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 3,000properties 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.
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 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.
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 CommonsAttribution 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).
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!
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:
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.
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…
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
