Do you live in a Cambridge home built before 1930? This is for you.
The Queen Anne house at 314 Harvard Street: the asbestos siding was removed in about 1975 and the exterior restored to its original appearance. Only the false timberwork in the gable ends had been destroyed and required replacement.
Cambridge boasts a rich tradition of residential architecture, distinct from Boston and its neighboring towns. Its unique social history—as county seat, university hub, Boston suburb, and cultural melting pot—has produced a remarkable variety of houses. From masterpieces by renowned American architects to vernacular designs crafted by local carpenters, the city’s neighborhoods still reflect the creativity and individuality of generations of Cambridge builders, contractors, and architects.
Cover of Maintaining Your Old House in Cambridge (1988)
To help preserve this heritage, the Cambridge Historical Commission published Maintaining Your Old House in Cambridge in 1988. This comprehensive guide, written by experts in the field, equips homeowners and tenants with the knowledge to protect both the structural soundness and visual character of their homes.
Diagram of typical roof and cornice construction
The text and accompanying illustrations offer clear, practical advice on repairs and upkeep that honor a house’s stylistic integrity. Topics range from fences, siding, and gutters to chimneys, contractor selection, and more. Illustrated throughout, the book remains an invaluable resource for anyone caring for an older home.
Door design variations
And if you ever need additional guidance, the Cambridge Historical Commission is available to provide technical assistance on rehabilitation and restoration projects—ensuring that your home continues to embody the city’s architectural legacy.
To obtain your own copy of Maintaining Your Old House in Cambridge for just $10, click here, stop by our office at 831 Mass Ave, or email us at histcomm@cambridgema.gov.
Here at the CHC we are constantly updating our library holdings and our researcher resources. Since the beginning of last year, we’ve added 196 new entries to our database! We aim to accrue the most complete collection of resources on Cambridge and its history that we possibly can. Scroll down to learn about our latest and newest offerings. They may inspire you to Get Caught Reading this month. All of the books listed here were published in 2019.
The front covers of some of the books we chose
Maria Baldwin’s worlds: A story of Black New England and the fight for racial justice by Kathleen Weiler
Written by a local Tuft’s professor, this nonfiction biography recounts the life of Maria Baldwin (1856-1922), an African American educator in Cambridge and Boston. After growing up in Cambridge, Baldwin had to seek out employment in Maryland before returning to Cambridge where she gained a position at the Agassiz school. In 1889 she was promoted to principal of the school, making her the first female African American principle in Massachusetts. Some of her other major contributions included her efforts within many civic and educational organizations in the Boston area, including the literary Omar Khayyam Circle, the Women’s Era Club, the Cantabrigia Club, and the Boston Literary and Historical Association– but those are just to name a few. Weiler’s book offers insight into the challenges Baldwin faced and how she was able to surmount racialized barriers and achieve significant feats in both her professional and personal life.
Here are some of our favorite plates from The Atlas: Plate 13. Boston in 1800; Plate 17. Literary Boston, 1837-1891; Plate 27. Streetcar Suburbs, 1870-1900; Plate 32. Sports and Recreation, 1895-1903.
The atlas of Boston history edited by Nancy S. Seasholes
A pictorial and textual work, this book contains 57 spreads of Boston’s landscape throughout its history. Detailing the evolution of the terrain over time, this resource shows the trajectory of change in one convenient resource. Containing both this geographic topic as well as explanations of the visualized history, readers can gather a well-rounded overview of Boston’s history. However, this work is not just about the physical changes of the city over time. As stated on the book’s official page, it contains “a wide range of topics including Boston’s physical and economic development, changing demography, and social and cultural life.”
Splendid Epworth: How a chapel in Old Cambridge became a pillar of liberal New England methodism by Lane Lambert
Check this book out to learn about the history of Harvard Square’s Harvard-Epworth United Methodist Church. The first on this subject matter, the book chronicles the church’s congregation from its creation in 1868 as the North Avenue Methodist Society as well as the built environment of the church’s location at 1555 Mass Ave. If you visit us to reference this book, you can read about notable members and pastors, including pastor Daniel C. Whitsett (active 1958-1963) and pastor Edward L. Mark (active 1964-1996). Lane Lambert offers a unique perspective as both the author and a church member of this book.
Genealogical extract of the record books of the Charles River Baptist Church of Cambridge, Massachusetts renamed in 1895 the Emmanuel Baptist Church
Genealogical extract of the record books of the Charles River Baptist Church of Cambridge, Massachusetts renamed in 1895 the Emmanuel Baptist Church by Glenn Berry
This publication is a great source for anyone seeking to do local genealogical research! It covers the church’s baptisms from 1876 to 1955. Currently the Cambridgeport Baptist Church after it was purchased in 1982, this church was once located at 459 Putnam Ave.
