architectural design - The Cambridge Historical Commission Blog

Cambridge Designers: R. Clipston Sturgis

Posted on December 30, 2022December 30, 2022 by cambridgehistoricalcommission

In part two of our Cambridge Designers series, we are highlighting a Boston-born architect who had a lasting impact on architecture and the arts in the Boston area, R. Clipston Sturgis (1860-1951).

R. (Richard) Clipston Sturgis was born in Boston on Christmas Eve in 1860, the son of Russell and Susan Codman Welles Sturgis. As he was born into a wealthy family, Richard was schooled at the prestigious George Washington Copp Noble School (now known as the Noble and Greenough School) in Boston and at St. Paul’s in Concord, New Hampshire to prepare for college. He entered Harvard University in 1877, graduating in 1881 with a degree in architecture.

*1881 Harvard Class photo of R. Clipston Sturgis. Courtesy of Harvard University Archives.*

From 1881 to 1883 to worked in the office of his uncle, John Hubbard Sturgis (1834-1888), a partner in the firm Sturgis & Brigham, the designers of the original Museum of Fine Arts building in Boston and the Arthur Astor Carey house on Fayerweather Street in Cambridge. The Carey House in Cambridge was one of the earliest and high-style examples of Colonial Revival architecture in the region. It was during this time at his uncle’s firm that R. C. Sturgis married Esther Mary Ogden of Troy, New York in 1882.

The young couple then sailed to England, where Sturgis worked until late 1884 for London architect Robert William Edis, who worked on an extension to Sandringham House in Norfolk, England, one of the royal residences of King Charles III. It was during this period that Richard and Esther had their first child, Richard Clipston Sturgis, Jr. in Canterbury, England in March of 1884. Sturgis Jr. (1884-1913), closely followed in his father’s footsteps, attending the same schools and majoring in architecture at Harvard. Tragically, he died at 30 years old, possibly due to life-long illness as the family had a live-in nurse at their home in Boston. They had two other children, George Ogden Sturgis (1889), who died in infancy, and Dorothy Mary (Sturgis) Harding (1891-1978).

^{Richard Clipston Sturgis with newborn son Richard Clipston Sturgis, Jr. c.1884. Photo courtesy of F.S. Watt, Ancestry.com}

^{Esther Mary Ogden Sturgis and son Richard Clipston Sturgis, Jr.
c.1890, courtesy of F.S. Watt, Ancestry.com}

After leaving Edis’ employ, Sturgis spent two years touring Europe, studying and sketching in France, Italy, Germany and Holland until he returned to the United States in September 1886, when he took charge of his uncle’s firm after the partnership between Sturgis and Brigham dissolved. His uncle, John Hubbard Sturgis retired in May of 1887 and died in February of 1888.

The project that perhaps launched the career of ‘Young Clip’ was the Church of the Advent in Beacon Hill. While working with his uncle, he assisted in the design and took over the project when his uncle died. He is credited with overseeing the completion of the project, designing the spire, lectern and the west porch. After his uncle’s death, Clip partnered with William Robinson Cabot forming Sturgis & Cabot from 1888 to 1893. From 1902 to 1907 Sturgis practiced with George E. Barton as Sturgis & Barton. From 1907 until his retirement in 1932 he practiced independently.

Church of the Advent, Beacon Hill, Boston. The project that helped start R. Clipston Sturgis’ career in the United States.

Clip’s career really took off in the first two decades of the twentieth century. In 1900, he was commissioned by John A. Little, the owner of two large private dormitories for Harvard students in Harvard Square to furnish designs for a new athletic building for his properties. The cramped site on Holyoke Street, just steps from Harvard Yard, featured a large tree at the middle, which Sturgis hoped to incorporate into his design. The Big Tree Swimming Pool as designed by Sturgis, was an excellent example of Collegiate Gothic architecture in the English tradition, typical for his work. The U-shaped brick building was sited around the preserved tree and also included two squash courts with limited windows for the interior programming. The building was razed in 1962 for the Holyoke Center.

Big Tree Swimming Pool. Brick Builder (1901)

Sturgis’ only residential project in Cambridge was during his partnership with George Barton. The firm was hired by James D. Prindle, who sought to develop the lot at the corner of Bates and Raymond streets. Sturgis and Barton designed a three-unit row that turns the corner lot. The 2 1/2-story homes are Queen Anne/Tudor in style and constructed of brick on the first floor and shingle siding above. The buildings were constructed in 1905.

In 1902, Sturgis was appointed by the Mayor of Boston to the newly established Boston Schoolhouse Commission, a three-person independent board that would oversee the process of building schools for the City of Boston including the hiring of architects and shaping of the plans. From this expertise, Sturgis was called in to various cities all over the region to share how municipalities can provide high-quality and cost-effective new school buildings. In 1909, Sturgis spoke before the Cambridge Public School Association on this matter, explaining how that Boston commission set design standards and a standard cost structure for new buildings as to keep projects from ballooning in value. Sturgis would also serve as a consultant as the designated architect for the Museum of Fine Arts, providing a study and recommendations on the new building in the Fenway.

_{The Cambridge Chronicle, 23 October 1909}

Sturgis was highly influential in school building construction and design in the Boston area (Cambridge included) and always advocated for English-inspired design, a personal favorite of his as he was an anglophile. He specialized in large civic buildings including schools, but also designed clubhouses, stately manors, banks, and churches. Early school buildings designed by Sturgis include the Winsor School in Boston (1908) and designing the new Perkins School for the Blind campus in Watertown in the Neo-Gothic and Colonial Revival styles. A few years after he oversaw the design and construction of the Perkins School campus, the institution hired him again to design the Woolson House Shop building (1914) on Inman Street in Cambridge. The brick building was constructed at the rear of the Woolson House at 277 Harvard Street and served as a workshop for blind women to learn a trade and sell their creations to the public. The modest Colonial Revival building was cost-effective and provided three floors of workspaces inside.

Woolson House, 48 Inman Street, Cambridge. CHC photograph, 2022.

The same year he was commissioned to design the Woolson House on Inman Street, Clip was hired to design a new clubhouse for the Delta Upsilon Fraternity at Harvard, on Harvard Street, a short walk to campus. Sturgis designed the Colonial Revival style building elevated on the site, reusing the existing topography and adding a new stone retaining wall. Inside, the main feature was the hall, somewhat like an English college hall, which extended two stories high opening on the east to a lounge and to the west as a dining room. Above was the library with an opening looking down to the great hall and modest chambers for graduate members visiting. The building was purchased by the Cambridge Lodge of Elks in 1943 and is now home to the Ikeda Center, a non-profit whose mission is to “build cultures of peace through learning and dialogue“.

