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!
In 1907, shoe and leather interests in Boston and Cambridge, began to envision a trade exhibition building for the marketing and sale of goods made in the area. Led by Oran McCormick, the group canvassed the two cities, looking for prime real estate on which to construct a venue worthy of the world’s first Shoe and Leather Exposition. McCormick purchased land from property owners along the under-developed Charles River Road (now Memorial Drive). At the time of the sale, Cambridge restricted heights of buildings along the river. Fearing that the deal would fall through and the building and its revenue would be lost to Boston, the Board of Aldermen called a special meeting with the Common Council and removed the restriction, and permitted the exposition building for construction.
Shoe and Leather Expo Building during construction. CHC Archives photo from Chamber of Commerce.
Plans for the development — already in the works — were drawn by Edward T. P. Graham, a prominent local architect best known for his many Roman Catholic church designs in and around Cambridge. The white building was constructed of wood, concrete and steel, measured 500 feet long and was Classical Revival in the grandest sense, evoking memories of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair.
Shoe and Leather Expo Building, circa 1909. CHC Archives photo from Chamber of Commerce.
Shoe and Leather Expo Building. CHC Archives photo from Chamber of Commerce.
The building featured five domes: a large central dome to represent America capped with an American flag, and four smaller ones to represent Africa, Asia, Australia and Europe with respective labeled flags. The main dome measured 125 feet from the ground floor. Under the large dome, a circular theater, an entirely new concept for exhibition buildings, with seating for upwards of 3,000 people on the upper tier anchored the two exhibition wings. A round bandstand on the ground floor was arranged for a large band, which performed every hour while the fair was open.
1909 photo of interior showing performance arena under central dome, courtesy of Cambridge Public Library-Cambridge Room.
Two interior corridors ran the length of the building and were lined with mahogany and glass display cases that were electrically lit to display exhibitor’s leather shoes and goods. Flanking the exhibits, 6’x14′ sample rooms showcased the finest products, and dealers staffed pop-up shops and fittings for patrons where they could be measured and order directly from the companies.
1909 photo of interior showing displays and sample rooms, courtesy of Cambridge Public Library-Cambridge Room.
On the ground floor at one end, a 10,000 square foot working exhibit served as a functioning shoe factory and was sponsored by the United Shoe Machinery Company, which educated visitors on every step in the manufacture of leather shoes from assembling of materials to the finishing shine.
Balconies on the building’s upper level overlooked the displays on the ground floor as well and housed displays for retailers’ exhibits which showed local and international dealers just what styles are in demand in other parts of the country, the displays were organized by state. A promenade on the roof of the building encircled the entirety of the structure and offered views of landmark buildings in Cambridge and Boston, as well as a front-row seat to the booming industrial development along the Charles River and nearby Kendall Square.
Shoe and Leather Expo Building central dome, before 1920. CHC Archives Photo from Chamber of Commerce.
The World’s First Shoe and Leather Exposition was held the entire month of July 1909 and an estimated 30,000 visitors attended the opening night. Attendance later dwindled due to the closing of the Harvard Bridge for repairs coupled with limited places to stay in Cambridge. By the end of the month, fair organizers were over $150,000 in debt. They failed to recruit other industries for trade shows and the building’s future was uncertain. The group, which had feared bankruptcy and demolition of the building were saved when Frederic Fisk, the man who initially owned the land, and his business parner William S. Youngman purchased the complex for redevelopment.
Circa 1910 photo of interior, courtesy of Cambridge Public Library-Cambridge Room.
Half of the building was leased to the J. Frank Cutter Automobile Company. Mr. Cutter had been in the carriage and automobile business for about 25 years. His company was one of the most active builders of limousines and landaulet car bodies as well as automobile tops and slip covers. The other half of the building was occupied by the Velie Motor Vehicle Co.’s Boston factory branch.
Shoe and Leather Expo Building interior, circa 1948. CHC Archives Photo from Chamber of Commerce.
