Tag: advertisements

The Ashton Valve Company

Posted on by cambridgehistoricalcommission

Today’s post was written by guest author Rick Ashton and tells the story of the Ashton Valve Company, formerly located at 161 First Street, East Cambridge. 

The sound of a steam train whistle in the distance can stir your imagination. The Ashton Valve Company offered locomotive whistles in sizes up to 48″ tall. The beautiful brass gauges in the cab of a locomotive and the safety valves on the engine also could have been manufactured by Ashton Valve. For over 100 years the company was one of the leading manufacturers of railroad-related items.

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Courtesy Rick Ashton, https://newsm.org/manufacturers/ashton-valve-co/

One Ashton item was an innovation that saved lives. How? If the engine’s boiler happened to build up too much pressure, the Ashton “Pop” Safety Valve would activate or “pop” and let the excess steam blow off, preventing a possible boiler explosion. We have Henry G. Ashton to thank for that life-saving invention.

Henry G. Ashton was born in Norfolk, England in 1846 (Editor’s note: Henry G. Ashton is the great-great-grandfather of this post’s guest author, Rick Ashton). He attended public schools and took courses in mechanical engineering. In 1869 he arrived in Boston, Massachusetts with his wife Emma and infant son, Albert. He was first employed by the Hinkley Locomotive Works. In 1871 he invented his Lock-up “Pop” Safety Valve. It was the first effective safety valve to actually work and was an immediate success. He formed the Ashton’s Lock Safety Valve Company (Ashton Valve Company) and set up shop on Pearl Street in Boston with three other employees. In 1872 the company secured a contract with the United States Navy for safety valves, a contract they held for 76 years.

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Henry G. Ashton. Courtesy Rick Ashton.

The Great Boston Fire of 1872 destroyed the Pearl Street building, but the company persevered and by 1879 they relocated to 271 Franklin Street, a building they would occupy for 27 years. The building was four stories tall and business was so strong that in 1900 a fifth floor was added to keep up with the demand. In 1892 they purchased the Boston Steam Gauge company and began manufacturing steam gauges, a perfect compliment to the various steam related valves they were producing. The gauges were manufactured with the same assurance of quality as the valves were.

ashton_valvegauge_ad

After 24 years of managing the company, Henry Ashton, the company founder, died in 1895. His son Albert, who had attended engineering classes at MIT, took over many of the management responsibilities and ran the company for the next 27 years.

Ashton Valve outgrew the Franklin Street building and in 1907 they built a new facility at 161 First Street in East Cambridge. The building was 45,000 square feet and was built at a cost of $67,000. That’s $1,797,000 in 2018 dollars. A completely modern building, it had electricity on all floors and modern bathroom facilities. The building still stands today with the Ashton Valve name carved in granite over the front entrance.

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Credit: Cambridge Sentinel, 1921.

1-161First-StreetEXT.

Screenshot 2020-04-06 at 3.38.01 PM
161 First Street today. Credit: Google Maps.

By 1907 the company had sales offices all over the world. Ashton products were internationally known for their quality. As their advertisements stated, “higher in first cost but cheapest in the end.” The 1920’s and 1930’s were the peak years and the company employed up to 300 people. Their profits often were in the millions (in today’s dollars).

Ashton’s Railroad Division had been the backbone of the company since its inception in 1871 and was run as a separate entity until the 1950’s. They produced separate catalogs for the valves, whistles, and gauges used on trains. Some of the Ashton products produced for the train industry included: locomotive mufflers and open pop safety valves, steam gauges including the Ashton-Lane-Bourdon locomotive gauge, double spring steam locomotive gauges, duplex steam and heat gauges, air brake gauges, protected dial pressure gauges, air brake recording gauges, wheel press recording gauges, locomotive steam whistles and whistle valves.

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Ashton Valve pressure gauge, ca. 1923-1924. CHC Objects Collection. Photographed by John Dalterio.