396 Harvard Street, Cambridge. Former D.U. Clubhouse.

Early sketches of D.U. Club. Richard Clipston Sturgis Special Collection of sketchbooks and notebooks, Boston Athenaeum.

Besides his career as an architect, Clip was involved in many social and professional organizations. Sturgis maintained a strong interest in promoting the arts and in serving community endeavors in the Boston area. In his early years, he was president of the Draughtsmen’s Club, later known as the Boston Architectural Club (now the Boston Architectural College). He was on the organizing committee for the Society of Arts and Crafts Boston and served as its president from 1917 to 1920.
He was a member of the Tavern Club for more than 60 years and a Fellow of the Academy of Arts and Sciences. He also was a member of the Harvard Clubs of Boston and New York, the Union Boat Club, the Colonial Society, and more. Most notably, he as President of the Boston Society of Architects and as President of the American Institute of Architects for the years 1914-15.

Sturgis was also a prolific writer and critic. He gave many speeches on architecture and planning and wrote articles that appeared in various publications. He was a popular advocate for more thoughtfully designed suburbs, writing in the 1890s that “our suburbs for the most part, are composed of frame houses, looking unsubstantial and temporary. They convey no suggestion of
dignity and retirement.” He thought that high quality design of houses and landscapes would make for better neighborhoods, no matter their scale. From this, he sought commissions for working class housing, designing high-quality buildings for the South Bay Union and the Elizabeth Peabody Settlement House in Boston, and Federally funded neighborhoods in Bridgeport, Connecticut and Bath, Maine.

Site plan designed by R. Clipston Sturgis and Arthur A. Shurcliff. University of Michigan Art & Architecture Library collections.

Sturgis would retire in 1932, moving full-time to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where he had maintained his summer residence since 1890. His summer and later permanent residence, “Martine Cottage”, made Sturgis a neighbor to friend Arthur Astor Carey, who also summered and retired in Portsmouth. The two were likely friends since Richard Clipston Sturgis’ time at his uncle’s firm, when Arthur Astor Carey’s home in Cambridge was designed by them in the early 1880s. The firm was then reorganized as Sturgis Associates Inc., led by William Stanley Parker and Alanson Hall Sturgis, his nephew. Clip would remain associated with the firm as a consultant. One of the first projects of this new firm with Clip as a consultant would be the new Central Fire Station at Broadway and Cambridge streets. It is clear that the firm utilized a timeless Colonial Revival design due to the adjacency of the site to Harvard Yard, an area where Sturgis spent much of his time. This would be his last commission in Cambridge.

Cambridge Central Fire Station, 489-491 Broadway, CHC photograph, 2015.

Like many members of the “old guard” in the Society of Arts and Crafts, Sturgis was a life-long advocate for high-quality design with handcrafted features, which was in stark contrast to the emerging Modernist/Bauhaus movement that arrived in the United States in the 1930s. In New Hampshire, an entire state away from Harvard, Sturgis was troubled by the new modern design framework of Harvard’s building program under Walter Gropius. In 1950, an 89-year-old Sturgis would pen an open letter to his alma mater in the Harvard Alumni Bulletin, with great disdain for the shift in design and craftsmanship the University had taken.

He wrote, “Time Magazine published a cut of the brutally ugly buildings designed by Gropius for Harvard and [they] actually had the temerity to say ‘the buildings are true to an old Harvard tradition…From Colonial to Bulfinch Federal, to Victorian Gothic, to nineteenth century Romanesque, Harvard has moved with the tides of U.S. architecture… these new buildings show not a gleam of interest in Harvard’s past not any sense of value of beauty.” These strong words were the result of the new Graduate Commons and also the new Allston Burr Lecture Hall, the latter would be sited adjacent to the Yard and his firm’s Central Fire Station.

Allston Burr Lecture Hall, 1951, Shepley, Bulfinch, Richardson, and Abbott, architects. Photo by Daniel Reiff, CHC Collections.

In response to the letter penned by Sturgis, Gropius’s students responded to the 90-year-old retired architect in 1951, attacking his traditional position: “must we take the word of our older alumni that ivory tower is the only true architecture? An ivory tower… is a beautiful thing… but Harvard prides herself, not on her ivory tower, but rather on her free marketplace of ideas.”

Sturgis died in 1951 in his beloved Portsmouth cottage. Local papers would write, “R. Clipston Sturgis, 91, national architectural authority for more than 60 years, who almost single-handedly set Boston area’s architectural fashions…died in his home in Portsmouth, N.H. yesterday”. He is remembered for his nearly seventy years of designs, consultations and critiques with witty remarks and a staunch commitment to traditional architecture. He is buried at the Forest Hills Cemetery in Boston.

Photograph courtesy of Find a Grave, by user pstott.

Torn Down Tuesday: 329 Harvard Street

Posted on November 24, 2020 by cambridgehistoricalcommission

Welcome back to our Torn Down Tuesday series! Today, we are featuring the house that once stood at 329 Harvard Street in Mid-Cambridge.

In December 1848, George Washington Whittemore (1812-1870) purchased a lot from the Francis Dana estate. The lot was situated on the north side of Harvard Street between Cotton (now Hancock) and Dana Streets and backed on Hastings (now Chatham) street. The Whittemore family was prominent in the business and cultural life of Boston and Cambridge: George W. had many business ventures and was most notably a Boston hotel proprietor. After the home was finished, George W. moved in with his wife, Synia H. (Richardson), on July 8, 1850.

Photograph c. 1865 showing house, stable, and grounds

Originally richly ornamented, this suburban house blended Italianate, Greek Revival, and Gothic details in an eclectic but picturesque and singularly harmonious manner. The house typified a trend away from the strict neo-classicism of around 1850. The house was originally remarkable for extensive use of exterior papier mâché ornament. The front and side eaves of the main block, and the cupola (measuring 8′ in diameter) were trimmed with molded papier mâché “gingerbread” mounted on wooden barge boards, until they were destroyed in an accidental fire from painter’s blow-torch in 1931. The cupola retained its trim at least as late as 1951. In its eclectic design, the house was typical of suburban residences built on Dana Hill c. 1850, when formal Greek Revival tradition was yielding to freer Italianate forms and more picturesque massing.

329 Harvard St photographed by Walker Evans, ca. 1930-31. © Walker Evans Archive, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

To enter the home from Harvard Street, one would approach the front steps: five granite risers flanked by granite plinths led to a granite stoop recessed within an open rectangular front entrance. A round-arched front doorway was deeply recessed within the stoop and sheltered by a balcony.

