Category: Uncategorized

Today we’re featuring 383 Broadway in Mid Cambridge. The original house on the lot was built by John J. Bright, a founder of the Boston Ice Company, who lived there until 1911 when he moved to Brookline. Bright’s mansion was demolished in 1917.

The present house at 383 Broadway was built in 1922 and designed by the Cambridge architect Edward Graham. One of Graham’s first major commissions was the 1907 Shoe and Leather Exposition Building near Kendall Square, which contained the largest auditorium in New England. During his long career, Graham designed a number of institutional and ecclesiastical buildings such as the Lincoln School, St. Mary’s Hall on Prospect Street, St. Mary’s School on Essex Street, and the Nurses’ Home at Cambridge Hospital. Other residences by the designer include 16 Francis Street, 61 Fayette Street, and Jefferson Park apartments.

Graham designed the house Drs. Herbert and Anastasia Cronin and their two children and included an office and work space. Herbert was a physician and treated Cambridge municipal employees under the Workingmen’s Compensation Act; he was also the factory physician for Boston Woven Hose and Rubber Company. Anastasia, a graduate of Tufts Dental School, practiced dentistry in Inman Square and specialized in orthodontia. She was also the dentist at the Women’s Reformatory in Sherborn (now MCI-Framingham). Their house included a separate entrance on Maple Avenue that led directly to Herbert’s first floor office and waiting room. On the second floor Anastasia had her own lab room for her dentistry work. The Colonial Revival-style house features a hipped roof, narrow cornice, wood clapboard siding (now aluminum siding), and a prominent central entrance. 

Anastasia tragically died from an illness soon after they moved into the house. At about the same time, Herbert lost his eyesight and could no longer perform surgeries. He later married Dr. Elizabeth Ann Sullivan, a friend of Anastasia’s who also worked at the Reformatory. She persuaded Herbert to become a psychiatrist and helped him with his training to become certified. They continued to live at 383 Broadway and maintain their practices on site. Elizabeth also devoted herself to helping those in need. She employed women newly released from the Reformatory at her home to help them get a fresh start and volunteered as physician at The Cambridge Homes for Aged People located across the street from the house. In the 1930s Elizabeth provided free medical care to women who had emigrated to the city from Austria and Germany and helped them navigate their new lives. Her children remember that a Linzer torte was delivered to her every Christmas as a thank you from the women she helped. Elizabeth also directed the Cambridge chapter of the Red Cross and opened the Red Cross Central Square unit for blood donations during WWII. Elizabeth passed away in 1955, and Herbert followed four years later.

The house was later home to Anna and Wiktor Weintraub, Polish refugees who arrived in the U.S. in the mid-1950s. During WWII, Anna, a doctor, had been the director of the Polish Hospital in Jerusalem. Wiktor served the Polish Government-in-Exile as information officer in its embassies in Moscow, Jerusalem, and London.  Wiktor was a historian who specialized in the history of Polish literature and taught Slavic studies at Harvard; in 1971 he became the Alfred Jurzykowski Professor Emeritus of Polish Language and Literature. Anna died in 1967, and Wiktor married the scholar Maria Evelina Zoltowska in 1974. On Wiktor’s death in 1988, the New York Times noted his accomplishments as a prolific writer in both English and Polish. His last book, The Poet and the Prophet, was published in 1982.

Cambridge Historical Society, https://cambridgehistory.org/research/did-you-know/elizabeth-ann-sullivan-m-d/

Dr. Anastasia Cronin, Cambridge Chronicle, January 5, 1924.

Dr. Herbert Cronin, Cambridge Chronicle, May 13, 1916.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiktor_Weintraub

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1988/07/16/044288.html?pageNumber=33

https://ruj.uj.edu.pl/xmlui/bitstream/handle/item/11040/pietrzyk_wiktor_weintraub_1908-1988_2014.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

Today we are profiling the former Holy Ghost Hospital at 1575 Cambridge Street — later Youville Hospital, and now the Spaulding Hospital for Continuing Medical Care Cambridge, a multi-building campus, part of the Spaulding Rehabilitation Network.