With the advent of diesel locomotives, electricity, and gas engines, sales started to drop off in the late 1940’s. The peak years were over. In 1948 Ashton merged with the Crosby Valve and Gauge Company, but kept the Ashton name alive until sometime in the early 2000’s. Today one is liable to see the Ashton Valve name on gauges sold on eBay to collectors, and they demand a high price.

The next time you hear a train whistle in the distance, think of the Ashton Valve company – it could be an Ashton whistle!

 

Sources and Related Reading:

The Ashton Valve Company

https://steampunk-explorer.com/articles/family-history-steam

https://cambridgehistory.org/industry/ashtonvalve.html

https://www.steamlocomotive.com/appliances/safetyvalve.php

Torn Down Tuesday – Ivers & Pond Piano Company

Posted on by cambridgehistoricalcommission

Located on the corner of Main and Albany Streets in Cambridgeport, Ivers & Pond Piano Company was a preeminent manufacturer of grand and upright pianos known for their use of exotic woods such as mahogany and rosewood, and detailed cabinet work.

Illustration of factory. Cambridge Sentinel, Jan. 17, 1925.

William H. Ivers started the company in 1870 with a small factory in Dedham, MA, and ten years later he partnered with Handel Pond, a noted organist. Soon thereafter, the company decided to move manufacturing to a site in Cambridgeport adjacent to the railroad with plenty of land available for expansion. The first factory was constructed in 1881, consisting of a 5-story brick building with a flat roof. Two 6-story additions were built soon after in 1883 and 1886. The overall architecture was typical for the period with brick bearing wall facades and regularly spaced double hung windows. The only ornamentation occurs at the corner facing Main Street, where the façade projects outward from the main plane of the building, incorporating pilasters topped with arches and a cornice that raises the height of the roof. The factory continued to add more manufacturing space, storage rooms for wood, drying facilities, a coal shed, and a boiler house, enabling production of 2,500 to 3,000 pianos each year. Ivers resigned as president of the company in 1887, and Pond assumed leadership until his death in 1908. Pond’s sons, Clarence and Shepard, then took the reins as president and treasurer.

Below is an excerpt from one of the company’s brochures explaining the process involved in constructing their pianos.

Ivers & Pond Piano Co. catalog, 1899, http://www.antiquepianoshop.com
Map showing the first building on the corner Main and Albany Streets.
1886 Hopkins Atlas. CHC Collection.

By 1905, the factory consisted of 5 6-story buildings, 5 dry-kilns and lumber sheds, encompassing 160,000 square feet. To facilitate shipping, spur tracks connected to the Grand Junction railroad. The factory employed 300 workers, while the offices and warerooms located on Boylston Street in Boston had 50 employees. The company’s advertising listed over 500 educational and musical institutions as customers, including the New England Conservatory of Music which purchased over 250 pianos.

1888 Sanborn map showing the expansion of the factory, drying room, and lumber storage. Mapjunction.com
Detail from 1888 Sanborn map showing wood floor construction. Mapjunction.com
Map from 1903 showing the expansion of the factory along Albany Street and the railroad tracks. 1903 Bromley Atlas, CHC Collection.
View of Main Street in 1909 with Ivers & Pond Piano Co. to the left.
Boston Elevated Railway photograph collection.
This “Princess Grand” piano by Ivers & Pond was a wedding gift to Rose and Joseph Kennedy in 1914. On display at the JFK Birthplace in Brookline. Photo courtesy of the National Park Service, John Fitzgerald Kennedy Historic Site.
Map from 1930 Bromley Atlas showing the full extent of the piano factory development. CHC Collection.
Advertisement with illustration of the piano factory complex.
Cambridge Sentinel, March 27, 1926.
Plan from 1936 showing location of wood storage areas and dry houses along with main manufacturing buildings. Rice-Mank Collection.