Entrance photographed by Jack E. Baucher (August 1964)

Inside, single-paneled pilasters with 1′-high plinths and gessoed papier mâché Greek Corinthian capitals flanked all drawing room openings and “supported” plaster entabulature.

Interior pilaster detail photographed by Jack E. Baucher (August 1964)

The original interior of the home was highly lavish and Victorian. Red flocked drawing room wallpaper with cream and gilt ground dated from 1850 and remained to the end of the Whittemore occupancy. The drawing room also had original richly-colored imported carpet, red velvet lambrequins with gilded cornices, and a set of very elaborate neo-rococo furniture inspired by Louis XV forms.

Interior of 329 Harvard St photographed by Richard Ruggles, 1937 (for D.P. Myer)

The set included two white marble-topped tables, a mirrored étagère with a low marble-topped console, and chairs, sofa and footstool upholstered in original red velvet. According to family records, the curtain cornices and furniture were made by a group of travelling Swiss artisans skilled in comp work and frame making.

Marble busts of Hiram Powers’ Persephone and the Apollo Belvedere, a plaster bust of Washington, two oval family portraits of young girls ca. 1850, an oil copy of Guido Reni’s Aurora, alabaster vases, parian ware figurines, and a multitude of bibelots (a small, decorative ornament or trinket) completed the lavish drawing room ensemble, which remained intact until 1949.

A significant modernization of the house was undertaken in 1922-23 where a coal-fired hot air heating replaced the oil-fired steam system, the flooring was updated, electric lights and a laundry room were installed, among many other amenities. The home continued to be passed down to successive Whittemores until is was sold out of family in June 1951. The house changed hands several times from 1962-1964, by which time the structure had badly deteriorated. Finally, the house was demolished in 1965 to clear site for the Dana Hill Apartments. To learn more about this building, check out yesterday’s Modern Monday Instagram post!

329 Harvard St photographed by Roger Gilman, ca. 1930s

Source: Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) report by Dr. Bainbridge Bunting (1964)

Architect Spotlight: Happy Birthday Benjamin Thompson

Posted on July 3, 2020August 17, 2020 by Brittany F.

Today marks the birthday of a locally influential architect, Benjamin Thompson (1918-2002) who was a founding member of The Architects Collaborative (TAC). In operation from 1945 to 1995, TAC was an architectural firm of eight architects who specialized in post-war modernism design. Thompson left TAC in 1966 due to creative differences and he established Benjamin Thompson and Associates (BTA) a year later. He also embarked on an interior design company, Design Research (D/R), which he owned from 1953 to 1970 when it then changed ownership. Thompson’s original store was located at 57 Brattle Street.

thompson image — Thompson, Benjamin. “Let’s Make it Real.” *Architectural Record.* January 1966.

To celebrate Thompson’s birthday, we want to highlight one of his many projects. We’ve chosen his renovation work on a historic building here in Cambridge since it marks his efforts to combine his modernist sentiments with a conscious effort to retain older architectural design. The choice was further bolstered by Thompson’s personal connection with his client, Harvard University. Thompson was an instructor for the Harvard Graduate School of Design and from 1964 to 1968 he presided as Chair of the Architectural Department. Furthermore, the CHC possesses the Benjamin Thompson Associates Collection (CHC051), which contains booklets, images, and other formats concerning the work of the architecture firm and Thompson’s designs.

So what is the building? Boylston Hall, located at the southwest side of the Harvard Yard. But before we get into Thompson’s renovation, we’d like to give some historical background of the building.

Boylston Hall_HU_ca.1870_No source - small — CHC digital image. Ca. 1870

Boylston Hall was designed and built by Paul Schulze (1828-1897) in 1858. Schulze was a German immigrant who moved to America in 1849. He had previously planned and constructed Appleton Chapel (built 1858) for Harvard University and the success of that venture motivated members of the Harvard faculty to advocate for his continued employment. One spokesperson was Erving Professor Josiah P. Cooke, Jr. who wrote a letter of encouragement to Harvard’s President Rev. James Walker. As part of the Chemistry Department, Cooke’s letter explained how his department was being inadequately serviced in the University Hall.

Items from CHC051 collection. Featuring Boylston Hall and Design Research building

For some time, the Chemistry Department was held in University Hall’s basement. Conversations had begun the spring and summer of 1856 to search for alternative accommodations and it was decided that a purpose-built chemistry laboratory facility was the solution. It would be the first building of its kind in America whose construction was specifically dedicated to chemistry. Schulze completed and submitted his description of Boylston Hall on January 15, 1857.

Boylston Hall received financial patronage from Ward Nicholas Boylston (1747-1828) who posthumously donated a large sum to the University under the agreement that the new construction would adhere to his stipulations. Boylston required that the building would house an Anatomical Museum, a Mineralogical Cabinet, a Cabinet of Apparatus, lecture rooms, and a chemistry lab — the final component aligning smoothly with the University’s needs. To speed up the construction process, a subscription was raised to increase the building fund to $40,000.

Schulze, as part of Schulze & Schoen, constructed the 117’ x 70’ Boylston Hall. Designed in the Renaissance style, Boylston Hall has been labeled as part of the Boston Granite Style and this style became highly influential in Boston’s mercantile buildings and wharf structures, such as Mercantile Wharf, the Custom House Block, and Quincy Market. Boylston Hall has likewise been equated to Schulze’s contemporary and prolific Bostonian architect, Gridley J.F. Bryant, by architectural historians due to their similar material use.

Items from CHC051 collection. Featuring Benjamin Thompson’s interior designs

Nonetheless, Boylston Hall exterior was of Rockport granite set in rough large blocks almost 2 feet thick. The building held curved windows with Italianate tracery and its entrance was centered. Contracted skilled workers included Ebenezer Johnson, master mason; Jonas Fitch, carpentry; Smith and Felton, ironwork; Thomas Haviland, plastering; and John Bates, painting and glazing. The interior was lined with brick and plaster and it was split into two stories of 17ft and 23ft tall. The first floor held the Public Laboratory, the library, the Anatomical Laboratory, and lecture and recitation rooms, which were connected by a central hall. The Anatomical Museum, the Mineralogical Cabinet, the Cabinet of Apparatus, and more lecture rooms were located on the second floor. At the time, the items in these exhibits were under the stewardship of Professor Jeffries Wyman but presently some are now housed at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology.