The colonial records of Kings Chapel 1686-1776 edited by James B. Bell and James E. Mooney
We pulled the book blurb from the University of Virginia Press to give you an idea as to what this book is about:
“The story of the origins of the first Anglican congregation established in Boston and New England, Kings Chapel, is significantly shaped by the gradually emerging imperial policies of the government of Charles II during the late seventeenth century. It is a transatlantic account influenced largely by two forces, one in London, driven by the members of the Board of Trade and Plantations, and the other in Boston, driven by a handful of merchants with active and productive commercial ties with London and Bristol trading firms. Extending the Church of England to Puritan Boston after the revocation in 1684 of the Massachusetts Bay Colony’s first charter and the creation of the province as a royal jurisdiction was received reluctantly by the town’s residents, who considered it a novel, abrupt, and unwanted political and ecclesiastical act. This was not merely the extension of a religious group from the Old World to the New, for the Church of England was granted great political and cultural authority through the laws of England’s unwritten constitution.”
Bonus! The book’s seller on Amazon does not deliver to the United States so this is your chance to read the book easily.
The arts and crafts houses of Massachusetts: A style rediscovered. Can you point out the Cambridge homes?
The arts and crafts houses of Massachusetts: A style rediscovered by Heli Meltsner
Do you like architecture and local buildings? Then you’ll love this new addition to our library. A great resource on this 20th century aesthetics movement in our state, this book highlights local places you may have walked by without even realizing it. Additionally, as the book’s official site states, “it is also the first book to explore the use of this cutting-edge style in designing buildings for estate servants, transit workers, and renters—groups that historically lacked access to professionally designed homes.” Written by a local resident who has been the curator of the Cambridge Historical Society as well as a contributor to various planning and preservation efforts, this book is a fantastic read.
in the window display is a tribute to the owner, Ifeanyi Menkiti, who passed away in June. (CHC)
Founded in 1927 by Adrian Gambet and Gordon Cairnie, Grolier Poetry Book Shop is the oldest continuously run poetry shop in the country. Located on the corner of Mass Ave and Plympton Street, the Georgian Revival building was constructed in 1902 as an exclusive dormitory, known as Hamden Hall, with retail on the bottom floor. The building was remodeled in 1917 for apartments.
The book shop initially stocked mainly private press books, some poetry, and a sampling of avant-garde literature. Poets frequented the 404-square foot spot over the years including Charles Olson, Anais Nin, Seamus Heaney, Frank Bidart, Robert Pinsky, and David Ferry.
Solano’s dog, Pumpkin, outside the book shop. (photo undated)
In 1976, then owner Louisa Solano developed the Grolier as an exclusive showcase for poetry. According to an article in The Paris Review, Solano had first stepped into the store at the age of fifteen and knew she wanted to own a store like that one day. She stocked around 15,000 current poetry volumes with an emphasis on small press publications. That same year saw the co-sponsorship of the Grolier Poetry Prize with the Blacksmith House Poetry Reading Series. She also introduced the concept of autograph/reading parties. As the audiences increased, the poets moved from inside the store to the stairs. A formal reading series soon developed. In 1986 the Intercollegiate Undergraduate Poetry Reading Series was established. Eleven colleges were represented. For the duration of her ownership, the Ellen La Forge Memorial Poetry Foundation assumed the funding of these activities and the sole responsibility of the Prize. In 1987, Solano received the Women’s National Book Association Award as one of 70 Who Have Made A Difference.
Portrait of Solano and Pumpkin by Elsa Dorfman. (Wikimedia)
In April 2006 Ms. Solano sold the Grolier Book Shop to Ifeanyi Menkiti, poet and professor of philosophy at Wellesley College. Although the store was in dire financial straits, Menkiti said “…it was a labor of love. It was something that needed to be done to keep a historic place from going under” (The Paris Review, Feb. 2013). In 2008, the corner of Plympton Street and Bow Street was dedicated as Louisa Solano Square.
Menkiti sitting in the book shop. (boston.com)
Mr. Menkiti passed away in June 2019. In an interview with the Harvard Crimson newspaper in 2017, Menkiti considered the appeal of poetry, “After 9/11, people didn’t ask to read a book of history, or a novel—they wanted to read a book of poems,” Menkiti says. “In a time of happiness or discomfort, people seem to fall back on poetry. What is it about poetry that has this hold on us, that allows it to be a source of solace, grief, and celebration?”
Portrait of Sarah Wyman Whitman by Helen Bigelow Merriman, Wikipedia.org
Sarah Wyman Whitman (1842-1904) was a painter, stained glass artist, and book cover designer based in Boston. Whitman was also a doyenne of Boston society, along with Isabella Stewart Gardner for whom she designed a sign over the entrance to her house, now a museum in the Fenway. Married to Henry Whitman, a wool and dry goods merchant, they entertained in their home on Beacon Hill and summered in Beverly Farms on the North Shore. In addition to her social activities, Whitman was deeply involved in philanthropy. She founded the Boston Water Color Club in response to the Boston Society of Water Color Artists who only admitted men, and co-founded the Boston Arts & Crafts Society. Whitman advocated for Radcliffe College and better educational opportunities for women and children in the public school system, and she was a benefactor of Howard University and Tuskegee Institute.