The Holy Ghost Hospital for Incurables was established around 1893-1894 by Cambridge’s Reverend Thomas Scully and the Sisters of Charity of Montreal (the “Grey Nuns”), an order founded by St. Marguerite d’Youville in 1737. The hospital was founded on St. Marguerite’s vision to care for patients “regardless of their race, religion, or ability to pay,” along with the Reverend Scully’s dream of a hospital that would serve those with chronic illness and disabilities. 

Scully chose the name Holy Ghost after the Sancto Spiritu Hospital in Rome, which he had visited as a student in that city.  Scully deeded six acres of land for the new hospital at Cambridge Street and Hovey Avenue, previously the Hovey estate.

In 1894 the hospital welcomed their first patient to their first facility, a partially completed 24-bed “cottage” designed by W.H. and J.A. McGinty. In this first year, the Grey Nuns cared for 12 patients at a time.   In 1895 construction began on a 75-bed, four-story brick and stone building to replace the cottage (the cottage was razed in 1949). Officially dedicated in 1898, the new building was U-shaped with a projecting center pavilion, and featured quoins, window surrounds, and trim in Indiana limestone. It also featured a chapel, which until the early 2000s held regular Mass for its patients. 

A prospectus of 1896 in “The Catholic Church of New England” reads that the hospital site is:

“happily located on Cambridge Street, in the very heart of Cambridge, and contains about 6 acres of beautiful land, upon which are many handsome elm trees, which add greatly to the scenery…The main building will be of brick, with stone and terra cotta trimmings, and slated roof, and will be fireproof, and in every respect modern. In this building will be the reception rooms, dispensary, rooms for medical staff and chaplain, and other offices. The administration building, with its adjoining wards, will be built well back toward the rear of the lot…leaving the open space in front of the administration building for drives, walks, lawns, fountains, and flowers.”

Multiple additions were made to the hospital campus over the years, including a carriage shed and stable in 1901 and 1903; nurses dormitory in 1905; balconies in 1911; hospital laundry and a five-story addition in 1924; a west wing in 1927, which would add 90 patient beds; and many additions and alterations between 1941 and 1997, including a new nurses dormitory and an east wing. These later additions would obscure the original building and today it is hard to imagine the original structures.

The hospital was active during major health emergencies in Cambridge, including the 1918-1919 Influenza epidemic.

The CHC holds a small collection of photographs from the family of Claire Lawrence Levesque, a nurse’s aide at Holy Ghost Hospital during the 1920s and 1930s. Not much is known about Levesque’s time at the hospital, but her photos give a personal glimpse into life there in the 1920s (most of the photos are before the addition of the new wing in 1926-1927). 

In 1947 the hospital opened a cancer research unit, and in 1952 they opened an inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation unit. In 1953 Dr. Charles Bonner joined the hospital staff as a cancer researcher with an interest in rehabilitation. Bonner, a former Boston University School of Medicine professor, was also one of the first African-American graduates of the school, and he would become a leader in the rehabilitation field.

In 1959 the Cardinal Cushing Rehabilitation Center opened at the hospital, and in 1970 the hospital joined the Covenant Health Systems and was re-dedicated as Youville Hospital & Rehabilitation Center, a 305-bed care facility for elders and those in need of rehabilitation. 

In 2001 Youville Hospital joined with Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, and in 2009 Spaulding purchased Youville, officially changing the hospital’s name to Spaulding Hospital Cambridge.  Today, in addition to their site in Cambridge, Spaulding Hospital has sites in Brighton, Medford, Malden, Boston, and beyond. Their Cambridge location continues to serve as a certified long-term acute care hospital and an outpatient rehabilitation center. They are the home of innovative research programs of the Spaulding Rehabilitation Network, including the Cardiovascular Research Lab, Exercise for Persons with Disabilities (ExPD), the Spaulding National Running Center, and the INSPIRE Lab for Sensorimotor Rehabilitation & Engineering Technologies. The campus also includes Youville House at 1573 Cambridge St, an assisted living residence established in 1998.

In December 2020, the City of Cambridge announced that they would be leasing space at Spaulding Hospital for the new Transition Wellness Center (TWC), a temporary (24 months) 58-bed emergency homeless shelter for adults who test negative for COVID-19. Residents from the shelter at the War Memorial Recreation Center would be transitioned to TWC. The City-funded TWC is located on the first and second floors of the east wing of Spaulding, which were previously vacant (the rest of this wing has been used largely for equipment storage rather than patient care for many years).  In the beginning of the pandemic in March, Spaulding’s fourth floor of this building also served as a recovery center for COVID-19 patients. 