Boylston Hall was part of a Harvard trend where buildings were situated in relation to the Yard. The front facade faced inwardly instead of toward Massachusetts Avenue or even University Hall, which was once the center of a campus design plan. Douglas Shand-Tucci states in Harvard University: An Architectural Tour, “Boylston Hall’s original role as one of the heralds of the New Yard” helped bolster this variant campus nucleus that countered the Old Yard” (151). It also became the site of great expansion to the Chemistry Department under the direction of Erving Professor Josiah P. Cooke, Jr., Professor Charles Loring Jackson, and Professor Henry Barker Hill.

Boylston Hall_HU_1874_Notman & Son Photo — Notman & Son image. 1874

By 1870, the Chemistry Department required more space, and so a mansard roof, incorporating a new third story, was added to accommodate a new laboratory. Peabody and Stearns facilitated the extension and the work was completed in 1871. However, after another twenty years, in 1895 there were again remarks about the space being too cramped for the department’s growing needs. In 1902, a 85’ x 35’ laboratory was adjoined to the basement. According to a Harvard Crimson article, the addition included 8 double benches, 2 single benches, and 14 sinks. Boylston Hall served the Chemistry Department for another twenty years.

In 1929, the Hall was remodeled to house the Harvard-Yenching Institute, an independent public charitable trust founded in 1928 by the Charles M. Hall estate. Still active today, the institute is committed to advancing higher education in Asia in the humanities and social sciences. However, it is no longer headquartered in Boylston Hall; the Institute left in 1958 before another renovation.

Boylston Hall 1976-002 — CHC survey image. 1976

boylston interiors — 1959 Renovation. Interior views. Image from CHC Thompson collection

1959 interior- CHC collection item — 1959 Renovation. Interior Elevation. Image from CHC Thompson collection.

The 1959 renovation to Boylston Hall has been lauded repeatedly. It was the work of the TAC with Benjamin Thompson as principal-in-charge. As mentioned earlier, Thompson was concerned with “adapting spaces to conserve the best qualities of traditional architecture,” as quoted from a booklet available in our CHC051 collection. Coined as “recycling” and cited as the first of its kind in the area, Thompson’s design took great pains to retain the original Boylston Hall. For instance, the new arrangement placed fixed glass sheets in the curved windows. This was intended to improve the visual appeal priorly inhibited by wooden mullions. The new version of glass set in bronze would offset the granite and impose fewer interruptions. Additionally, Bainbridge Bunting stated in Harvard : an architectural history that “the detailing of other new elements, such as the arched metal vestibule at the main entrance, enhances the sense of strength conveyed by the granite masonry” (51). However, the fixity of the windows would prove to be a problem in the future.

Nevertheless, Thompson’s main task for the renovation was to accommodate more office spaces. Over the course of the project, Boylston Hall went from 39,206 sq ft to 53,300 sq ft, allotting 40% more floor space. This was achieved by remodeling the interior by adding a mezzanine between the first and second floors and another floor, making 5 levels total. The project cost about $880,000. Additional interior images can be seen in the items of the CHC051 collection.

Years later, in 1992 upgrades were issued to the exterior granite and six years after, a major renovation occurred. The 1998 project cost $8.3 million and was completed by Robert Olson and Associates, who were tasked with updating Boylston Hall for its current inhabitants.

Boylston Hall_HU_Dan Reiff Image (3) - small — Dan Reiff photo. CHC files

The space was now occupied by humanities departments as part of a larger strategic plan that made a Humanities Arc from Quincy Street to the Yard. Departments included Classics, Literature, Comparative Literature, Linguistics, and Romance Languages. Robert Olson and Associates addressed many of their particular concerns, including making the windows functional to improve air quality.

Boylston Hall_HU_Hollis Image Current — Hollis image. Exterior. *North Side [Ralph Lieberman photograph, 2012)*. Photographer: Ralph Lieberman, 2012. Image ID: olvsurrogate991681

hollis-interior view of lecture hall (2013) — Hollis image. Interior view of lecture hall (2013). Photographer: Ralph Lieberman, 2013. Image ID: olvsurrogate1032227

hollis- interior view of reading room — Hollis image. Interior view of reading room (2013). Photographer: Ralph Lieberman, 2013. Image ID: olvsurrogate1032221

The firm also achieved brighter, more open corridors by installing glass partitions. One of the most notable themes of the renovation was the emphasis on social spaces. Boylston Hall now sported a mezzanine cafeteria (C’est Bon cafe), common spaces and meeting rooms (Ticknor Lounge), and a 144 seat stadium-style auditorium (Fong Auditorium).

On the first floor, two prior large classrooms were split into three more usable classroom sizes. Although the redesign was applauded by most, not everyone praised the changes. News articles quoted people remarking on inferior workmanship and the loss of office space– it seems Ebenezer Johnson and the other contracted skilled workers of the first build were greatly missed! Additionally, as we’ve moved to the twenty-first century, the glass partitions between classrooms have caused logistical problems with audiovisual equipment due to the presence of glare. Nonetheless, Boylston Hall’s exterior has retained most of its visual integrity. Today, the building still serves the Departments of Classics and Linguistics but also Women, Gender & Sexuality.

Sources:

Bunting, Bainbridge. Harvard: An Architectural History. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1985.
Cambridge Chronicle. 24 August 1895.
Eliot, Charles W. Harvard Memories. Cambridge, 1923.
Harvard Crimson. 25 September 1902.
Harvard University. “About: Boylston Hall.” https://rll.fas.harvard.edu/pages/boylston-hall
Harvard University Gazette. 12 March 1998.
Henry, Stephen G. “A Brand New Boylston.” Harvard Crimson. 30 October 1998.
Powell, Alvin. “Boylston Hall Gets a Facelift.” Harvard University Gazette. 17 September 1998.
Shand-Tucci, Douglas. Harvard University: An Architectural Tour (The Campus Guide). Princeton Architectural Press, 2001.
Thirty-Second Annual Report of the President of Harvard College to the Overseers, Exhibiting the State of the Institution for the Academical Year 1856-1857. “Letter of Professor Cooke to Rev. James Walker. December 24, 1857.” Cambridge: Metcalf and Co, 1856.
Image from Thompson, Benjamin. “Let’s Make it Real.” Available in CHC051 Collection.

Torn Down Tuesday: 17 Frost Street

Posted on June 9, 2020 by Meta Partenheimer

Welcome back to Torn Down Tuesday! Today’s feature is the house that once stood at 17 Frost Street in Mid Cambridge. Known as the Ward-Lovell house, the 2½-story home was built in 1886 by Sylvester L. Ward, a Roxbury oil merchant, for his daughter Mary when she married Frederick Lovell, a North Cambridge grocer.

