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 Thorpe in 1850 in Oxford, New York. Her parents later moved to Madison, Wisconsin where her father became wealthy in the lumber business. 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 Thorpe 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. In 1879, the Thorpe parents, their son Joseph Jr., 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
In 1893 Sara attended the Parliament of Religions in Chicago where she met Swami Vivekananda, founder of the Vedanta philosophy. This encounter initiated her lifelong 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
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.
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 TheCambridge 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.”
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
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.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
“I don’t know what the business men are getting out of radio, but it is certainly a big force let loose in the world…I pass on where this game is leading us. I don’t believe that anybody knows where radio is headed to – it’s all an unknown quantity yet, and who will ultimately profit most, time will tell. I recon that the public will – – anyway it keeps us merchants pushe’d along, and we have to keep up with it.” (TheCambridge Tribune October 11, 1924).
In addition to Valentine’s Day, February 14 is also National Radio Day. And, since Harry Katz was a radio salesman extraordinaire in the early days of Cambridge radio and beyond, we thought we’d use this chance to say a few words about him.
But first – here are some Cambridge and Mass-related fun radio facts:
Marconi Beach on Cape Cod is named after Gugliemo Marconi, the Italian inventor of wireless radio. In 1903, Marconi famously transmitted the first transatlantic wireless communication between the U. S. and England from the cliffs overlooking this beach, which is now part of the National Park Service.
At the outset of WWI, Harvard provided the Navy free use of its Cruft High Tension Electrical Laboratory on Oxford Street for the Navy’s new School for Radio Electricians. “By early 1918, more than 5,000 Naval recruits had enrolled in the program and 400 new radio operators were graduating and entering military service each week.” (“Cruft Laboratory goes to war”)
Class operating in the radio room, April 1918. Photographer: Edwin Levick. U.S. Naval Radio School, Harvard University. Source: The U.S. National Archives.
The proliferation of commercial radio stations in the early 1920s led to the Radio Act of 1927 and the Federal Radio Commission, which established the first set of broadcasting regulations. Stations in the Boston area at that time included WNAC, WBZ (broadcasting from the Hotel Brunswick), WDBR (broadcasting from the Tremont Temple Baptist Church), WGBH (originally broadcasting from Fall River), WBZ, WEEI (licensed to the Edison Electric Illuminating Co. of Boston) and WRSC (broadcasting from the Hotel Bellevue).
In 1922, the MIT Radio Society “…announced that it will accept messages from any students at Technology for transmission free of charge to any part of the United States or the Hawaiian Islands.” (The Cambridge Tribune October 14, 1922)
Cambridge venues of all sorts were advertising radio concerts. Some included dancing. Even the Manhattan Market grocery store on Mass Ave hosted a series of radio concerts in their store. The store manager proclaimed: “This will enable many to have a first glowing experience with this new electrical wave marvel.” (for more about the Manhattan Market, see our blog post “Before Their Were Supermarkets”)
An item in TheCambridge Tribune (April 15, 1922) declared “$5,000,000 is spent weekly on radio. Already 75 broadcasting stations serve more than 600,000 radio operators through the country. Are our local electricians alive to possibilities?” Radio supply and service shops proliferated. Among them were:
The Cambridge Tribune April 29, 1922
The Cambridge Tribune February 25, 1922
The Cambridge Chronicle June 17, 1922
And then there was Harry Katz…
The Cambridge Sentinel July 6, 1929
The Cambridge Sentinel October 11, 1924: “Scene before the Harry Katz Radio Store in Central Square at an early morning hour when something colorful was happening in the Democratic Convention at Madison Square Garden in New York. A Radio Audience.”
The Chronicle reported that “Harry Katz has been giving ‘day and night’ service to the radio ‘fans’ during the national Democratic convention. He had a crowd about his store at all times when the convention was on, even when the final ballot was announced about 2.30 a. m. Wednesday morning.” (July 12, 1924)
In October, Katz tuned the radio and amplified the World Series games to the public. As TheCambridge Tribune reported under a headline “RADIO CROWDS JAM SIDEWALKS”: “it…kept the crowds spell-bound all through the week in front of the firm’s Central square store.” This was followed by his broadcast of the November 1924 election results:
The Cambridge Chronicle November 8, 1924
Of course, Harry’s speakers also relayed baseball games:
The Cambridge Tribune October 24, 1925
Harry Katz was born in Lborow, Austria in 1890. His family emigrated to the Boston in 1903 on the inaugural voyage of the White Star Line Ship Cretic. Harry was a savvy entrepreneur: in 1909, he was given a license for selling used clothes, and had started a bicycle repair business at 85 River Street:
The Cambridge Chronicle November 9, 1909
In 1912 he moved his bicycle business to 73 River St, where also serviced automobile tires “retiring” baby carriages to his services.
One of several footline advertisements that appeared in the 1916 Cambridge Directory
Finally, in 1917, he moved his radio and auto accessory business to 712 Mass Ave in Central Square, next to the Board of Trade building. This includes merchandise from his bike store in North Cambridge.