Shoe and Leather Expo Building, circa 1948. CHC Archives Photo from Chamber of Commerce.
Shoe and Leather Expo Building. CHC Archives Photo from Chamber of Commerce.
The building, with its large central dome, suffered from deferred maintenance and seemed small and inadequate compared to the Great Dome at MIT’s new campus next door. The Shoe and Leather exposition building was demolished in phases beginning in the 1920s before the site was completely cleared in 1948 for the Eastgate Apartments at 100 Memorial Drive.
Shoe and Leather Expo Building, circa 1948 photo. CHC Archives Photo from Chamber of Commerce.
Usually, once a building is demolished, it is gone forever. In today’s Torn Down Tuesday feature, the house that burned was constructed alongside a twin neighbor that still stands, allowing us to enjoy its ornate architecture today. These houses are described in Susan E. Maycock’s and Charles M. Sullivan’s book, Building Old Cambridge.
“The 1870s produced the most flamboyant Mansards in Old Cambridge, with great flexibility of plan and silhouette, a profusion of architectural ornament, and bay windows soaring into Mansard-roofed towers. Much of the greater freedom in architectural detail may be attributed to the widespread use of wood-working machinery. High wages for craftsmen after the Civil War impelled builders to use cheaper machine-made instead of hand-carved architectural decoration in all but the most opulent commissions.”
91 Washington Avenue, ca. late nineteenth century (demolished in 1940)
“Forms were often reduced to geometric shapes that machines could reproduce. Many of the new decorative elements were turned on a lathe or cut with a jigsaw and then nailed together, because ornamentation composed of separate parts could be more elaborate than if carved from a single piece of wood. Machines also facilitated popular details, such as chamfered edges and incised linear designs on exterior ornament and interior marble mantels.”
81 Washington Avenue, 1960s
“On one of the highest spots in the city, a profusion of detail enhanced opulent twin mansions built side by side in 1871 for Henry J. Melendy and D. Gilbert Dexter, partners in a boot and shoe business in Boston. Dexter’s house burned in 1939, but Melendy’s at 81 Washington Avenue remains in remarkably original condition.”
81 Washington Aveneue, 1966-67
“The projecting entrance pavilion displayed a great freedom of design in the elaborate jigsawn and routed scrollwork, bargeboard, brackets, pilasters, and recessed dormers. A dramatic concave-roof cupola crowned the patterned slate roof and offered a spectacular view of Boston. The attention to detail continued on the interior with high ceilings, ornate woodwork, and patterned wood floors.”
81 Washington Avenue, 2009
For more information about the development of Old Cambridge, contact us at histcomm (@) cambridgema.gov or consult Building Old Cambridge by Susan E. Maycock and Charles M. Sullivan.
On June 9, 1855, the Cambridge Chronicle declared that “No part of our city is improving more rapidly at the present time than that part known as North Cambridge.” Among the citizens listed as building new structures was carriage-builder Benjamin Rand, then in the process of erecting a house on Elm Street along the Somerville border.
Rear view of Rand’s house and estate
Early deeds show that the land was owned by David Goddard, a wheelwright, and that there was a blacksmith shop on the North Avenue (later Massachusetts Avenue) end as early as 1802. In 1810, Goddard sold a shallow lot along North Ave to Joseph Kent, a blacksmith living in Charlestown, who had earlier purchased the shop but not the land. In 1812, Kent, now listed as a blacksmith in Cambridge, sold the same lot and blacksmith shop to Benjamin Rand, chaisemaker in Cambridge. In 1821, Stephen, Benjamin, David, and Sarah Goddard sold the land behind the blacksmith shop to Benjamin Rand, stretching his land to Elm Street.
Detail of 1854 Walling map. Rand’s house sits between Asa Cutter and Dr. Morse.
The two western portions of the blacksmith shop make up the only building that show on the 1854 Walling Map of Cambridge. In 1946, it was described as “an interesting two and a half story hip roof house…facing Massachusetts Avenue.”