During the Depression, the company moved its offices and warehouses from Boylston Street to Cambridge as a cost saving measure. Soon after, the company was acquired by another piano manufacturer, but accounts vary as to exactly when and by whom. Two sources claim that the factory was acquired by Winter & Company in 1945 and eventually taken over by the Aeolian Corporation of New York in 1959. Another source states the company was acquired by Aeolian in the 1930s.

Aerial view in 1947 of Ivers & Pond Piano Company with train tracks. CHC Collection.

Manufacturing most likely continued through the 1940s. In 1951, a permit was issued for the demolition of the factory building on Main Street. A year later, additional permits were issued to demolish two factory buildings on Albany Street to make way for new construction by Polaroid Corporation. Further demolition occurred in 1964 and 1965 by MIT. The Ivers & Pond name continued to be used by the Aeolian Corporation until it closed in 1983.

Sources

http://www.concertpitchpiano.com/ivers-pond-piano-prices.html

http://www.antiquepianoshop.com/online-museum/ivers-pond

http://www.winchester.us/DocumentCenter/View/3476/Keyboard-business?bidId+=

http://www.mapjunction.com

http://www.lindebladpiano.com/library/ivers-and-pond

National Park Service, John Fitzgerald Kennedy Historic Site

Cambridge Chronicle January 26 1895

Cambridge Chronicle, September 1, 1938

Cambridge Chronicle, January 27, 1923

Cambridge Chronicle, September 9, 1905

Updated Finding Aids and New Collections Now Available

Posted on by Brittany F.

We have recently added three new collection finding aids and five old but newly updated finding aids to our website. Check out the list below, and  email us at chcarchives@cambridgema.gov to research any of these collections.

New!

Scully Family Collection

This collection relates to two generations of the Scully family, beginning with Daniel Scully, a Cambridge cooper who emigrated from Ireland in 1872. He married another Irish immigrant in Cambridge, Mary Tackney, who worked as a waitress. They had 8 children and the collection heavily focuses on two of their sons, James and George. Topics include service in WWII, the St. Mary Church of Annunciation in Cambridgeport, Irish heritage, U.S. citizenship, and Norumbega Park in Auburndale, Mass. The records in the collection were created between 1872-1970 and consist of official documents, commemorative pins, photographic materials, a newspaper, and large objects.

Noteworthy items include a water-front port pass, a cooper’s mallet, and a grappling hook that connect Daniel Scully to the Goepper Bros. Co. and the Revere Sugar Refinery, two companies with locations in Cambridge. There is also an encased tintype and photographs that display the family’s residence on Spring Street. Find out more about the collection and the background history of the family here.

Daniel Scully’s cooper’s mallet and grappling hook. Image from our Flickr album, photograph by John Dalterio.
Watson Funeral Home Collection

The Watson Funeral Home Collection consists of photographs, certificates, clippings and ephemera related to the Watson Funeral Home, a 20th century business in Cambridge that was once on Magazine Street. The funeral home was run by Charles Burnett Watson and the collection holds content about his conversion of the Greek Revival house into his business. Other items include his Old Farmer’s Almanac, newspaper clippings about the house, and matchbook advertisements. Click here to learn more about Watson’s biography and read the collection’s inventory.

Carter’s Ink Collection 

This collection contains ephemera relating to the Carter’s Ink Company that was collected by John Hinkel, a “labeled master inks” collector from Missouri. The Carter’s Ink Company was a nationally-prominent manufacturer of inks and office supplies. The bulk of this collection consists of advertisements, internal corporate documents, and external publications. The independently produced advertisements range from cardstock illustrations, postcards, bottle-shaped adverts, a calendar, and a dictionary. The corporate documents have information pertinent to general workers, including employee rules, as well as the official company newsletter.

To get a taste of what is present in this collection, some of the items have been digitized and uploaded to our Flickr. Click here to view the album.

Carter’s Inx Writing Fluid card
Carter’s Ink Advertisement Card. Image from our flickr.