“Gloucester Harbor”, late 1880s or early 1890s, Wikipedia.org
Whitman studied painting with William Morris Hunt of the Boston Museum School from 1868 to 1871, and studied drawing with William Rimmer. In the late 1870s, she traveled to France and studied drawing with Hunt’s former master Thomas Couture. She worked in oil and pastel, painting landscapes around New England as well as floral studies. She also painted numerous portraits, preferring to paint her subjects against dark backgrounds. She exhibited widely in the 1870s through the 1890s, including the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893.
“A Song,” signed S. W. Whitman, 1883, invaluable.com
In the early 1880s, Whitman apprenticed with John La Farge, a stained glass artist who utilized opalescent glass in his work and innovated methods of layering and welding glass. Whitman also used opalescent glass in her own work along with colored and transparent glass. Whitman later started her own firm, Lily Glass Works, and her stained glass windows can be found in churches and colleges throughout New England, including the Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe, Memorial Hall at Harvard University, Trinity Church in Boston, and First Parish Church in Brookline. For Harvard’s Memorial Hall she designed both the elaborate south transept window and the Honor and Peace window on the south side of what is now Annenberg Hall.
Stained glass at the Memorial Hall, Harvard University, 1900. The left side depicts “honor”, the right, “peace”.
In 1884, Whitman was asked to design book covers for the publishing company Houghton Mifflin. She designed over 200 books, working in the Art Nouveau style using organic forms and delicate line work. She also employed gold stamping and was one of the first to carry the design over the front, spine, and back of the book.
Whitman designed many book covers for her dear friend Sarah Orne Jewett, author of Country Of The Pointed Firs and A Marsh Island, among others. Wyman also designed a stained glass window in memory of Jewett’s father at his alma mater, Bowdoin College.
Smith, Betty S. “Sarah de St. Prix Wyman Whitman.” Old Time New England, V. 77, No. 266, Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, Boston, 1999.
My Time Working as a Mayor’s Youth for the Commission
Hello, I’m Raimi. I am interning at the Cambridge Historical Commission for half of the summer of 2018, through the Mayor’s Summer Youth Employment Program. I started to be interested in history during 6th grade, because that was the first year we had a real dedicated history class. That year we learned mostly about geography, pre-civilization humans, and the bronze age. Eventually my gaze fell upon history in the last 200 years or so, especially the Cold War, and very ancient history.
(This could be either of the two things I just mentioned)
History is what I want to do with my life, and I’m glad I got this chance to work in an actual historical workplace. I deal with mostly filing and photocopying. One of the coolest projects was when I made a spreadsheet of almost 400 photo negatives, which took a little over 3 days to complete.
What I like best about interning here is that there is usually something new to do every day. To be specific, one day I might be photocopying entire books, and the next I could be filing away slides. My favorite artifact here at the CHC is this long petition for a new water source with over 2000 signatures, including one Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
A few facts about myself is that I have a cat named Moonlight, and a dog named Lola, but my favorite animal is the Venezuela Poodle Moth.
THE MOTH
Lola Belle Wiggles
Dr. Moonlight M.D.
I enjoy reading, and my favorite book is Lirael by Garth Nix, but I would say the most well written book I’ve ever read is Lord of the Flies by William Golding.
Oof ouch, the fire is too hot
Last thing I want to say is that if you’re in high school you can get job experience right now. It doesn’t even have to be a MYSEP job, it could just be volunteering at your school library. So don’t wait and start early.
Today’s blog post comes to you from our guest author, CHC volunteer Michael Kenney.
“Was there a city of Norumbega” on the Charles River just upstream from Cambridge? That was the rhetorical question posed in 1891 by Eben Norton Horsford, a chemistry professor at Harvard and developer of Rumford Baking Powder. And he was certain of the affirmative answer.
Horsford’s brook-no-doubt answer is to be found in his Defenses of Norumbega, now in the library of the Cambridge Historical Commission. It is an answer he proves to his satisfaction with a series of 16th century maps and the journals of an 18th century seaman, with the name itself derived from the Algonquin word for “a quiet place between the rapids.”
As for the “habit of ear” which was a key element of his researches, Horsford notes in an aside that he had spent his childhood among Indians as the son of missionaries.
It is a densely-argued thesis, with excursions into the accounts of voyages from those of Leif Ericsson to Samuel de Champlain, along with the narratives of explorers and merchants who visited the “city of Norumbega.”
Should one wonder what remains, Horsford offers, by way of an answer, speculative maps including the one reproduced here (above), as well as the curious photograph (below) of what he describes as “the dam, docks and wharves of the ancient city of Norumbega,” sitting alongside the Charles River at Weston.
And the still-curious will find, tucked into the farthest southwest corner of Cambridge, a collection of Horsford-themed streets — Thingvalla Avenue (named for a kettle-hole which Horsford thought was a Norse amphitheater), Ericsson Street, Norman Street, Norumbega Street, and Vineyard Street.
Stay tuned for a future blog post on the interesting Mr. Horsford and Rumford Baking Powder.
We are pleased to announce that our online catalog is nearly complete and is now live to the public. Cataloging the CHC Research Library has been a long process, but entirely worth it. We are especially grateful for the hard work of our cataloging intern, Becky Shea, whose efforts made it possible to complete the catalog.