1901-1911 Mass ave
In contrast to the house above, the new construction on Elm St was characteristic of the Italiante style. Here the center hall plan is emphasized by an entrance pavilion with a heavy cross gable. The most prominent feature of the composition is the massive projection of the cornice, which casts strong shadows and forms a determined break between the rook and walls. The wide front door is framed by paneled pilasters and shielded by a substantial hood carried on brackets.
112 Elm St ca. 1870s
The greater plasticity of massing in this house is further emphasized by bay windows on each end facade. The upright composition, set on a granite foundation and low terrace uncompromised by foundation shrubbery and set off by a trim cast iron fence, is a textbook example of American suburban dwelling at mid-century.
Wisteria on the Gazebo at the Henry Harry Seaton Rand Estate (2 June 1892), by Henry Lathrop Rand. Southwest Harbor Public Library.
Benjamin Rand died in 1859, and his will probated in 1860 left his household furnishings to his wife Rebecca, all the lot with the buildings to his son Henry C. Rand, who had been born in the house, and the remainder of his property in trust for the benefit of his wife and grandson, George R. Wade. Henry was a leather dealer in Boston with a storefront at 45 Merchants Row in Boston. Cambridge-based business Curtis Davis & Co soap-makers occupied a neighboring storefront at 21 Merchants Row.
Henry C. Rand & Co. – 45 Merchants Row, Boston (31 March 1902), by Henry Lathrop Rand. Southwest Harbor Public Library.
Henry’s son, Harry Seaton Rand worked as a clerk at his father’s business. Following Henry C.’s death on 29 March 1910, the property was left to Harry Seaton.
Henry Harry Seaton Rand in Gloucester (30 May 1892), by Henry Lathrop Rand. Southwest Harbor Public Library.
Henry Seaton married Mabel Malwhinney in 1909 and both lived the rest of their lives on the expansive estate. Harry died in August 1946, and Mabel passed away a few years later in August 1950. The couple had no children, and sought to leave the estate, its trappings, and their personal property to a party that would care for the land in perpetuity, possibly as a museum or park.
Detail of the Rand property on the 1916 Cambridge Bromley Map
The Rand estate was known and recognized by Cantabrigians for its expansive grounds, lush gardens, and pristine landscaping. Detailing the beauty of the grounds, the 2 August 1935 issue of the Cambridge Chronicle wrote:
“…there is much to be told about the architectural landscape features of the interior which is laid out with pleasant walks, well-kept lawns, expansive flower gardens, arbors, trellises and shrubbery, while numberless stately trees of various kinds provide caverns of cool shade in hot weather. A large greenhouse supplies a wealth of flowers and plants used for decoration. A restful calm creeps over one who is privileged to inspect these premises, which also furnish a splendid sanctuary for birds. The estate is enclosed in a high wooden, slat, fence, bordered inside by a thick foliage which obscures the view of passersby except here and there a peep hole enables one to catch some of the hidden beauties of the place.”
112 Elm St ca. 1885
Both the City of Cambridge and the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (SPNEA), now known as Historic New England, were offered the real estate as a gift, though neither party possessed the resources to maintain the aging property, and it was passed on to the general estate. In 1952, the property was cleared to make way for what is now the Porter Square Shopping Center, which opened to customers in 1957.
Porter Sq Shopping Center, 1960
For more information on the Rand Estate, please contact us at histcomm @ cambridgema[.]gov. For more information on the Porter Square Shopping Center, please see our Instagram post: https://www.instagram.com/p/B1ET72pguUu/
Sources: The Cambridge Chronicle Cambridge Historical Commission architecture survey files
Survey of Architectural History in Cambridge Vol. 5: Northwest Cambridge (1977)
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.
1873 Atlas map showing church location.
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.
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”.
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.
1976 image included in Architectural Record 09-1976. Edward Jacoby photographer.
Pusey Library as seen from Widener Library steps.