Updated or Digitized Collections:

Alfred E. Vellucci Snapshot Collection: 

Vellucci was once mayor of Cambridge and this collection reflects a public relations project from 1976. Images are now digitized and available for viewing on our Flickr page here. Click here to read the original post highlighting this collection.

Rindge Technical School

We have uploaded two albums to our Flickr page concerning the school. The Rindge Technical School Collection album contains digitized images selected from Box 1 of the collection. This box holds sports photographs from 1912-1922. Click here to see players from the football, crew, hockey, track, swimming, and baseball teams. If you would like to learn more about the entire collection, click here.

The other album, Rindge Technical School Construction – 1932 includes a selection of large-print negatives that reflect the school demolition and construction project conducted in 1932-1933. The new building was designed by architect Ralph Harrington Doane and built by the George A. Fuller Company. These negatives and others have been printed and bound in “Rindge Technical School, started Feb. 2 1932, completed Jan. 12 1933” by George A. Fuller Co. The book is available for viewing in the CHC Library. Click here to view the album.

Cambridge Objects Collection – new objects and new photographs on Flickr

Additional images of objects from the Cambridge Objects Collection have been uploaded to the Flickr album. This is an artificial collection of objects relating to various aspects of Cambridge history. Click here to check them out and click here to read the finding aid!

An Ashton Valve Company pressure gauge, ca. 1923-1924
Rindge Technical School Bowl and Mug
Curtis Mellen Photograph Collection

This collection has recently been reorganized and an updated finding aid has been published here. The collection consists of photographs of the family as well as interior and exterior views of the family’s homes in Cambridge. The Mellens were a very prominent family in Cambridge, and their soap business, Curtis Davis & Co., became the American branch of Lever Brothers, the largest soap manufacturer in the world at the time. To see what is available in the collection, we uploaded select images to a Flickr album here.

Harry Havelock Hanson Collection

Recently, we created the Handsome Harry Hanson StoryMap. It tells the story of occasional Cambridge resident Harry Havelock Hanson in a walking tour format. This StoryMap allows you to follow an online map and images around Harvard Square as though you were actually there. Follow the tour to learn about the exciting exploits of Harry Havelock Hanson, as recorded in his calendar entries between 1891 and 1919. Click here to check it out!

This collection is primarily composed of the daily pocket diaries of Harry Havelock Hanson, occasional Cambridge resident and career railway man. It also contains some personal papers belonging to Hanson and his family. The finding aid for the collection is available here.

Historic Building Highlight: 3 Bigelow Street

Posted on by cambridgehistoricalcommission

Today we are highlighting the building at 3 Bigelow Street, originally 5 Bigelow, located opposite Cambridge City Hall (and our next door neighbor here at the CHC).

3 Bigelow Street today. Credit: CHC images.

Built in 1869 for William B. Craft, a commission merchant in Boston, 3 Bigelow was one of the first homes built on Bigelow Street, formerly Beacon, which was laid out the previous year. The three-story mansard was an early example of the pavilion style, and the wood exterior was rusticated to imitate ashlar (finely dressed stone) masonry. Later remodeling of the porch would significantly alter the coherence of the facade.

In 1877, Craft sold the house to D.U. Chamberlin, who in turn sold it to Judge Henry J. Wells of Arlington, later a Massachusetts Representative and Senator. Wells and his family lived at 5 Bigelow until 1913. Wells’ daughter, Henrietta Wells Livermore, helped to lead a revitalized suffrage movement in the State of New York in 1910, and founded the Women’s National Republican Club in 1921.

Henrietta Wells Livermore. Credit: Courtesy of and Copyright Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, ggbain.14915.