Frost St 17_survey — 17 Frost Street, CHC survey photo (1965)

The house was designed by architectural firm Rand and Taylor in the Queen Anne Style. In contrast to East Cambridge, where the buildings of the nineteenth century had to be crowded between and behind older structures, there was room in Mid Cambridge for large buildings and for new streets and subdivisions. Sixty percent of the area’s houses were built after 1873. While there are larger and more important Queen Anne houses in other parts of Cambridge, nowhere in the city is there such a range in scale and importance, in type and development, as in Mid Cambridge.

PanasonicMECH=KV-S7075C SIDE=F — 17 Frost Street, B. Orr photograph (ca. 1967)

As described in the CHC’s Survey of Architectural History in Cambridge, Vol. 2: Mid Cambridge, “The most exuberant manifestations of Queen Anne style were dying down by the end of the 1880’s, and in the last decade of the nineteenth century two trends appeared. One, the shingle style, with its continuous surfaces and curvilinear shapes, had originated a decade earlier in the work of H. H. Richardson and other architects but made its first appearance in Mid Cambridge at this time.” A late shingle style house, 17 Frost exhibits a continuous surface of shingles sweeps lightly over the house, and the shapes melt into each other, emphasizing the generous ornament on the porch gable.

1930Bromley — Detail of 1930 Cambridge Bromley Atlas

By 1906, the home was owned by Ferdinand Schuyler Mathews (1854-1938), artist and author of several field books describing the flowers, trees, and wildlife of the eastern United States.

Biblio — Familiar Flowers of Field and Garden by F. Schuyler Mathews, biblio.com (1897 edition)

In 1913, the Cambridge Tribune described Schuyler as follows:

“…the artist, is equally well known as an ornithologist, although he insists that the latter study is merely a hobby. Mr. Mathews, however, has become an authority on birds and their music. His stories of the feathered tribe and his imitations of their notes are always a source of much delight to his hearers. He interprets the bird’s songs and is responsible for the assertion that the oriole is a first-rate ragtime whistler.–Globe”

fieldbookofwildb00math_0057_BobWhite — Page from *Field Book of Wild Birds and Their Music* by F. Schuyler Mathews, Biodiversity Heritage Library (© 1904, 1921)

For decades, Mathews worked to transpose bird songs into notes, and published his work in a guide titled Field Book of Wild Birds and Their Music, A Description of the Character and Music of Birds, Intended to Assist in the Identification of Species Common in the United States East of the Rocky Mountains (1904; expanded and reprinted in 1921). Ferdinand was not the only person in his family pursuing the sciences. After receiving her A.B. from Radcliffe in 1912, Mathews’s daughter, Genevieve, worked at the Harvard College Observatory as a computer where she studied new and variable stars.

457622027 — Harvard University Archives: Harvard College Observatory. [Observatory Data Analysis by Women Computers], 1890.

The house remained in the Mathews family until the late 1930s, and was later purchased by Harry P. Frost, who rented out the home. Known as “Doc Frost”, he was a well-known trainer of boxers and worked with such greats as Harry Wills and Maxie Rosenbloom. In the 1940s, Frost worked for the City of Cambridge park department running a youth boxing program and trained the youths at the Rindge Field Playground. Frost’s widow, Sally, owned 17 Frost until the late 1960s. The home was demolished in November 1967 for a parking lot, and in 1988 a series of five pastel-colored houses were built on the lot. These homes stand today.

7-17_Frost_March2016_Googleims — 7-17 Frost Street, Google Street View (March 2016)

Never want to miss a Torn Down Tuesday or our other historical posts? Make sure to follow us here and on Instagram!

Sources:
Cambridge Chronicle, 19 February 1942
Cambridge Tribune, 20 December 1913
Maycock, Susan E., and Charles Sullivan. Building Old Cambridge: Architecture and Development. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2016.
Cambridge Historical Commission, Survey of Architectural History in Cambridge, Vol. 2: Mid Cambridge. Cambridge, MA: Charles River Press, 1967.

Torn Down Tuesday: 280 Harvard Street

Posted on April 21, 2020April 21, 2020 by Meta Partenheimer

Happy Torn Down Tuesday! As a follow up to our Modern Monday Instagram post yesterday, today we are featuring the house that once stood at 280 Harvard Street in Mid-Cambridge.

The February 19^th, 1887 edition of the Cambridge Tribune stated that the home was commissioned by Mrs. Caroline Marshall, wife of Boston merchant Moses M. Marshall for their son, Moses Sylvester. The article included a detailed description of the house and it’s building materials:

The house is set slightly back from Harvard Street and the exterior is very handsome; a piazza extends around two sides with a tower at the corner. The brick chimney is outside and is decorated with terra cotta panels. The house is clapboard, with the exception of the tower, which is singled, and the roof is covered with Brownville slate. The windows are of plate glass, while the front door has stained glass. This front door is of cherry, which is the main material used for finish the other outside doors, however, being of pine, with five panels and raised mouldings. From the vestibule one enters a hall measuring 16×9. On the right of this hall is the parlor, finished in cherry, with a large bay window formed by the tower. Back of the parlor is the library, also finished in cherry, from which opens a well arranged conservatory.

On the left of the ball, through an arch, one enters the reception hall, with stairs, the latter of cherry, with a find landing measuring 11×9. Back of the reception hall is the dining-room, while in the rear of the house are the kitchen and pantries. A pleasing feature of this house is that almost every room in it contains a bay window. On the second floor are five chambers, bath-rooms, cedar closer for furs, and on the third story two chambers, a store-room and large billiard room, measuring 32×23. The house will be tastefully furnished and will have elaborate mantels.

It will be completed about the end of March. The architect is Mr. G. J. Williams of Boston, and the builders, Messrs. Mead, Mason & Co. of Boston.

280 Harvard was the first residence in Cambridge designed by architect. G.J. Williams. This was one of Williams’s only single-family projects in the city, and is more stylized compared to his simpler multiple-occupancy dwellings at 86-88 Webster Ave or 62-68 Plymouth Street, designed the same year as 280 Harvard. However, the house’s design was echoed in others built in the following years on Harvard Street, such as those at 284 and 298.

According to a piece highlighting Boston markets and their proprietors, Moses S. Marshall began working for his father’s meat market in 1878 at age 18 and by 1893 was a senior member of the firm. The company, Marshall and Taylor, operated from 28 North Faneuil Hall Market in Boston.

commonwealth_xp68kn03q_accessFull — Faneuil Hall, ca. 1860s (Boston Pictorial Archive, Boston Public Library)

Moses S. Married Grace Clark on June 18, 1884 and the couple had a daughter, Dorothy Frances, on February 8, 1889. The family attended the Austin Street Unitarian Church (demolished in 1949), and Mrs. Marshall held church sewing meetings at the family residence. After a long illness, Grace Marshall died June 26, 1903 at 42 years old. Moses Sylvester Marshall died of a cerebral hemorrhage on October 24, 1909, at 49 years old. Caroline Marshall became head of the family after the death of her son, and continued to live at 280 Harvard Street with her daughter, Ella Stimson, and three granddaughters, including Dorothy.