“Harry Katz of Central square likes to be first in everything. Julius Caesar was just the same way. Not content with being one of the first bicycle dealers on a large scale in Cambridge, and the very first auto accessory dealer in the city, added to being the pioneer radio man of the town, now he has opened the first super-service auto station on Brookline street…” (The Cambridge Sentinel July 26, 1929)
125 Brookline St, ca. 1929
Around 1932, Katz moved his entire operation from the 712 Mass Ave location to his 125 Brookline St service station. (For more about this location see our Instagram post on the former Katz Garage)
45 years before his death in 1972, The Cambridge Sentinel ran a remarkable encomium about Katz’ character:
“[Katz] is quiet, social, and sensible. His head for business has not hardened his heart. Those black eyes see more than a tactful tongue will talk about. He is Harry to a host of friends. People of the vinegar type are not saluted by their first names. It is a tribute to general worth, the mutual expression of familiarity with respect. It is the irresistible appeal of friendliness, the touch of nature, that makes the world kin, that explains the likableness of Harry Katz. He does not strain to please. He is more blunt than diplomatic in expressing what he thinks… Common sense is Harry Katz’s distinguishing train. It explains his quiet, thoughtful manner, his courtesy and amiability…For more years than he looks, Harry Katz has been and is a greatly respected personality in the business of Central square. In his modest way he has led organized trade in that busy section. This constitutes leadership, even if so modest a man would protest the claim. Most would be apt to ignore the denial. The facts to not sustain the objection.” (November 4, 1933)
Harry Katz died on August 2, 1972 at Brookline Hospital. He was 82 years old. The headline of his obituary sated that he “was in real estate here for many years.” Katz and his wife Annie Perlstein, who predeceased him, lived at 61 Austin Street in Cambridge. He left his daughter Gertrude [Katz] Kagan; and a sister, Sarah Kaufman. (The Cambridge Chronicle August 10, 1972)
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The advent of radio had an enormous impact on society, connecting the social fabric as never before. For the first time, people were united by hearing the news, election results, a baseball game, the local high school glee club, or a concert all simultaneously. Geography no longer mattered. As always, shared experiences of this kind informs how society in all its aspects evolves– reinforcing community engagement, shaping public opinion and politics, and bringing an enhanced knowledge of the wider world. The advent of television did the same thing, just as today the countless sources of information available on the internet continue to shape our society.
Today’s post was written by Kathleen Fox
SOURCES
Cambridge Historical Commission
Cambridge Public Library Historic Cambridge Newspaper Collection
Today we’re highlighting Roosevelt Weaver, an educator, activist, and voice for the people.
Roosevelt R. Weaver was born in Macon, Georgia in 1936. He obtained his degree in sociology after receiving a scholarship from Yankton College in South Dakota. During his time in undergrad, Weaver was a star athlete, earning accolades in track, football, and boxing. Following graduation, Weaver taught in the Atlanta public school system and served in the Peace Corps as well as the US Marines active reserves. While a Peace Corps volunteer from 1962-65, Weaver coached the Senegalese Olympic track team.
The Cambridge Chronicle, 18 May 1967
Weaver became the first Program Director at the Cambridge Community Center in 1965. Weaver was surprised to encounter in Cambridge the same racism he faced in southern states when he was refused multiple apartment rentals based on his ethnic background. Weaver resigned his position at the community center in 1967 to to become the Group Leader for Operation Crossroads Africa Inc.’s work in Cameroon. The project was designed to engage American and African college students through summer work projects. Weaver returned to Cambridge in 1968. He had earned his master’s degree in Urban Education from Simmons College and began pursuing his Doctor of Education degree at Harvard in 1969 while also teaching courses at Emerson College and Simmons.
Roosevelt Weaver photographed by Forman on April 8, 1970. Cambridge Photo Morgue Collection, Cambridge Historical Commission.
In 1970, following unrest and a sit-in at the Cambridge High and Latin School, administrators hired Weaver part time to head up a course titled “Black Experience.” What followed were several months of meetings, student discussions, and seminars focused on addressing racial tensions and demands of Black students who faced racism and objected to the white-centric coursework at CHL and Rindge Tech. That year, Weaver was chosen as an Outstanding Young Man of America and received an Alumnus of the Year award from his alma mater. Weaver served on numerous committees and boards, including the Cambridge Police Relations Council, tackling issues faced by the Black community in Cambridge. In 1971, he became the first black principal of Bernice A. Ray Elementary School in Hanover, NH. Weaver later moved to New Jersey to teach in the East Orange school system.
The Cambridge Black History Project in collaboration with the Cambridge Public Library invites you to come out and try your hand at editing and creating Wikipedia pagesrelated to Cambridge Black History!
When: Wednesday, February 25th from 5:30pm-8:30pm Where: Central Square Branch of the Cambridge Public Library (45 Pearl Street).
This event is free but registration is required. Please click HERE for more information and to register for the event. Once at the registration page click the blue “Begin Registration” button.
Barbara Ward Armstrong, a Cantabrigian and innovative artist whose life-sized African-inspired multi-textured fabric sculptures, called “soft sculptures,” redefined 20th century artforms.
All levels of experience are welcome! Join in on the fun and excitement of looking up information on Black Cantabrigians and beyond as we move to create Wikipedia pages that will highlight some local individuals. We will be adding to information on existing pages, creating new pages, finding reliable sources for others to use, and copyediting and formatting pages. The Central Square Branch offers resources from its Archives and Special Collections as well as its Black Voices Collections.
We are looking forward to seeing you on Wednesday, February 25 from 5:30pm – 8:30pm.
Access information:
The library’s accessible entrance is available from Martin Luther King, Jr. Plaza
Public transit: the library located 1 block from the Central MBTA Red Line station
Street parking (metered) is available near the library.
Garage parking (paid) is available in the Green Street Garage.
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 St. Augustine’s African Orthodox Church, 137 Allston Street (1886). Using Community Preservation Act funds paired with fundraising efforts, the congregation was able to secure a beautiful restoration of this important building, allowing this church to take on a new and vibrant life in Cambridgeport.
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 5-7 Irving Terrace (1888). Five condominium owners enthusiastically restored original clapboards, shingles, and woodwork, bringing the building back to like-new condition.
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