The Pusey Library in Harvard Yard was conceived from a 1960 report by Harvard, which outlined the needs for future expansion and growth for the university. The potential for expansion of facilities within Harvard Yard was surveyed between 1968 and 1970 by Hugh Stubbins, who examined the 22-acre area for circulation and the possibility for additional structures. Three years later, Stubbins was commissioned to design a new library in Harvard Yard.
Harvard University: An Inventory for Planning, 1960. Copy in CHC Library.
Pusey Library viewed from Harvard Yard.
The new library was to be named after Nathan Pusey, president of Harvard University from 1953-1971. President Pusey oversaw one of the largest building programs in Harvard’s history (second only to President Lowell). In 1957, Pusey announced the start of a program for Harvard College, a $82.5 million effort that raised $20 million more and resulted in three additions to the undergraduate House system: Quincy House (1959), Leverett Towers (1960), and Mather House (1970). During the 1960s, the Program for Harvard Medicine raised $58 million. In April 1965, the Harvard endowment exceeded $1 billion for the first time. Pusey left Harvard in June 1971 to become the second president of New York’s Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
1964 portrait of President Pusey. Courtesy of Radcliffe College Archives.
Hugh Stubbins believed that an above-ground library would be too constricted in the Yard and he began plans for a subterranean structure. From the beginning, the proposed library was envisioned as an interconnecting link among three existing libraries – Widener, Houghton and Lamont, all within close proximity. Its roof serves as a link as well, with paths and landscaping reinforcing the existing circulation network in the yard. From the exterior, the Pusey Library is a slanting grass-covered embankment only visible from some areas in Harvard Yard. Its roof is a stone-rimmed platform of earth containing a lawn, trees and shrubs.
Plan of Pusey Library.
Site plan and level one plan of Pusey Library.
The main entrance to the library is built into the slope of the hill with a broad band of brick paving at the ground level which forms a moat between the berm and the window wall. The moat allows for light to reach the interior on the perimeter walls without completely disrupting the landscape. Alexander Calder’s “The Onion” sculpture marks the main entry to the library.
Current view of “The Onion” by Alexander Calder.
1976 image included in Architectural Record 09-1976. Edward Jacoby photographer.
Construction of Pusey Library. Courtesy of Radcliffe Archives.
Construction of Pusey Library. Courtesy of Radcliffe Archives.
At the center, a two-story light well between Houghton and Lamont is apparent seemingly to only those who look for it. Sunk down two floors into the ground, the well is home to a Japanese Maple tree, which just peaks out from its subterranean home providing a clear statement of presence for the library.
Interior sunken courtyard with large maple tree.
Stubbins even designed the interior spaces, using a very 70’s design aesthetic. Nylon carpeting was used throughout except in bookstack areas. Most of the furniture was made of oak, as was the trim work. Walls were covered with a textured vinyl fabric with a flat off-white, non-reflective surface to reduce sound reverberation and create a sense of warmth in the otherwise bunker-like building. The interior spaces have since been modernized to meet current needs for the library.
Interior design by Hugh Stubbins’ office. Photographed by Edward Jacoby, 1976.
While underground construction is not needed or desirable in every location, it was brilliantly executed at the Pusey Library. Former Director of the Cambridge Historical Commission and historian, Bainbridge Bunting has said, “No other building has added so much to Harvard Yard yet disturbed its integrity so little”. We could not agree more!
Sources:
Architectural Record. September 1976, pages 97-102.
Much of the text from this post was provided by the Cambridge Women’s Heritage Project
“Maude Morgan” photographed by Jamie Cope (1993). Gift of Jamie Cope to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, in honor of Maud Morgan
Born in New York City, Maud Cabot graduated from Barnard College in 1926 and traveled to Paris to study at the Sorbonne. She did not begin to paint until she was twenty-four, when she met her future husband, the artist Pat Morgan, in the late 1920s in Paris. In 1929, the couple moved back to New York, where she studied at the Arts Student League.