For more information on the evolution of the hospital over the years, including a historical pamphlet and photographs, please contact us at chcarchives@cambridgema.gov.

Sources:

CHC survey file, 1575 Cambridge Street

“Celebrating the Generations 1895-1995,” Youville Hospital & Rehabilitation Center pamphlet, CHC Library.

Boston’s Hidden Sacred Spaces: http://www.hiddensacredspaces.org/spaulding-rehabilitation-hospital-chapel-and-meditation-room-cambridge

Spaulding Hospital: https://spauldingrehab.org/locations/cambridge-continuing-medical-care 

This text was adapted from our Instagram post on 10/14/2020.

Did you know that Sennott Park (Broadway and Norfolk Street) is located on the site of the former Cambridgeport Burial Ground? This has also been referred to as the Broadway Cemetery and Ward II Burial Ground.

The burial ground was active from 1811/1812 to about 1865. At the time of the its establishment, Cambridgeport was being settled as a district of the city, with the hope of eventually incorporating as a separate city (!). With this in mind, Cambridgeport citizens laid out a town center between Norfolk and Columbia streets, with the burial ground adjacent. 

In 1846, the superintendent of the grounds, Daniel Stone, reported that since its opening there had been an estimated 2500-2600 burials and 30 tombs that were taken up by two or more families. The burial ground was discontinued after 1865, and the graves were excavated and the remains transferred to the present Cambridge Cemetery or to another cemetery selected by the family of the deceased. 

By the 1870s, the area had been landscaped as a public square and renamed Broadway Park. It was re-landscaped in 1894 by the Olmsted firm, and renamed Edward J. Sennott Park in 1939 after a late City Councillor.

The park was redesigned in 1969 as part of the Model Cities program and again in the early 1970s. It remains a highly active public park, and the City has plans to make repairs and modest improvements to the park beginning in spring 2021 (according to their last website update).

The Cambridge Historical Commission has two original plot maps of the burial ground from the Engineering Department, shown below.

The image above is a plot plan for the “Strangers’ Lot,” so-called because this large lot in the northwest corner of the grounds was “reserved for the burial of paupers and strangers” (Lucius Paige, History of Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1630-1877). Superintendent Stone reported that the lot had been buried over “and commenced the second time” by 1846. Stone also wrote that during a Strangers’ Lot burial in 1826, diggers came upon “an ancient Indian fireplace… . That part of town being, according to appearance, formerly a great place for Indian resort.”

The second image, above, is dated 1902 and depicts the then-remaining plots in the “Central Passage” of the burial ground.

You will see names crossed off in both of these plot maps. We speculate that this was done as remains were transferred to other cemeteries in the years after 1865; the same may have happened after the second redesign in 1894. 

It seems that not enough care was taken during the initial process of transferring remains–over the years headstones have been found in house foundations around the neighborhood, and in 1970 fragmentary human remains were discovered at the site of a playground under construction on the park.

For information on other cemeteries in Cambridge, including research on the Old Burying Ground in Harvard Square, check out an earlier post here.

 The United States entered the Great War on April 6, 1917. Thousands of Americans were trained and sent overseas, where they mixed with military personnel and civilians from Europe, Africa, and western Asia, creating an ideal environment for the spread of influenza. The first wave of the epidemic struck Europe in the spring of 1918. Demobilized servicemen carried the disease back to Boston, where the deadly second wave began in early September.

Hundreds of sailors in training at the Navy’s Harvard Radio School were billeted in college halls and in temporary barracks on Cambridge Common; they mingled freely with locals and went on day trips to nearby tourist spots. On September 8, alarmed by the high number of cases, Navy medical personnel placed the school under a 10-day quarantine. By then the epidemic had spread into civilian Cambridge.

Mayor Edward Quinn vowed to turn the city into a “disease fighting machine.” City schools were closed–“some 3,400 students were reported ill … nearly a quarter of the total enrollment” (Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the 1918-1919 Influenza Epidemic, http://www.influenzaarchive/org). Church services and lodge meetings were banned and soda fountains, ice cream parlors, pool rooms, bowling alleys, billiard halls, and public auction rooms shuttered. Everyone wore masks.

