentary lifestyles as it was believed that less hard labor for the upper class made the body weaker. Also at this time, Harvard students complained to college administrators that they required a gymnasium near campus, as many students had been travelling to a few gymnasiums in Downtown Boston. Harvard College approved and constructed a gymnasium building at the intersection of Cambridge Street and Broadway (the current location of the Cambridge Fire Department HQ). Harvard hired Aaron Molineaux Hewlett as the college’s first physical fitness instructor.

Rogers Gymnasium_MFA Image — Rogers Gymnasium ca. 1861 courtesy of Museum of Fine Arts Collections. Photographer facing east, Cambridge Street at left and Broadway at right.

At Harvard, Hewlett was in charge of running the day-to-day gym activities along with coaching the sports teams (including rowing, baseball, gymnastics and boxing). He was photographed as a faculty member at least three times, being featured as the Director of the Harvard College Gymnasium from 1859 until his death in 1871. Molineaux was well-respected and within a couple years at Harvard, an article stating, “Athletics have come almost to rank with Mathematics [at Harvard]”. His amazing success story was notable to even Frederick Douglass, whos son married Molyneaux’s daughter. Douglass explained that Aaron Molineaux was still, in fact, a Black man in the United States and should remain vigilant in his success. Douglass offered a warning “Few of our race are appointed to honorable positions, and the few who do receive recognition of their qualifications are usually soon set upon by combinations of prejudiced men and gradually drawn into traps set for their destruction…Many attempts have been made by jealous persons to entrap him…but because Hewlett was a respectable gentleman and excellent instructor, he remained at Harvard” (“Death of Professor A. Molyneaux Hewlett”, New National Era, 14 December 1871).

Aaron Molineaux Hewlett_HU Fine Arts Archives — Aaron Molineaux Hewlett posing for staff photo. Undated. Courtesy of Harvard University Archives.

Besides running the Harvard College Gymnasium, Aaron Molineaux Hewlett used some of his $600 a year salary to open up a private gym with his wife Virginia in Harvard Square. An advertisement from 1861 notes that the new Cambridge Gymnasium would be run by “Madam Molineaux Hewlett”, and featured a men’s entrance on Palmer Street and a women’s entrance on Brattle Street. The gym charged $12 for a one year term, $8 for a six month term, or $5 for a three month term. Advertisements also state that two bowling alleys were connected to the building which were reserved in evenings for ladies, with a provision that men are not allowed to use the alleys at night unless accompanied by a lady. Additionally, Aaron was the co-owner of the Old Cambridge Clothing and Variety Store, a second-hand clothing store that also sold sporting goods, located in Harvard Square. He was also well-connected with other established Black citizens of Cambridge and served as a trustee of the Cambridge Land and Building Company, a group who provided home loans to African Americans in Cambridge who otherwise were not given service by white-run banks.

Estimated location of Molineaux’s Gymnasium at Brattle and Palmer Streets. Brattle Street facade. Boston Elevated Railway image ca. 1909.

Estimated location of Molineaux’s Gymnasium at right, viewed along Palmer Street facing Brattle. Boston Elevated Railway image ca. 1909.

1861 Advertisemtn for Cambridge Gymnasium. Original located in Harvard University Archives Biography Files.

Aaron Molineaux Hewlett, with his success, also bought a large Federal style home, which is located today at 69 Dunster Street in Harvard Square. After Aaron’s death in 1871, the home was owned by Aaron Molineaux Hewlett, Jr. who later moved back to New York. Virginia moved to Washington D.C. and stayed with her son Emanuel until her death 1882. The family home of the Hewlett’s is notably located across the street of the main Harvard Gym, the Malkin Athletic Center (built in 1930), allowing Professor Hewlett to continue to watch over the Harvard Gym and students to this day.

Dunster St 69 (1) — 69 Dunster Street, CHC photo 02-2020.

69 Dunster_1873 Map — 1873 Cambridge Hopkins Atlas, Aaron Molineaux Hewlett Jr. listed as owner two years after his father’s death.

50 Quincy Street – Swedenborg Chapel

Posted on February 7, 2020May 14, 2020 by cambridgehistoricalcommission

The following is an excerpt from Swedenborg Chapel Planning Study by Mark Careaga, AIA.

Quincy St 50 DSC_8865 — View of the Chapel from Kirkland Street, near the Quincy Street intersection. CHC Collection.

The Cambridge Society of the New Jerusalem – the formal name of the congregation that worships at Swedenborg Chapel – was formed in 1888. The following year, the New Church Theological School purchased the Treadwell-Sparks house at 48 Quincy Street, directly south of the site where the chapel would later be built in 1901. Named for Jared Sparks, professor of ancient and modern history and president of Harvard University (1849-53), the Treadwell-Sparks house would become the home for the theological school for nearly 70 years. Ten years after the school moved into Sparks House, planning commenced for the chapel, which would serve both the congregation and the school.(26)

chapel drawing — Original exterior details of the Chapel for the New Church Theological School by Warren, Smith and Biscoe Architects, ca. 1901. Cambridge Society of the New Jerusalem Archives.

warren sketch — Drawing of the Chapel by the architect, ca. 1900. CHC Collection.