In 1929, 5 Bigelow resident Dr. Eugene McCarthy petitioned the City to designate his entire house as part of a business zone, in order for him to lease it to a funeral home. Four neighbors objected to this, stating that “Bigelow Street is already used as a garage by nearly all of city hall,” and that the funeral home business would only make traffic worse. (Cambridge Chronicle, 4/12/1929) McCarthy’s lawyer argued that the “quiet and dignity” of a properly run funeral home would benefit the neighborhood, and assured neighbors that no embalming would be done in the building.

Partial view of 5 Bigelow, right, opposite City Hall. Taken from Mass Ave. Credit: CHC images.

Later that year, Andrews Funeral Home opened at 5 Bigelow Street. The owner, Joseph G. Andrews, also lived at the house with his family. In 1930, Andrews died suddenly, and his son Paul Andrews took over the business. The Cambridge Chronicle wrote of Andrews: “His equipment, modern home, the dignity and beauty of his services given to those who are bereaved, have given him an enviable place in the undertaking business.” (2/6/1936)

Andrews Funeral Home advertisement, Cambridge Chronicle, 2/6/1936
Aerial view of Bigelow and Mass Ave, July 25, 1946. 5 Bigelow is directly opposite City Hall, behind the empty plot following the demolition of 823 Mass Ave in 1944 (Brusch Medical Center would be built there in 1950). Credit: Cambridge Photo Morgue, Digital Commonwealth scan.

By the 1950s, 5 Bigelow had been converted into the Bigelow Nursing Home, and in 1965, Dr. Charles Brusch (of Brusch Medical Center next door at 831 Mass Ave) filed a petition to turn the building into seven apartment units. In the 1980s, the building was owned by the Maryknoll Fathers/Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America, which also owned 831 Mass Ave.

5 (later 3) Bigelow Street, circa 1970. Credit: CHC survey files.

In 1987, the City of Cambridge purchased 5 Bigelow and, through an arrangement with the YWCA, opened Bigelow House, a short-term emergency shelter and transitional housing for families and young adults. The building became 3 Bigelow either shortly before or during this time, and the office building next door, built in 1940, became 5 Bigelow.

In 2017, after it was determined that 3 Bigelow would need extensive renovations, the family shelter moved, and today 3 Bigelow remains unoccupied.

 

Sources:

Survey of Architectural History in Cambridge, Volume 2: Mid Cambridge, 1971.

Cambridge Chronicle, Cambridge Public Library’s Historic Cambridge Newspaper Collection.

Torn Down Tuesday: Prest-O-Lite

Posted on by Meta Partenheimer

Welcome to Torn Down Tuesday where we feature buildings in Cambridge that have been demolished. Today we highlight the building that once stood where the Fresh Pond Mall is located today: 541 Concord Ave, the Prest-O-Lite industrial complex.

Aerial views: Prest-O-Lite complex at 541 Concord Ave (1947 and 1948)

Businessmen Carl Fisher, James Allison and P.C. Avery started Concentrated Acetelyene Company (later changed to Prest-O-Lite) in Indianapolis in 1906 with the plan to manufacture portable cylinders containing compressed acetylene.

Motor Vehicles – In Use – Model 18-F three-speed twin, Prest-O-Lite attachment with side car. Photographer: Harley-Davidson Motor Co., 1917-1918 (NARA)

The cylinders would allow drivers of motorcycles and automobiles to operate headlights on their vehicles via a sparking switch.

Advertisement from Scientific American (6 January 1912)

The company invented this technology before the use of electric lights, which were pioneered by Cadillac in 1912. In 1920, the Prest-O-Light Company obtained a permit to build a plant in Northwest Cambridge. The complex would include 13 buildings with the purpose of producing acetylene for use their line of products.

1930 Bromley Atlas image showing location of Prest-O-Lite complex

Bordered by Concord Ave and Alewife Brook Parkway, the site was originally marshland and later owned by the New England Brick Company. Construction for Prest-O-Lite was carried out by John T. Scully Co. builders, a company that had completed large projects for companies such as Simplex Wire & Cable Company and lumber dealer E. D. Sawyer. Like many industrial buildings of Northwest Cambridge from this period, the buildings were of an extended form and low scale.