There was a city-wide shortage of doctors, nurses, and hospital beds; cases multiplied too quickly to count. District and Visiting Nurses were dispatched wherever needed; residents “offered their automobiles and services as operators to get them about. During the next five weeks, from September 25, [the nurses] made 2,527 calls.”

On September 27, the Board of Health declared a public emergency, which enabled them to commandeer the Merrill School and convert it, room by room, into an emergency hospital for the seriously ill. Initially, no “nurses or doctors could be found in the usual way and we had to depend on volunteers. It is greatly to the credit of many married women who had been trained in hospital, and to the schoolteachers unoccupied … who cheerfully volunteered their services [and] gave up their homes to assist in this emergency. Others who could not do nursing volunteered for other duty [such as clerks, organizers, and supply managers] and the firemen also gave their days off to assist as the hospital.”

By early October every classroom was in use and every bed (more than 105) occupied. The Massachusetts State Guard erected a dozen tents in the school yard, and influenza patients who had developed pneumonia were moved there.

The Red Cross supplied beds, linens, towels, and surgical aprons and donated “all food which may be needed for patients and nurses and again all medicines and drugs.” Navy physicians served with doctors from other parts of the country that had been dispatched to Cambridge by the state health department.

Cambridge citizens rallied, including Mr. J. Frank Facey, chair of the Committee on Public Safety, who neglected his own printing business to arrange transport for people and supplies, including food stuffs. The Cambridge Neighborhood House on Moore Street became a food distribution center, and Alice Moore, the head worker, supplied soups wherever needed.

By mid-October, the peak of the epidemic had passed. The city lifted the ban on meetings and allowed shops to reopen. The outdoor camp at Merrill was dismantled, although the hospital remained open until November 6. Schools resumed on October 28. From October 4 through the end of 1918, 3,014 cases of influenza were reported; by the end of February 1919, Cambridge had lost 688 residents to influenza and to flu complicated by pneumonia.

On November 11, 1918, the Great War came to an end, and Cambridge celebrated.

Wild and Hilarious Scenes Enacted on Monday on Receipt of News of the Signing of the Armistice

From the early 1800s to the 1940s a botanical garden occupied 7 acres at the corner of Linnaean and Garden streets. Now the site of an apartment complex aptly named Botanic Gardens, Harvard Botanic Garden was one of the earliest botanical gardens in the United States comprising plants from around the world as well as indigenous trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants that were considered “worthy of attention, as being useful in domestic economy, in the arts, or in medicine.” [1] It is also associated with Asa Gray (1810-1888), a prominent botanist, educator, and writer known for his work to help unify the taxonomic knowledge of plants in North America.

The only remaining evidence of the botanic garden landscape are several specimen trees including, among others, ginkgo (Gingko biloba), American persimmon (Diospyrus virginiana), amur cork tree (Philodendron Amurense), tea crabapple (Malus hupehensis), and pagoda tree (Styphnolobium japonicum). The history of Harvard Botanic Garden is complex and associated with numerous individuals who have contributed to the science of botany. This post offers a glimpse into the history of the landscape itself that was not only a center of academic study and research but also a popular public green space.

The layout of the garden was conceived by Gabriel Thouin, a landscape designer and gardener at the Jardins des Plantes in Paris. William Dandridge Peck, the first professor of natural history at Harvard and charged with starting the botanical garden, met with Thouin on his tour of Europe’s gardens. The resulting scheme consisted of concentric planting beds radiating out from a central pool. The design was later modified to work with the site’s topography, creating formal display beds in the southern portion and locating utilitarian functions to the north, with buildings and greenhouses situated on a terrace overlooking the garden. Peck supervised the construction of the garden and oversaw its management until his untimely death in 1822. Thomas Nuttall, an English naturalist and explorer, then served as curator until 1834 when he resigned to go on an expedition along the Oregon Trail.