The chapel’s architect was Herbert Langford Warren (1857-1917), a prominent Boston architect among whose many accomplishments include being a founder and president of the Society of Arts and Crafts, Boston. He was also the first “dean of the School of Architecture at Harvard, having taught there continuously since offering the first course in architecture in 1893.”(27) Warren was a lifelong practicing Swedenborgian, influenced by his father’s commitment to the faith. As an architect, Warren had distinct preferences for English styles,(29) which may stem from his roots (he was born, reared, and educated in Manchester, England (30), from Swedenborgianism’s roots (the church was founded in England in 1787 by devotees of Emanuel Swedenborg’s distinctive Christian theology (31), or both. The chapel’s design reflects the English gothic style consistent with Warren’s deeply felt affection for the medieval English parish church, which he expressed to his students in his lectures.

Below is a description of the Chapel published by the Cambridge Society of the New Jerusalem.

cambridge society desc full 2

chapel and sparks house — View of Sparks House to the right of the Chapel, later moved to Kirkland Street. Undated photograph, CHC Collection.

In the 1960s, the school decided to relocate to Newton, Massachusetts and sold the Sparks House property to Harvard. Given the historical significance of the house, Harvard relocated it a short distance away on Kirkland Street, where it remains today as the home for the minister of Harvard Memorial Church. As Robert Kiven observed in 1968, this was in fact the second time that Sparks House had been moved.(32) As City of Cambridge preservation planner Sally Zimmerman notes, “in 1901, the house was turned 90 degrees and moved south on its lot to make room for the chapel’s construction.”(33)

The New Church Theological School’s establishment at Sparks House marked the beginning of a century-long transformation of Quincy Street. Starting in the 1840s, Quincy Street began to unseat “Professor’s Row” (Kirkland Street) “as a prime residential location for those connected to [Harvard College], and it remained so up to the end of the nineteenth century, as a cosmopolitan group of noted academics settled along the street’s length.”(34) This can be seen in the 1865 map below, which shows five faculty houses on the west side of Quincy Street, in Harvard Yard, eventually replaced by expansion of academic facilities – in particular, Robinson Hall, Sever Hall, and Emerson Hall.

1865 map 2 — Map of Cambridge from 1865 showing faculty housing on Quincy Street. The Chapel would be built where “Prof Lovering” is located, just below “Kirkland St.” City of Cambridge GIS.

1916 Bromley map 3 — Map from 1916 showing the Church of the New Jerusalem, now known as the Swedenborg Chapel. Bromley 1916 atlas, CHC Collection.

The transformation began with the Fogg Museum, designed by architects Coolidge, Shepley, Bullfinch, and Abbott of Boston and built in 1927, taking over 28-36 Quincy Street. In 1963, the Le Corbusier-designed Carpenter Center was completed, with its iconic ramp structurally integrated with a basement library book-stacks facility that was added to the back of the Fogg in 1961 to expand the Fine Arts Library.(35) In 1963, the Minoru Yamasaki-designed William James Hall was completed to house Harvard’s Department of Psychology, which William James was instrumental in establishing.(36) James’ father, Henry James, Sr., was deeply influenced by the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg.(37) Six years later work began at 48 Quincy Street to construct Gund Hall for the Harvard Graduate School of Design (“GSD”), bringing the school that Herbert Langford Warren had founded in the late 1800s directly next door to the chapel he designed for his fellow Swedenborgians and affiliated theological school. Lastly, the Sackler Museum was constructed in 1985, replacing the 1951 Allston Burr Lecture Hall,(38) an outdated science building that had supplanted two smaller residential buildings for Harvard College.

View of lancet window with hand carved detailing. Photo courtesy of M. Careaga.

By the time it relocated to Newton in the 1960s, the New Church Theological School had changed its name to the Swedenborg School of Religion (SSR), and the school constructed an annex on the north side of the chapel, facing Kirkland Street. Designed by Cambridge architect Arthur Brooks, it provided fellowship space and other ancillary functions to support the Cambridge Society congregation, which continued to hold services at the chapel after the school’s departure. By the late 1990s, SSR announced its intentions to sell the chapel property to raise much-needed capital to support its operations. Concerned about the potential loss of a significant work of architecture, the local community and the Cambridge Historical Commission lobbied successfully to obtain City of Cambridge landmark status for the chapel in 1999, paving the way for the Massachusetts New Church Union and the Cambridge Society of the New Jerusalem to purchase the property from SSR in 2001. The chapel site is the only parcel of land that the university does not own on the city block bounded by Quincy Street, Kirkland Street, Sumner Road, and Cambridge Street. Regardless of its status as private property separate from the university, the chapel and its land are intimately connected to Harvard, woven into the physical fabric of the university’s campus as well as through the intersecting histories of Harvard University and the Cambridge Society of the New Jerusalem.