Following her studies, Morgan worked with Abstract Expressionist Hans Hofmann and began to exhibit at galleries in New York. In 1938, Morgan had a successful show at the Julian Levy Gallery, known as a haven for Surrealist art as well as experimental film and photography. During the show’s run, paintings by Morgan were sold to the Whitney Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).
“The Old Mill” by Maud Morgan, ca. 1930-1940. Whitney Museum of American Art, 42.33
In 1940 she and her husband moved to Andover, Mass, where he taught art at Phillips Academy, and she began to teach at the nearby girls’ boarding school, Abbot Academy. The couple had two children. In 1957, Morgan separated from her husband and moved to Boston. A few years later she moved to Cambridge, where she lived and painted for the rest of her life.
Clipping from the Cambridge Chronicle, 2 April 1964, depicting Maud Morgan and her winning painting “Candelabra” from the 20th Annual Spring Exhibition of the Cambridge Arts Association
Morgan continued to exhibit in New York, primarily at the Betty Parsons Gallery, where she was included in joint exhibitions with Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Robert Motherwell, and other notable contemporary artists. Morgan had two retrospective exhibitions, 1967-1968 at the Fitchburg (Massachusetts) Art Museum, and 1977 at the Addison Gallery of American Art.
“Nautique SSX” by Maud Cabot Morgan, 1974. Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA, gift of Victoria M. Benedict, 1977.168. This screenprint was exhibited in Maud Morgan: A Retrospective Exhibition, 1927-1977, Addison Gallery of American Art
The addition of an artist’s studio at her 3 Howland Street residence was designed by Yugoslav-American architect Alexander Cvijanovic in 1962.
Proposed Addition to the Residence of Mrs. Patrick Morgan, 3 Howland Str Cambridge, Mass. Alexander Cvijanovic, Designer. June 12, 1962
Cvijanovic was a graduate of the Harvard Graduate School of Design and later became a partner in The Architects Collaborative (TAC) as well as a close associate of Walter Gropius. The studio addition was demolished in 2004.
The artist’s studio at 3 Howland Street in 1965
The artist’s studio at 3 Howland Street ca. 2004
Cvijanovic’s wife, Maria, remembers that her husband very much enjoyed working on the project, after which the couple and Morgan became life-long friends. Following the commission of her studio, Morgan gifted the couple one of her paintings–a piece that still hangs in their home today.
Alexander Cvijanovic in his apartment in front of the two pictures of the Amberg “glass cathedral.” This building was the last planned together by Walter Gropius and Cvijanovic, his partner. Photo: Peter Geiger (Mittelbayerische, 2016)
In 1970, after her divorce was final, Morgan spent six months in Africa. She returned to Cambridge and lectured on art at Harvard and MIT and taught at Lesley College’s Institute for the Arts and Human Development.
“Green Hazard” by Maud Morgan (ca. late twentieth century). Lawrence University Wriston Art Center Galleries Collections
According to Morgan’s Getty record, the artist was known as “Boston’s modernist doyenne,” leaving a legacy spanning 80 years worth of skilled and complex works “from abstracts to still lifes and self-portraits as well as collages.”‘
In 1980 a film about Morgan’s art, “Light Coming Through,” by Nancy V. Raine (Producer/Co-Director) and Richard Leacock (Co-Director/Cinematographer) was released. The film premiered on October 21 at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and was later shown at MoMA in New York and the Place Pompidou in Paris.
Maud Cabot Morgan, ca. 1950 / unidentified photographer. Robert G. McIntyre papers, 1903-1957. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
In her eighties and nineties, she continued painting, displaying continuing creativity. She received an Honor Award in 1987 from the Women’s Caucus for Art. Since 1993 the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, which holds a number of her significant paintings, has awarded the Maud Morgan prize yearly to a mid-career woman artist from Massachusetts.