In 1842, Asa Gray was appointed the Fisher Professorship of Natural History chair and oversaw the botanic garden. Gray appealed to his American colleagues to send him seeds and specimens from all over North America to grow at the garden and exchange them with European botanists. During his tenure, a new greenhouse and conservatory were constructed as well as a building to house the herbarium he was organizing. In 1871, Gray inaugurated the first Harvard Summer School course with instruction in botany in order to take advantage of the climate to study plants outside. Summer classes in natural history, chemistry, and geology soon followed, and continue today.

Gray retired in 1872 from teaching and managing the botanic garden to focus on his work at the herbarium. That same year the culture of woody plants was transferred to the newly established Arnold Arboretum in Jamaica Plain. Harvard appointed Charles Sprague Sargent, a botanist and graduate of Harvard, as Director of both the botanic garden and the arboretum. At the botanic garden he continued specimen exchanges, overseeing the garden’s upkeep, and providing plants for the botany classes. In 1876, due to the limited amount of space, Sargent received approval from the College to plant a small arboretum on the grounds around the Harvard Observatory, located across Garden Street, featuring a representative collection of mostly North American species. Sargent still planted specimen trees within the garden to test their hardiness such as American beech (Fagus grandifolia), European beech (Fagus sylvatica), tulip (Liriodendron sp.), cucumber tree (Magnolia acuminata), black walnut (Juglans nigra), butternut (Juglans cinereal), cork elm (Ulmus thomasii), and a variety of maple trees. He also oversaw the installation of a large collection of ferns in the western portion of the site.

As new plants were being introduced into the garden, duplicate trees and shrubs were removed to make more room available. Existing plots were cleared, graded, and laid out in a series of long and narrow beds lined with grass paths. Labeled plantings were organized in botanical order according to a prescribed plan. The ground under the shade of large trees was used for rockeries for spring plants that would bloom before the trees were fully leaved and created too much shade. There were two small ponds for the cultivation of aquatics, and a spring at the corner of Linnaean and Garden Street served as a drinking fountain and provided moisture to a bog garden beside it.

Although the garden was primarily devoted to scientific plant displays, exhibits were created to appeal to the general public, including one display featuring plants referenced in Shakespeare’s works. Other beds displayed native plants that flourished during the time of Harvard’s founding, and another bed featured plants mentioned in poems by Virgil.

George Goodale, who succeeded Sargent in 1879, created an exhibit of economic plants, such as those utilized for textiles, dyes, tanning materials, and drugs. Additional trees were distributed throughout the grounds at this time including Austrian pine (Pinus nigra), tulip (Liriodendron tulipifera), American beech (Fagus grandifolia), and yellowwood (Cladrastis kentukea).

Alterations in the garden in the early 1890s included filling in the large water lily pond near Raymond Street because the water level could no longer be maintained after the construction of a sewer. Some of the original greenhouses were also replaced with a new iron-frame greenhouse. Plants for botany classes at Radcliffe were now being cultivated at the garden, and Cambridge public schools were invited to use plants from the garden for their classes.

In the early 1900s, plant displays along the embankment below the terrace contained white arabis (Arabis caucasica), phlox (Phlox paniculata), English daisies (Bellis perennis), grape hyacinths (Muscari armeniacum), saxifrage (Saxafraga tridactylites), dog-tooth violets (Erythronium dens-canis), yellow daffodils (Narcissus), and a variety of tulips imported from Holland. Landscape architecture students were offered opportunities to gain practical experience by designing planting plans for discrete areas of the garden that were installed by garden staff. In 1910, the Garden House was sold and moved to 88 Garden Street.

In 1917, the border below the terrace was replanted to illustrate the Engler system of plant taxonomy for botany classes. During World War I, residents installed vegetable gardens under the guidance of the head gardener on land adjoining the botanic garden. A model vegetable garden was also installed on the grounds of the botanic garden near the greenhouses for residents to study and imitate.

In 1923, Stephen F. Hamblin, an assistant professor of landscape architecture and horticulture instructor at Harvard, was appointed Director of the garden. The university also formed a visiting committee to plan for the potential use of the garden as a testing ground for all hardy herbs suitable for culture in the region. The collection had 2,000 species, and the committee sought to increase the number to 6,000 and grow 1,000 annuals as well.