Clipping from Cambridge Chronicle (7 August 1920)

North Cambridge was composed of prime agricultural land during the colonial period, while West Cambridge began as a swath of grazing land before evolving into a fringe industrial area during the 19th century. Up until the mid-twentieth century, much of the area was still composed of industrial or commercial properties.

Image of Prest-O-Lite fire, unknown source (1952)

Prest-O-Light operated in North Cambridge for over three decades without major incident. However, at 1:15pm on the day after Christmas 1952, an explosion of 200 gas cylinders rocked the neighborhood and shattered windows up to half a mile away. It was reported that the multi-colored flames rose 200 feet over the building and the ensuing smoke was visible from 20 miles away.

Aerial image of Fresh Pond Shopping Center, Patriquin Collection (1984)

Just a few years after the massive fire, the Prest-O-Lite complex was razed in 1959 to make way for the Fresh Pond Shopping Center, which was developed in 1962. Check out our Instagram post to read more about the Fresh Pond Shopping Center!

Sources:
Krim, Arthur J. Survey of Architectural History in Cambridge: Report Five: Northwest Cambridge. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1977.
https://www.firstsuperspeedway.com/articles/prest-o-lite
https://www.firstsuperspeedway.com/sites/default/files/Prest-O-Lite.pdf
https://cambridgehistory.org/research/cars-in-cambridge-by-doug-brown/

Daggett Chocolate Company

Posted on by cambridgehistoricalcommission

daggett chocolate ad

In honor of June as Candy Month, we look at one of Cambridge’s largest chocolate makers from the early to mid twentieth century. Candy making was a major industry in Cambridge, with over 66 confectionery manufacturers listed in the city directory at its peak in 1946.

main-st-400_daggett-chocolate_color-slide004.jpg
View of 400 Main Street in the 1980s

Fred L. Daggett first started his company as a small candy store in Chelsea in 1891. By 1921 he was overseeing manufacturing in seven different buildings throughout the city. In 1925, in order to concentrate production and distribution and to secure more manufacturing area, Daggett built his Cambridge plant at 40 and 50 Ames Street and 400 Main Street. Completed by 1928, the buildings were designed by architect/engineer Mark Linenthal who would later specialize in racetrack and stadium architecture.

daggett ad

Daggett Chocolates acquired other companies, resulting in the production of more than 40 brands of chocolates. By 1930, Daggett employed over 400 people and produced 24,000 boxes of chocolate-coated candies a day. The company sold brands including Daggett, Page & Shaw, Durand, Lowney’s, and Apollo. Daggett not only produced candy, but also the boxes the candy came in. The factory had three separate unions: one for the confectionery workers, one for the box makers, and one for the printers.

The company also had a special fruit department. Daggett owned and operated a strawberry plant in Virginia where strawberries were preserved in sugar to make fillings for their chocolates. Because of this venture, Daggett also had an impact on ice cream and soda fountain business in the area. They supplied thousands of gallons of syrups and crushed fruits to druggists and ice cream manufacturers.

daggett building today
View from corner of Main and Ames Streets

Fred L. Daggett died in 1958. The company continued for only a few more years. In 1961, the company sold the recipes to New England Confectionery Company (NECCO), and sold the buildings to MIT.

Sources:

Cambridge Chronicle, March 27, 1926; October 23, 1958

Cambridge Historical Society, https://cambridgehistory.org/candy/daggett.html

MIT Architecture Inventory Form, November 2016

New Finding Aids Added to ArchivesSpace

Posted on by cambridgehistoricalcommission

You can now access two more of our finding aids on our ArchivesSpace database!

Cambridge Recreation Department Collection

park_plan001

school_nursery001
Images from the Cambridge Recreation Department Collection, CHC011

Squirrel Brand Company Collection

Squirrel Brand adv card IMG_20151222_113527
Image of ephemera from Squirrel Brand Company Collection

Explore other collections and digital materials here.