1888_Sanborn — Detail, 1888 Sanborn Atlas (mapjunction.com)

The house was later occupied by Suffragette Mabel A. Jones, and for many years was home to members of the Manning family. The house continued as a single-occupant dwelling, and for decades saw many residents come and go. The house was demolished in 1971 to make way for the 18-story apartment building that stands a 280 Harvard Street today. For more information on the current building, see our Instagram post from Monday, April 20^th.

Historic Buildings: Lionel Hall and Mower Hall at Harvard

Posted on April 17, 2020April 17, 2020 by cambridgehistoricalcommission

It is hard to name an architecture style more identifiable with Harvard than the Georgian style. The oldest extant buildings in Harvard Yard include Massachusetts Hall (1720), the Wadsworth House (1726) and Holden Chapel (1744), just some of a larger group of Georgian buildings constructed before the American Revolution. The Georgian style is eponymous for the first four British monarchs of the House of Hanover—George I, George II, George III, and George IV—who reigned in continuous succession from 1714 to 1830. It is in this time that Harvard, the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States, created its now iconic architectural identity. By the 19th century, other buildings in various styles were designed in the Yard, from University Hall (1815) in the Federal style, to Matthews Hall (1872) a Victorian Gothic dormitory, to Sever Hall (1880) one of the greatest examples of Richardsonian Romanesque architecture in the world; Harvard would later return to the Colonial-era Georgian style. Two great and lesser-known examples are Lionel Hall and Mower Hall.

1930 Bromley map showing recently completed Lionel and Mower Halls enclosing the two small quadrangles.

Current aerial of Lionel (yellow) and Mower (blue) Halls, facing west. Holden Chapel at center.

Abbott Lawrence Lowell, Harvard University President (1909-1933) is responsible for the wide-scale revival of the Georgian style at Harvard through his massive building programs for the Harvard River Houses, dormitories in the Yard, and the new President’s House. Two of the smallest being Lionel Hall and Mower Hall.

Screen Shot 2020-04-15 at 4.27.04 PM — Circa 1925 image of Mower (left) and Lionel (right) Halls during construction from Peabody Street. Courtesy of Harvard Property Information Resource Center.

Screen Shot 2020-04-15 at 1.21.57 PM — Plans of Lionel Hall (identical to Mower Hall) published in Architectural Forum, Dec. 1925.

Lionel and Mower Halls were built in 1925 in the Georgian Revival style and sited to frame the Holden Chapel and enclose the western edge of the Yard. Appropriately nicknamed “The Holden Twins”, the two dormitory buildings were designed by the firm of Coolidge, Shepley, Bulfinch, and Abbott, who went on to design many later buildings for Harvard, including the River Houses (both the Georgian style and later Modern Houses). Both Lionel and Mower Halls were funded by a building campaign by President Lowell to expand the university and house additional students. They are constructed of red brick with stone trim. Both buildings are near-identical and rise 2 1/2 stories into a gambrel roof. Symmetrical facades and stone entries with fluted pilasters capped with Corinthian capitals over rusticated stone complete the Georgian Revival motif.

46838104 — Lionel Hall quadrangle facade. Photo by Ralph Lieberman (2012).

46838107 — Lionel Hall entry detail. Photo by Ralph Lieberman (2012).

Lionel Hall is named after Lionel de Jersey Harvard (class of 1915), an English descendent of John Harvard who was killed in World War I in France. Lionel was the first known relative of John Harvard to attend his namesake’s University. He descended from Thomas Harvard (1609–1637), brother of Harvard University founder John Harvard (1607–1638), who had died childless. Lionel Harvard in 1918 served as Commander of Number One Company, in the British Army and died from mortar fire in March of 1918, during the German Spring Offensive, leaving behind a widow and infant son.

LioneldeJerseyHarvard_InUniformStanding — Undated photo of Lionel de Jersey Harvard, Creative Commons.

Mower Hall is named in honor of Thomas G. Mower, by a gift valued over $18,000 from Miss Sarah E. Mower as a memorial to her late father. Thomas Gardner Mower (1790-1853) graduated from Harvard College in 1810 and immediately began to study medicine, later enlisting in the army as a surgeon in the War of 1812. After the war, Mower settled in New York and became a head Surgeon and examiner for the US Army until his death.

While these two modest dormitories do not stand out for their size nor architectural grandeur among the iconic buildings in Harvard Yard, they together showcase how proper design, massing and siting can truly enhance the character of an area without diminishing the significance of nearby buildings.

50 Quincy Street – Swedenborg Chapel

Posted on February 7, 2020May 14, 2020 by cambridgehistoricalcommission

The following is an excerpt from Swedenborg Chapel Planning Study by Mark Careaga, AIA.

Quincy St 50 DSC_8865 — View of the Chapel from Kirkland Street, near the Quincy Street intersection. CHC Collection.

The Cambridge Society of the New Jerusalem – the formal name of the congregation that worships at Swedenborg Chapel – was formed in 1888. The following year, the New Church Theological School purchased the Treadwell-Sparks house at 48 Quincy Street, directly south of the site where the chapel would later be built in 1901. Named for Jared Sparks, professor of ancient and modern history and president of Harvard University (1849-53), the Treadwell-Sparks house would become the home for the theological school for nearly 70 years. Ten years after the school moved into Sparks House, planning commenced for the chapel, which would serve both the congregation and the school.(26)

chapel drawing — Original exterior details of the Chapel for the New Church Theological School by Warren, Smith and Biscoe Architects, ca. 1901. Cambridge Society of the New Jerusalem Archives.

warren sketch — Drawing of the Chapel by the architect, ca. 1900. CHC Collection.

The chapel’s architect was Herbert Langford Warren (1857-1917), a prominent Boston architect among whose many accomplishments include being a founder and president of the Society of Arts and Crafts, Boston. He was also the first “dean of the School of Architecture at Harvard, having taught there continuously since offering the first course in architecture in 1893.”(27) Warren was a lifelong practicing Swedenborgian, influenced by his father’s commitment to the faith. As an architect, Warren had distinct preferences for English styles,(29) which may stem from his roots (he was born, reared, and educated in Manchester, England (30), from Swedenborgianism’s roots (the church was founded in England in 1787 by devotees of Emanuel Swedenborg’s distinctive Christian theology (31), or both. The chapel’s design reflects the English gothic style consistent with Warren’s deeply felt affection for the medieval English parish church, which he expressed to his students in his lectures.