Hamblin proposed modifying the grounds utilizing existing trees and shrubs as a background for the herb plantings or provide shade to those in need of it. He also suggested planting annuals in the beds around the central lily pond, installing orchids and ferns in the shade of a large group of trees, planting lilies in a “wild garden” arrangement under tall trees, and placing irises in a long border below the terrace. Additional proposed elements included breeding of new varieties and hybrids of herbs, breeding hardy rose varieties, and planting of American wildflowers.

Unfortunately, Hamblin was not able to fully realize his ambitious plan. In 1929, Harvard’s administration decided that due to chronic inadequate funding, the botanic garden would cease to function as an ornamental horticulture display area and focus solely on scientific study. Harvard President A. Lawrence Lowell later announced that the management of the botanic garden would be transferred to the Botany Department and he named professor Robert H. Woodworth as Hamblin’s replacement. Hamblin went on to establish and oversee the Lexington Botanic Garden in Massachusetts. Plant collections deemed no longer relevant at the botanic garden were transferred to Lexington, including a rose collection with the understanding that should the Arnold Arboretum start to cultivate roses, cuttings would be provided. In addition, beds west of the herbarium containing the collection of the American Iris Society were cleared after specimens were taken by the Society or transferred to Lexington.

The continued lack of funds and gardening staff also resulted in neglected grounds that were no longer a desirable place to visit. Although the greenhouses were still used to provide plant material for classrooms and research, they were in such a state of disrepair that it was decided to remove them and transfer selected plant material to other facilities. Outdoor plants continued to be maintained for experimental plantings. Prior to demolition, a large shipment of living plants was shipped to the Atkins Institute in Cuba. Remaining plant material was transferred to greenhouses at Harvard’s Biological Laboratory and the Bussey Institution. Other stock was presented to the Massachusetts State College, the Boston Teachers College, Wellesley College, and Boston Parks Department.

In 1937, Harvard collaborated with the Herb Society of America to plant an herb garden on the site of the demolished greenhouse complex, highlighting plants adaptable to New England conditions. The garden staff would care for the collection, but development would be sponsored by the Society. Initially, an evergreen hedge was planted, and a brick retaining wall and paths were constructed. Fourteen planting beds were laid out, and a wrought iron armillary sphere[2] on a brick pedestal was placed in the center. Three benches, each flanked by four-foot rosemary bushes, were installed along with four large flowering trees. Beds were then filled with herbs donated by members of the New England Group of the Herb Society of America.

In 1945, the City of Cambridge considered acquiring the botanic garden site through imminent domain to construct temporary housing for returning veterans. In response, rare plant species were transferred to the Arnold Arboretum. The City did not follow through, but the Director of the garden at the time, Elmer Merrill, suggested that the property be sold or used by Harvard to develop a housing program. Harvard did not reach a decision until 1948, when the demand for housing became acute. The university proceeded to construct new residences on the botanic garden site for faculty as well as returning servicemen consisting of 117 single-family, duplex, and apartment units and was completed in 1949. Today, the landscape of the Botanic Gardens Apartments still features some wonderful and unusual mature specimen trees from its storied past.

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[1] William Dandridge Peck, A Catalog of American and Foreign Plants Cultivated in the Botanic Garden, Cambridge, Massachusetts, (Cambridge, MA: Hilliard & Metcalf, 1818), introductory page.

[2] model of objects in the sky consisting of a spherical framework of rings, centered on Earth or the Sun, that represent lines of celestial longitude and latitude and other astronomically important features

For additional information, please see resources below:

“The Botanic Garden,” Cambridge Chronicle, Volume XI, Number 44, November 1, 1856.

“New Building at the Botanic Garden,” Cambridge Chronicle, April 2, 1864.

“Harvard Botanic Garden, A Beautiful Home of Floriculture Open to the Public,” Cambridge Chronicle, March 30, 1878.

Gamwell, Edward F. “The Harvard Botanical Garden,” Cambridge Chronicle, June 17, 1898.

“Harvard Botanic Garden,” Cambridge Chronicle, May 14, 1904.

Thomas, Richard. “Remember A Lost Garden.” Cambridge Chronicle, Volume 154, No. 47, September 27, 2000.

Goodale, George Lincoln. “The Botanic Garden at Cambridge.” The Harvard Register, Vol.1, no. 1, Cambridge, MA: Moses King, 1881.