Maud Morgan with self portrait, ca. 1990 / unidentified photographer. Robert and Jonatha Ceely papers regarding Maud Morgan, 1976-2000. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution
In 1995, at the age of ninety-two, she published an autobiography, Maud’s Journey: A Life From Art. She died four years later in Cambridge and was buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery. An art museum and gallery, Maud Morgan Arts, has been constructed in her honor.
The Harvard Undergraduate Science Center at 1 Oxford Street, is a pre-cast concrete behemoth designed by Josep Lluís Sert (1902-1983) the Dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Design at the time.
Staff photo of Harvard Science Center (1 Oxford Street) April 2019.
Designed in 1970 and completed just two years later, the Brutalist structure integrates its siting along the three major streets in which it is framed: Kirkland, Oxford and Cambridge Streets and is a visual link between Harvard Yard and the North Yard. The design terraces upward from the pedestrian mall overpass at Cambridge Street to limit the massing and shifts the bulk of the structure back (north) with just a more pedestrian-scaled section fronting the mall. A central spine runs down the building which visually serves as an upwards staircase and terminates at a nine-story tower.
Approximately two-fifths of the cost of the $25 Million building centered around the two un-adorned concrete towers on the western and eastern walls of the Science Center. The non-descript boxes are water-cooling towers intended to service not only the Center itself, but all buildings in the North Yard. The towers are connected by a massive pump room in the basement. The tarantula-like steel girders seemingly creep over the lecture hall area and serve to support the roof of the auditorium.
It is believed that Sert took inspiration for the design from his former mentor, Le Corbusier, who designed the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard just ten years prior. The Science Center was influenced by an unbuilt project, The Palace of the Soviets, designed for Russia by Le Corbusier in 1931 and worked on by Sert as a young architect. The current Science Center borrows the steel girder and cable vocabulary from the unbuilt Palace of the Soviets along with the use of pre-cast concrete panels to somewhat pay homage to his mentor. Sert loved the use of concrete as an “honest and muscular material that could be molded into any shape” and liked to set splashes of bright color against its textured grey – “like a parade of elephants and parrots”.
LeCorbusier’s Model of the Palace of the Soviets (unbuilt)
Aerial of the Palace of the Soviets (unbuilt)
Harvard later outgrew the Science Center and hired firm Leers-Weinzapfel Associates Architects in 2004 to expand the science village. Three vertical additions of minimal steel-framed glass volumes contrast in materiality from the concrete panel main structure yet echo elements of the initial design. The verticality of the glass panes creates a visual rhythm with the vertical grooves in the older precast concrete panels. At the interior, splashes of color and light flood the spaces and the newly dedicated museum space is visually connected to a light-filled terrace.
Rendering of completed additions by LWA Architects.
Completed additions by LWA Architects.
Interior courtyard with new addition by LWA Architects.
The former Cambridge Federal Savings Bank was designed in 1937 by local architect William L. Galvin as was located at 38 Brattle Street in Harvard Square.
38 Brattle Street as it was constructed, photo taken circa 1939.
The limestone-faced bank was an excellent and rare example of Art Moderne architecture in Cambridge built at the tail-end of the Great Depression. At this time, banking institutions sought high-quality design in their facilities to provide a sense of wealth and security for existing and prospective members. The two-story bank was symmetrical in form and had a metal and glass storefront with glass blocks comprising most openings.
Drawing of Cambridge Federal Savings Bank from William L. Galvin Collection at CHC Archives.
At the entrance, a curved metal canopy was topped by a bold glass transom with an eagle etched into the glass by Galvin. Also designed by Galvin, two porthole windows showing a beaver and an owl respectively, were etched into glass. The beaver was included, likely for its industrious qualities and the owl for its wisdom.
Drawing of eagle design used in transom from William L. Galvin Collection at CHC Archives.
As the banking industry grew after the conclusion of World War II, the bank expanded, also hiring Galvin to design a one-story addition which blended seamlessly with the main structure.
Photo of 38 Brattle Street after merging with Watertown Federal Savings Bank, 1972.
Photo showing one-story addition to the left of the main building at 38 Brattle Street, 1972.