View of reredos and alter. Photo courtesy of M. Careaga.

Today, along with its own congregation, the Swedenborg Chapel hosts two other worshipping communities as well as a monthly Taize candlelight service.

Mark Careaga is Principal and Founder of Mark Careaga Architect LLC, in Cambridge MA. He can be found online at http://www.mcarq.co and on Twitter and Instagram @mcarqco

References

26. Maureen Meister, Architecture and the Arts and Crafts Movement in Boston: Harvard’s H. Langford Warren (Lebanon, NH: University Press of New England, 2003), 110.
27. Meister, 1.
28. Meister, 7-8.
29. cf. Meister, 5, 110.
30. Meister, 8.
31. Meister, 8.
32. Robert H. Kiven, “Letter from the Editor,” The Messenger 188, no.10 (October 1968): 142-143.
34. Sally Zimmerman, “Church of the New Jerusalem / Swedenborg Chapel, 50 Quincy Street, Landmark Designation Study Report,” prepared for the Cambridge Historical Commission, March 5, 1999, 8. This report can be accessed online at: https://www.cambridgema.gov/~/media/Files/historicalcommission/pdf/Landmark_reports/lm_quincy_50.pdf.
35. Zimmerman, “Landmark Designation Study Report,” 8.

36. Natalie Moravek, “William James Hall,” in “William James’ Cambridge,” website designed and hosted by the Cambridge Historical Society, accessed February 7, 2019, https://cambridgehistory.org/james/James 5.html.
37. “Famous Swedenborgians,” part of the website of the Swedenborgian Church of North America, accessed February 7, 2019, https://swedenborg.org/famous-swedenborgians/henry-james-sr/. The web page cites the following source: Alfred Halbegger, The Father: A Life of Henry James, Sr. (New York: Frrar, Straus and Giroux, 1994).
38. Susan E. Maycock and Charles M. Sullivan, Building Old Cambridge: Architecture and Development (Cambridge MA: The MIT Press, 2016), 817. Allston Burr was designed by architect Jean-Paul Carlihan of Coolidge, Shepley, Bullfinch & Abbott.

Torn Down Tuesday: 29 Concord Avenue

Posted on February 4, 2020February 4, 2020 by Meta Partenheimer

Summerhouse_lot_1842_1 — *A True Copy of a Plan of the “Summer House Lot” in Cambridge Belonging to Harvard College Made by Alex. Wadsworth, Surveyor*. 26 Dec 1842.

In 1849, Daniel Treadwell purchased from Harvard College a section of land from what was then known as the summerhouse lots. Treadwell married Adeline Lincoln of Hingham in 1831 and in 1834 was appointed Rumford Professor and Lecturer on the Application of Science to the Useful Arts at Harvard.

Three years later, Professor Treadwell supervised the construction of Gore Hall (now demolished) to house the Harvard Library and devised a method of heating that building.

Treadwell was best known as an inventor, first manufacturing wooden screws. He later devised improvements to the printing press and was the first in the United States to produce the a sheet of paper printed by machine rather than by hand.

Treadwell_memoir2 — Page from *Memoir of Daniel Treadwell*, illustrating Treadwell’s process on improving the printing press.

Treadwell’s travels to England in 1835 may have influenced his choice of the Regency style for his first home, built by William Saunders in 1838. This building still stands, though it was moved from 48 Quincy Street to 21 Kirkland Street, and is now the Harvard Sparks house.

Sparks St 21 — Sparks House (December 1964)

Treadwell sold this house in 1847, and in 1849 hired Saunders again to build the house at 29 Concord Avenue. Treadwell had purchased The following is a selection taken from Susan Maycock and Charles Sullivan’s Building Old Cambridge (2016)

A few houses built in Old Cambridge during the 1830s and ’40s followed a form of the Classical Revival style that was related to the English Regency period of the early 1800s. These flush-boarded houses had cube-like massing, low hip roofs, and broad pilasters without capitals repeated across the facade. The conservative, academic style was found primarily in the Boston area but also occasionally along the Maine coast…The earliest Cambridge example is the house that William Saunders built for Daniel Treadwell in 1838.

Concord Ave 29 — 29 Concord Ave photographed by D. Bradford Wetherell, Jr. (1953)

Treadwell lived in the house until his death in 1872, and it was then occupied by Judge Horatio G. Parker and later owned by George H. Abbott, who made significant renovations to the property, including a pitch roof, addition of a billiard parlor on the east side and new interior finishes. Various other occupants lived in the house until it was demolished in 1959 to make way for the Continental Terrace apartments. For more information on this new building, check out our Modern Monday post from January 27th!

Sources

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

CHC biographical files

CHC survey files

Wyman, Morrill. “Memoirs of Daniel Treadwell.” In Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, XI:334–35. Cambridge, Mass: John Wilson and Son, 1888.