Goodwin, Joan W. “A Kind of Botanic Mania.” Arnoldia, Vol. 56, n. 5, 1996-97, pp. 17-24.

Graustein, Jeannette E. “Natural History at Harvard College, 1788-1842.” Proceedings of the Cambridge Historical Society, Volume 38, 1959-1960.

Hamblin, Stephen F. “In Cause of Horticulture, Botanic Garden of Harvard Performs Valuable Public Service.” Parks and Recreation, Vol. VIII, No. 1, The Institute at Minot, SD: September – October, 1924.

Hamblin, Stephen F. “Plan for Harvard Botanic Garden.” Landscape Architecture Magazine, American Society of Landscape Architects, Vol. 14, No. 3, April 1924, pp. 180-185.

Hammond, Charles A. “The Botanic Garden in Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1805-1834.” The Herbarist, Volume 53 (1987), Concord, MA: The Herb Society of America.

Harvard University Catalog, 1903-1904. Cambridge, MA: published by the University.

Ingersoll, Ernest. “Harvard’s Botanic Gardens and Its Botanists.” Century City Magazine, Vol. XXXII, No. 2, June 1886.

Peck, William Dandridge. A Catalog of American and Foreign Plants Cultivated in the Botanic Garden, Cambridge Massachusetts. Cambridge, MA: Hilliard & Metcalfe for University Press, 1818.

The Mitchell Family of Nantucket

In celebration of Preservation Month, Preservation Massachusetts has announced fourteen projects that will receive grants for exterior restoration of their historic properties. The Maria Mitchell Association, which owns and operates the 1790 Maria Mitchell House on Nantucket, was awarded an $8,250 grant. The house has been a museum since 1903.

Maria Mitchell (1818-1889) was the third of ten children, half girls, half boys. Her sister Phebe, ten years her junior, lived and worked in Cambridge. Maria was America’s first professional female astronomer. The Mitchell house website, https://www.mariamitchell.org, has more information on the family and a wonderful collection of photographs.

Phebe Mitchell

Phebe Mitchell was born on Nantucket on February 23, 1828, into a Quaker family. William and Lydia (Coleman) Mitchell believed in equality in education, and all the children (Phebe was the seventh of ten) were educated in public schools and at home.

Lydia Mitchell was a librarian and often brought books home for the family to read. Phebe described her mother as:

a woman of strong character, very dignified, honest almost to an
extreme. … She … kept a close watch over her children, was clear-
headed … and an indefatigable worker. It was she who looked out
for the education of the children and saw what their capacities were.

Her father, “a man of great suavity and gentleness,” was a teacher, a banker, and a well-known amateur astronomer.

For almost twenty-five years Mr. Mitchell was the cashier at Nantucket’s Pacific National Bank, where he kept a suite of rooms in which the family occasionally lived. He constructed a small observatory on the bank’s flat roof, and everyone took part in watching the sky and calculating complex astronomical formulae. One night in 1847, Maria (allegedly escaping a dull dinner party) went up to look at the stars and discovered a comet, “Miss Mitchell’s comet.”

Phebe and Joshua Kendall

Phebe Mitchell and Joshua Kendall were married on Nantucket on September 14, 1854; the groom had been born in Cambridge in 1828 and graduated from Harvard College in 1853. The couple moved to Meadville, Pennsylvania, where Joshua served as the second president of Meadville Theological Seminary, which was then a Unitarian institution. Their only child, William Manning,, was born in 1856 when Joshua was the master of a private school in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts. In 1860 he became the chief academic officer, or principal, of the Rhode Island State Normal School, then in Bristol; the 1860 census records Joshua, Phebe, and four-year-old Willie living in a boarding house. The state cut back funding for the school, and it was forced to close in 1864.

Joshua moved his family to Cambridge, bought the house at 123 Inman Street, and opened Kendall’s Day and Family School, a private preparatory school for boys, at 13 Appian Way. In 1906 the family took up room in the school.

The 1878 Total Eclipse of the Sun

Phebe and her sister Maria, who had become Vassar College’s first astronomy professor in 1865, visited frequently and wrote often; the three Kendalls and Maria travelled together in Europe four times in the early 1870s. In 1878 Maria invited Phebe to come with her to Colorado to observe a total eclipse of the sun that would be best viewed from sites along the spine of the Rocky Mountains, from southern Wyoming Territory through Colorado to Texas. Professor Mitchell, Mrs. Mitchell, four Vassar graduates, and their equipment traveled by train to Denver.

