The Fresh Pond Hotel was built in 1796 on the bluff overlooking the pond on eight acres of land that Jacob Wyeth had purchased from his father, Ebenezer Wyeth.
By the early 1790’s the West Boston Bridge and the Concord Turnpike had made the area attractive to wealthy Bostonians escaping heat and crowds in the city, and Jacob Wyeth’s hotel became a popular resort. Wyeth hired the architects Joseph Moore and John Walton to design the hotel building in the Federal style, which was later updated to the newly popular Greek Revival style.
Other factors contributing to the hotel’s success were “the building of Mount Auburn Cemetery and Watertown Branch Railroad (which brought people directly to Fresh Pond). It wasn’t long before the Hotel became a buzzing social center. It gave people a place to escape the city heat in the summer and offered fishing, fowling, sailing, rowing, bowling, fine dining with wines and other alcohols, and an orchestra for dancing.”
When, in the 1880s, the hotel was refused a liquor license, business began a downhill slide which lead to its closing. In 1885, the property was sold to the Sisters of St. Joseph who converted the building for their convent.
In 1892 the former hotel/convent went up for auction and was bought by John E. Perry, a Cambridge Alderman. He moved the building to 234 Lakeview Avenue, where it was converted to apartments. Although the exterior clapboards were replaced by stucco, the interior space retains much of its original detail. It is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Today’s post was written by CHC volunteer Kathleen Fox.
Sources
“Inside the Architecture: Fresh Pond Hotel” by NeighborMedia Archive.
https://www.cctvcambridge.org/node/614987.
Building Old Cambridge, Susan E. Maycock and Charles M. Sullivan, Cambridge Historical Commission. MIT Press 2016.