Below is a description of the Chapel published by the Cambridge Society of the New Jerusalem.

cambridge society desc full 2

chapel and sparks house — View of Sparks House to the right of the Chapel, later moved to Kirkland Street. Undated photograph, CHC Collection.

In the 1960s, the school decided to relocate to Newton, Massachusetts and sold the Sparks House property to Harvard. Given the historical significance of the house, Harvard relocated it a short distance away on Kirkland Street, where it remains today as the home for the minister of Harvard Memorial Church. As Robert Kiven observed in 1968, this was in fact the second time that Sparks House had been moved.(32) As City of Cambridge preservation planner Sally Zimmerman notes, “in 1901, the house was turned 90 degrees and moved south on its lot to make room for the chapel’s construction.”(33)

The New Church Theological School’s establishment at Sparks House marked the beginning of a century-long transformation of Quincy Street. Starting in the 1840s, Quincy Street began to unseat “Professor’s Row” (Kirkland Street) “as a prime residential location for those connected to [Harvard College], and it remained so up to the end of the nineteenth century, as a cosmopolitan group of noted academics settled along the street’s length.”(34) This can be seen in the 1865 map below, which shows five faculty houses on the west side of Quincy Street, in Harvard Yard, eventually replaced by expansion of academic facilities – in particular, Robinson Hall, Sever Hall, and Emerson Hall.

1865 map 2 — Map of Cambridge from 1865 showing faculty housing on Quincy Street. The Chapel would be built where “Prof Lovering” is located, just below “Kirkland St.” City of Cambridge GIS.

1916 Bromley map 3 — Map from 1916 showing the Church of the New Jerusalem, now known as the Swedenborg Chapel. Bromley 1916 atlas, CHC Collection.

The transformation began with the Fogg Museum, designed by architects Coolidge, Shepley, Bullfinch, and Abbott of Boston and built in 1927, taking over 28-36 Quincy Street. In 1963, the Le Corbusier-designed Carpenter Center was completed, with its iconic ramp structurally integrated with a basement library book-stacks facility that was added to the back of the Fogg in 1961 to expand the Fine Arts Library.(35) In 1963, the Minoru Yamasaki-designed William James Hall was completed to house Harvard’s Department of Psychology, which William James was instrumental in establishing.(36) James’ father, Henry James, Sr., was deeply influenced by the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg.(37) Six years later work began at 48 Quincy Street to construct Gund Hall for the Harvard Graduate School of Design (“GSD”), bringing the school that Herbert Langford Warren had founded in the late 1800s directly next door to the chapel he designed for his fellow Swedenborgians and affiliated theological school. Lastly, the Sackler Museum was constructed in 1985, replacing the 1951 Allston Burr Lecture Hall,(38) an outdated science building that had supplanted two smaller residential buildings for Harvard College.

View of lancet window with hand carved detailing. Photo courtesy of M. Careaga.

By the time it relocated to Newton in the 1960s, the New Church Theological School had changed its name to the Swedenborg School of Religion (SSR), and the school constructed an annex on the north side of the chapel, facing Kirkland Street. Designed by Cambridge architect Arthur Brooks, it provided fellowship space and other ancillary functions to support the Cambridge Society congregation, which continued to hold services at the chapel after the school’s departure. By the late 1990s, SSR announced its intentions to sell the chapel property to raise much-needed capital to support its operations. Concerned about the potential loss of a significant work of architecture, the local community and the Cambridge Historical Commission lobbied successfully to obtain City of Cambridge landmark status for the chapel in 1999, paving the way for the Massachusetts New Church Union and the Cambridge Society of the New Jerusalem to purchase the property from SSR in 2001. The chapel site is the only parcel of land that the university does not own on the city block bounded by Quincy Street, Kirkland Street, Sumner Road, and Cambridge Street. Regardless of its status as private property separate from the university, the chapel and its land are intimately connected to Harvard, woven into the physical fabric of the university’s campus as well as through the intersecting histories of Harvard University and the Cambridge Society of the New Jerusalem.

View of reredos and alter. Photo courtesy of M. Careaga.

Today, along with its own congregation, the Swedenborg Chapel hosts two other worshipping communities as well as a monthly Taize candlelight service.

Mark Careaga is Principal and Founder of Mark Careaga Architect LLC, in Cambridge MA. He can be found online at http://www.mcarq.co and on Twitter and Instagram @mcarqco

References

26. Maureen Meister, Architecture and the Arts and Crafts Movement in Boston: Harvard’s H. Langford Warren (Lebanon, NH: University Press of New England, 2003), 110.
27. Meister, 1.
28. Meister, 7-8.
29. cf. Meister, 5, 110.
30. Meister, 8.
31. Meister, 8.
32. Robert H. Kiven, “Letter from the Editor,” The Messenger 188, no.10 (October 1968): 142-143.
34. Sally Zimmerman, “Church of the New Jerusalem / Swedenborg Chapel, 50 Quincy Street, Landmark Designation Study Report,” prepared for the Cambridge Historical Commission, March 5, 1999, 8. This report can be accessed online at: https://www.cambridgema.gov/~/media/Files/historicalcommission/pdf/Landmark_reports/lm_quincy_50.pdf.
35. Zimmerman, “Landmark Designation Study Report,” 8.

36. Natalie Moravek, “William James Hall,” in “William James’ Cambridge,” website designed and hosted by the Cambridge Historical Society, accessed February 7, 2019, https://cambridgehistory.org/james/James 5.html.
37. “Famous Swedenborgians,” part of the website of the Swedenborgian Church of North America, accessed February 7, 2019, https://swedenborg.org/famous-swedenborgians/henry-james-sr/. The web page cites the following source: Alfred Halbegger, The Father: A Life of Henry James, Sr. (New York: Frrar, Straus and Giroux, 1994).
38. Susan E. Maycock and Charles M. Sullivan, Building Old Cambridge: Architecture and Development (Cambridge MA: The MIT Press, 2016), 817. Allston Burr was designed by architect Jean-Paul Carlihan of Coolidge, Shepley, Bullfinch & Abbott.