David Baron, a science journalist, chronicles the eclipse excitement that swept across the United States in American Eclipse: A Nation’s Epic Race to Catch the Shadow of the Moon and Win the Glory of the World (2017).

Astronomers and their assistants vied for the best viewing spots. The Mitchell crew arrived at their site with little time to spare.

 

Maria Mitchell chose for her observation post … a hill on the edge
of [Denver], just beyond the reach of suburban development. …
Once there, the Vassar party had no time to make elaborate
preparations. The women set out wooden chairs, erected a small
tent for shade, and mounted their three telescopes on tall tripods. (Mitchell had  brought … the same telescope she had used … to
discover her famous comet.) The view east offered an endless,
empty expanse of plains. To the west lay Denver and the Rockies
behind it. Immediately to the south sat a three-story brick building topped by a gabled roof and an ornate cross. It was St. Joseph’s Home,
a Catholic hospital operated by the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth, Kansas. The nuns, … spying the astronomers in dresses, came over to tea.

Maria Mitchell, her crew, and their equipment. The individuals are not identified, but Phebe may be pictured. Photo courtesy Maria Mitchell Association.

The Cambridge School Committee

In 1879 the Massachusetts General Court enacted legislation giving women the right to vote in school committee elections. That year, Phebe Mitchell Kendall and Sarah Sprague Jacobs became the first women elected to the Cambridge School Committee. Mrs. Kendall served for fourteen years, advocating for equality of education in elementary schools. A longtime member of the Cambridge Women’s Suffrage League, she served as its president for many years. She resigned from the school committee in 1894 to concentrate on organizing and editing Maria’s personal papers. Maria Mitchell: Life, Letters and Journals was published in 1896.

 

Legacy

Phebe Mitchell Kendall died in June 1907. The Cambridge newspapers all published laudatory encomiums, including a letter in the Tribune from “one who knew her.”

 

 

Joshua Kendall died in February 1913. William Mitchell Kendall (Willie) enjoyed a successful career at the distinguished New York architectural firm, McKim, Mead & White.

In 1949, to meet the acute demand for housing, Harvard University constructed new residences for faculty as well as returning WWII servicemen. According to an article in the April 29, 1948 issue of the Cambridge Chronicle, the primary purpose of the new residences was “to reduce the pressure on Harvard faculty and families and on veterans living and working in the community.” Located at the corner of Linnaean and Garden streets, the site had been the University’s botanic garden and herbarium under the direction of the botany department. In addition to its primary role as a scientific collection, the garden had also been a very popular public green space.

The planned community consisted of 117 single-family, duplex, and apartment units. The architects, Des Granges and Steffian, integrated their plan with the existing terrain and preserved landscape features where possible. Along the site’s northern boundary, single-family and semi-detached houses adjoined Gray Gardens East, while two-story buildings along Linnaean and Garden streets created a transition to the higher density three-story apartment blocks that occupied the center of the complex. Following old garden paths, two new streets were constructed for the development, both named after past curators of the herbarium, Benjamin Robinson and Merritt Fernald.

The multi-unit buildings were organized around courtyards incorporating existing mature trees. Due to the sloping site, three-story buildings transition to two stories on the south sides of the courtyards, so they receive ample sunlight even in winter. Mortared stone and concrete retaining walls and concrete steps negotiated levels within the varied topography. Buildings were constructed of red brick with flat roofs, simple squared-off cornices, and casement windows. The main entrances were designed as focal points with flat-roofed canopies below projecting two-story bay windows. More extensive use of glass flanking the entry door and extending up the bay windows was in contrast to the more austere and opaque brick facades.

In the 1990s, Blackstone Block Architects was commissioned to renovate the complex including  new accessible entrances, signage, outdoor seating, brick sidewalks along Fernald Drive, and new plantings.  The residences remain under Harvard University Housing.

Sources

Cambridge Chronicle, April 29, 1948.

Building Old Cambridge, Susan E. Maycock and Charles M. Sullivan, 2016.