What is ArchivesSpace?  How is this different than viewing finding aids in the regular PDF format? Check out a previous blog post for answers to these questions.

Let us know what you think of this finding aid format!

Now Open: The Simplex Pennant Collection

Posted on by cambridgehistoricalcommission

This post was authored by our Simmons 438 Archives intern, Elise Riley

Until the mid-20th century, the Simplex Wire & Cable Company on Sidney Street was one of the largest manufacturers in Cambridge. Founded in Boston in 1840, Simplex moved to Cambridge in 1916 and manufactured electrical appliances and wire in a multi-building complex near Lafayette Square. MIT bought the property after the company moved to New Hampshire in 1970; University Park now occupies the site.

This collection holds 18 issues from 1945 of the Simplex Pennant, the company’s employee newsletter that gives us an authentic glimpse into daily life in Cambridge during the 1940s.

blog photo #1
Scores from company bowling league and trivia section.

Dedicated to manufacturing wires and cables for electrical use, Simplex Wire & Cable rose in the industry as an innovator, developing a submarine cable with a significantly longer lifespan. This invention came in handy as war broke out once again in 1939. Simplex became a main supplier of telecommunications cable to the US Army and Navy.

blog photo #2
A thank you note to Simplex Wire & Cable Company from US War Department.

blog photo #3
Simplex awarded its Fourth Gold Star from the US Maritime Commission.

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Simplex Pennant masthead showing US War Department awards.

1945 was a pivotal year in World War II from Hitler’s defeat to VE Day. Woven into the Pennant’s committee reports are hints as to what was going on in the wider world.

blog photo #5
Entries honoring Franklin D. Roosevelt.

As the war raged on, The Pennant was there to capture the goings-on of domestic life and the war effort. The newsletter included birthday and wedding anniversary announcements as well as updates on enlisted employees or relatives.

blog photo #7
An employee’s letter from his son who had been released from a German P.O.W. camp.

It also featured cartoon reminders of attendance and safety precautions to keep morale and productivity up.

blog photo #7
A newsletter cartoon joking about attendance.

Come take a step back in time and explore the Simplex Pennant Collection! View the collection finding aid here. You can also take a look at selected pages from issues of the Simplex Pennant, digitized and available on our Flickr page.

The Ellis & Andrews Real Estate Collection

Posted on by cambridgehistoricalcommission

For the past several weeks, our Spring 2017 Simmons archives intern, Chun Yu Tsui, has been working on re-processing the Ellis & Andrews real estate collection. This collection was donated to the CHC in 1994 by Helen Moulton, owner and president of the Ellis & Andrews real estate firm from 1979-1994.

As part of the re-processing project, Chun Yu has reorganized the first two boxes from the collection; mainly, changing a box of real estate correspondence from chronological order to alphabetical order. Since so many of the letters received by Ellis & Melledge (the original company name) mentioned specific streets and addresses for sale, we thought reorganizing the correspondence alphabetically would be much easier for researchers.

In addition to finding out about the history of the oldest real estate firm in Cambridge, researchers might now be interested in finding information on the history of their home or building lots. The reorganization of the real estate correspondence will now allow researchers to search for their street or address by name.

Below, read about the collection and Chun Yu’s experience reprocessing a huge box of correspondence from 1893-1896.