1966 Sanborn Map showing location and detail of 38 Brattle Street.
In 1967, the Cambridge Federal Savings and Loan Association merged with Watertown Federal Savings Association and was renamed as the Northeast Federal Savings Bank. The bank building at 38 Brattle Street was named a branch office of the bank and served that use for the remainder of its life.
A demolition application was submitted in 1987 for the building and it was demolished soon after to be replaced by One Brattle Square.
Staff photo of One Brattle Square, 2013.
Staff of the Cambridge Historical Commission was able to save the large transom with etched eagle design from the building just before it was demolished, the two porthole windows were already removed. The transom is now framed in the wall of our conference room at 831 Massachusetts Avenue.
For more information on the building or if you would like to schedule a visit to our office to review Galvin’s plans and drawings in the William L. Galvin Collection, please contact us at histcomm@cambridgema.gov.
In the year 1960, just 22 women were admitted to MIT, in comparison to 914 men. After decades of feeling pressure to admit more female students, President James Killian and his Chancellor Julius Stratton made the decision not only to admit more women to the university, but to actively work to improve the environment and resources available for female students.
The shift to admit and provide better education to young women was described years later in 1970 in a report written by Professor Emily Wick, Associate Dean of Students and the first woman promoted to tenure at MIT:
“Until the Institute could commit itself to educating women in significant numbers, and could provide suitable living conditions, coeds were not overly `successful.’ … Before 1960 women entered MIT at their own risk. If they succeeded — fine! If they failed — well, no one had expected them to succeed. … The class of 1964 entered in 1960 knowing that MIT believed in women students. It was the first class in which coeds, as a group, matched the proportion of B.S. degrees earned by their male classmates!”
Emily L. Wick talking with students circa 1963. Photo courtesy of MIT Class of 1964.
An early and vocal advocate for women’s rights and increased visibility of women at MIT, Katharine Dexter, (1875-1967) graduated from MIT in 1904 in biology. She married Stanley McCormick whose mental illness emerged soon after. Throughout her life, she tried to find a biological basis and cure for schizophrenia as well as supporting women’s right to vote as a strong proponent of the suffrage movement. Later in life, she turned her full attention to the construction of the first women’s dormitory at MIT, which coincided with the Institute’s newly established goals for admitting more women. Starting in the 1940s, 120 Bay State Road in Boston was occupied as a women’s dormitory (the only such dormitory for female MIT students at the time), and it housed approximately 19 graduate and undergraduate women students from the early 1950′s until McCormick opened. The Bay State Road dorm was over a mile from campus, which was less than ideal. As a result, Katharine funded a taxi service to shuttle the students to campus on poor weather days.
Katharine Dexter McCormick in 1913. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia.
In 1963, the west wing of Stanley McCormick Hall was dedicated and named after her late husband. Just three years later, the second wing (a second tower) was constructed and dedicated just after her death. Both phases of the building were bankrolled by Katharine Dexter McCormick and were to house women studying at MIT. McCormick Hall was designed by Herbert Beckwith, a member of MIT’s architecture faculty and principal of the firm Anderson, Beckwith and Haible. Elizabeth McMillin Beckwith, Herbert’s wife, also an architect in the firm, assisted with the design. The dorm could today be classified as “Brutalist” in design. The two concrete and glass towers front Memorial Drive and are connected by a low-rise community space. The buildings are used today as all-female dorms housing upwards of 255 students.
Katharine McCormick speaking at McCormick Hall dedication ceremony. Photo courtesy of MIT Class of 1964.
McCormick Hall West Wing. Photo courtesy of MIT Class of 1964.
Image located in McCormick Hall Survey File at CHC. Photo circa 1966.
Image located in McCormick Hall Survey File at CHC. Photo circa 1967.
2017 aerial view of McCormick Hall and surrounding structures.
To learn more about McCormick Hall, feel free to make a research appointment with us by emailing histcomm@cambridgema.gov.