Torn Down Tuesday – Ivers & Pond Piano Company

Posted on January 21, 2020May 13, 2020 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

Torn Down Tuesday: 18 Old Dee Road

Posted on August 6, 2019May 13, 2020 by cambridgehistoricalcommission

Old Dee Road 18_001 — The house at 18 Old Dee Road was set back from the road and nestled into the landscape. (CHC Collection)

Constructed in 1947 for Harold and Anna Ryan, 18 Old Dee Road typified the mid-century International Style residence. Located on a cul-de-sac off Larchwood Drive, the house was a one-story, shed roof, frame structure with vertical wood tongue and groove siding. Fenestration consisted of single glazed wood frame casement and fixed glass units, with a horizontal emphasis. A large brick chimney was positioned near the back of the house. The main entrance was recessed at the center of the façade, and a side entry door was covered by a small shed roof. The house had an unusual trapezoidal footprint that widened from the front façade to the back, in response to the irregular shape of the lot.

map old dee road — The site’s shape, outlined in red, informed the layout of the house. Note the address numbers are different on this plan dated 1952. (City of Cambridge Public Works)

18 old dee road_Page_3 — View of the back of the house just prior to demolition. (CHC Collection, gift of Peter Wasserman)

18 old dee road_Page_5 — Floor plan as documented in 2005. The footprint is original except for an addition on the north wall which dates from 2001. (Dingman Allison Architects)

18 old dee road_Page_1 — View of main living area with fireplace. (CHC Collection, gift of Peter Wasserman)

The house was the first design by The Architects Collaborative (TAC) in Cambridge. The firm was headed by Walter Gropius, founder of the famed Bauhaus design school in Germany. In 1934, Gropius moved to England as Hitler rose to power. He eventually came to the United States in 1937 with his family to chair the architecture department at Harvard Graduate School of Design. Other TAC partners included Norman and Jean Fletcher, John and Sarah Harkness, Robert MacMillan, and Benjamin Thompson. As the name of the firm implied, there was an emphasis on a team approach to design and a modernist aesthetic that involved clean lines, functionality, and a rejection of superfluous ornamentation. Several partners designed their own homes at Six Moon Hill in Lexington which are still extant today. The firm’s only other residential commission in Cambridge was at 15 Hemlock Road in 1952.

tac 02 — Portrait of partners of TAC, 1952. Left to right, Sarah Harkness, Jean Fletcher, Robert McMillan, Norman Fletcher, Walter Gropius, John Harkness, Benjamin Thompson, and Louis McMillen . (*The Architects Collaborative*, Arthur Niggli, Ltd.)

TAC went on to design a range of projects around the world including the University of Baghdad, the Rosenthal Porcelain Factory in Bavaria, and the United States Embassy in Greece. In Massachusetts, the firm designed the Harvard Graduate Center, Wayland High School, and the John F. Kennedy Office Building in Boston, among others. Gropius was a part of TAC until his death in 1969. The firm closed in 1995.

The house was demolished in 2005.

Sources

http://architectuul.com/architects/view_image/the-architects-collaborative/27096

Jean Bodman Fletcher

http://wiedler.ch/felix/books/story/182

Historic Building Highlight: St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church, 239 Harvard Street

Posted on July 19, 2019May 14, 2020 by cambridgehistoricalcommission

Located at 239 Harvard Street in The Port neighborhood, the St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church (originally the Harvard Street Methodist Episcopal Church) has stood since before the American Civil War and has been a neighborhood landmark ever since.

239 Harvard Street, photo taken 07-2019.

Its story began when group of Methodists first congregated in 1835 with the hopes of gathering funds for their own place of worship. In 1843, a wooden structure was dedicated on the present site. The building was enlarged in 1851, only to be destroyed by fire in 1857. A second church was then built by Boston architect Harvey Graves. Suffering the same fate as the first, the wooden church burned to the ground three years later. Undeterred and learning their lesson, the church then hired Graves again to design a “fire-proof brick structure”. The cornerstone was laid in 1861 and the building was dedicated in 1862, this was the last church built in Cambridge before the Civil War.

Harvard St 239_1873 Hopkins — 1873 Atlas map showing church location.

Harvard St 239_Stereograph with Steeple — Circa 1870s lantern-slide showing original church design.

The handsome brick church was built with the symmetrical, volumetric treatment of a Greek temple with the architectural details of Romanesque and Gothic treatments. The front walls project outward at the middle to form an entrance tower, which is divided by brick string courses into a deeply recessed entrance. Above, the church had a massive bell-tower with large clocks on all four sides. The tower was capped with a tasteful dome standing approximately 130 feet above the street.

Side view postcard image. Postcard part of CHC Postcard Collection.

Colorized postcard image. Postcard part of CHC Postcard Collection.

By 1910, the tower was turning heads not for its beauty, but as it would sway back and forth with the wind, all above nearby playgrounds and pedestrians below. In 1914, the trustees of the church decided that the best thing to do would be to take the steeple down. The removal of the steeple necessitated the removal of the old clock, that for so many years kept the people in that section of the city posted on the time of day, as it was the only public clock within sight of homes in that vicinity. The tower that for just over 50 years and had rung out notes of joy on holidays such as Christmas and the Fourth of July and on other days, slow and solemn tones as with the death of Lincoln, was demolished.

Harvard St 239_1970 — 1970 photo of church taken as part of CHC Architectural Survey.

In 1941, the Harvard Street Methodist Church merged with Epworth Methodist, forming the Harvard-Epworth Methodist Church, which is located at 1555 Mass. Ave. That same year, St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church, formerly located at 211 Columbia Street, moved in. According to the “Historical Sketch of St. Bartholomew’s Protestant Episcopal Church of Cambridge”, prepared for the WPA Survey of State and Local Historical Records in 1936.

[The Church] “organized by the St. Andrew’s Association, an original group of seventeen Negroes who resented the segregation of Negro children in the Sunday School classes at St. Peter’s Church. Under the leadership of Mr. John S. Brown, the association held weekly meetings in the homes of various members for three months prior to the organization of the church. After the matter of segregation had been brought to the attention of Bishop Lawrence (William), who did not favor a separate church for negroes, he suggested that Mr. Brown and his people share worship with a small congregation of white people who were then worshipping at St. Bartholomew’s on Columbia Street. A group of forty negro worshippers marched into the church one Sunday morning, coming back every week with more and more members. The Bishop then advised turning the church over to the negro congregation with a white rector as a pastor. The members informed the Bishop that they desired a leader of their own race to represent them. In 1908, Rev. George Alexander McGuire, a native of Antigua, became the first settled pastor of the congregation”.

Harvard St 239_Postcard Interior Chancel005

The church is still home to St. Bartholomew’s and it is an active congregation.

Sources:

Cambridge Chronicle Archives.

Historical Sketch of St. Bartholomew’s Protestant Episcopal Church of Cambridge

Survey of Architectural History in Cambridge, Volume 3: Cambridgeport, 1971.