Background on Ellis & Andrews*

Established in 1888, the firm of Ellis & Andrews was Cambridge’s oldest real estate company.  First located at 910 Main Street (now Massachusetts Ave.) in Quincy Square, it was founded by William Rogers Ellis as the Ellis Real Estate & Insurance Company.  In 1893, Cambridge native Robert Melledge joined the firm, which was renamed Ellis & Melledge, it moved to the Lyceum Building (now the Harvard Cooperative Society).  In 1903 William Ellis died and Melledge extended partnership to Ellis’s son, Benjamin Pierce Ellis.  Two years later Benjamin left the company to work independently, and in 1913 Melledge moved his firm to its present location in the Brattle Building at 4 Brattle Street, Cambridge.  In 1917 Robert Melledge died and Benjamin Ellis returned to succeed his father.  In 1920 he joined Cambridge real estate veteran Edward A. Andrews in business and the firm became Ellis & Andrews.  Seven years later Edward Bowditch joined the company as an agent; by 1928 he was a co-owner.  Edward Andrews died in 1936, and the firm was subsequently renamed Ellis & Bowditch.  His son, Dwight Andrews, continued to work as an agent until he was called to duty in World War II.  After the war, Dwight Andrews returned and the firm was again called Ellis & Andrews.  In 1955, Andrews became sole owner; in 1961 John Norris joined as a partner; and in 1979 Helen Moulton bought the agency and became the president.  The agency lost its independent status when it merged with another firm in 1994.

ellisblog1
This is an example of correspondence to Ellis & Melledge from a Cambridge resident, Mrs. Charles Goodhue. In the letter, Mrs. Goodhue writes, “I want a house with 8 or 9 sleeping rooms – including servant’s room.”

The Collection*

The Ellis & Andrews Collection contains both business and personal correspondence from c. 1889 to 1986, with the bulk of the material from 1890-1935. These materials are organized in several individual archival boxes, which are then stored in five larger boxes. The collection contains various forms of printed material, including correspondence (business and personal); interviews from local newspapers; real estate advertisements; sales ledgers; a daybook (business transactions); postcards; invoices; and notes on a history of the Ellis-Andrews Insurance Agency.

The files of a personal nature contain correspondence between Edward and Elizabeth Andrews, and information on the estate of Edward Andrews. Biographical information (including obituaries) can be found on William Rogers Ellis, Benjiman P. Ellis, Robert J. Melledge, and Edward A. Andrews. There are also two files on Dwight Andrews which contain a variety of materials, but most of the information is from the 1980s.

ellisblog2
This is an example of correspondence to Ellis & Melledge from a Cambridge resident. The resident writes, “I wouldn’t advise being too stiff on prices for rooms. Don’t refuse a reasonable offer from good man.”

ellisblog5
This example of correspondence to Ellis & Melledge from W.A. Mason & Son shows the scenario of three surveyors measuring distances for engineering work, indicating how the city of Cambridge was developed in the late 19th century.

Reorganizing the Collection

The “Scope and Content” note in the original finding aid created by Matthew Hall in April 1995, and reformatted by Megan Schwenke in April 2012, only describes one of the small document boxes located in one of the collection’s five huge white storage boxes. Therefore, apart from double-checking the box that was already processed, five weeks ago I as an intern started sorting through another box of documentation and correspondence from the collection, marked “1893-1896”. Those materials were originally sorted by year, but this form of arrangement might not be very helpful for researchers to find the desired documentation, especially for this box containing materials only within such a short period. With the guidance given by my supervisor, I decided to alphabetize the correspondence by address in order to foster easy searching, and then to rearrange the series and update the finding aid accordingly. Unfortunately, I could not finish processing everything in that box before the end of my internship, since that box contains too much documentation, many of it written in illegible or complex handwriting. Yet, this valuable experience really opens my eyes to approaching archival materials in the late 19th century.

ellisblog3

ellisblog4
This business postcard shows notes from W.A. Mason & Son, located in Central Square, Cambridge, a civil engineering and surveying company which Ellis & Melledge partnered with in the late 19th-century.

Click the following text to open the Ellis & Andrews Collection finding aid. Please note: this collection is currently being reprocessed, and the finding aid linked here may not be the most recent version. The collection is still open for research, however, so please contact the Archivist for more information.

*The background and collection notes are taken from the collection finding aid.