In Honor of National Pickle Day, established by the Pickle Packers Association in 1949
Final stanza: poem in New England Farmer May 8, 1824
The word “pickle” in English comes to us from the Dutch pekel or northern German pókel, meaning “salt” or “brine.” Pickles have been around for at least 4,000 years. Some accounts say they are native to India, others that they were invented in Mesopotamia. They made their debut in the Americas via Christopher Columbus. He (or someone) had figured out that brine-soaked pickles had the advantage of preventing scurvy on long voyages. Cleopatra liked them. So did Napoleon. So do we, if for no other reason than “pickle” is a fun word to say.
PICKLE FACTORIES IN CAMBRIDGE:
The Harvard Pickle Works, Inc., located at 172 Thorndike Street.
Harvard Brand Pure Cider Vinegar bottle, ca. 1930s. (Cambridge Historical Commission Objects Collection)
Detail: 1930 Cambridge Bromley Map showing Harvard Pickle Works
170-174 Thorndike Street at Eighth St. Photograph 1944. CHC collections.
Fickle Pickle fact: In 2020 Americans were eating 20 billion pickles a year.
H.J. Heinz & Co. Warehouse, located at 201 Vassar Street.
H.J. Heinz an Co. was founded in 1869 in Pittsburgh, PA by Henry John Heinz, the “Pickle King”. In 1915, the company built a plant at 201 Vassar Street in Cambridge. In 1968, the property was sold to MIT.
Exterior view of 201 Vassar Street, photographed by Christopher Hail (Sept 1984)
Fickle Pickle fact: In 2018 someone calculated if each pickle sold in America that year were about 6” long it would take 2.4 million pickles to get to the moon.
Advert from the Cambridge Chronicle January 21, 1954. Two jars for only 49 cents!
Sanborn, Parker & Co., a Boston pickle concern with a manufacturing plant in East Cambridge.
Cambridge City Directory 1882
Fickle Pickle fact: During WWII 40% of all pickle production was allocated to the ration kits of the armed forces.
ADVICE FOR PICKLERS
Cambridge Chronicle September 30, 1847
Cambridge Chronicle September 4, 1858
Fickle Pickle fact: pickle crunches can be heard from ten paces away.
It wasn’t just cucumbers that were pickled. Here is a “Receipt” for pickled peaches:
Cambridge Chronicle September 16, 1847
“Receipts” for what we now call “recipes” was the usual term through much of the 18th century. In the 19th century, the term “recipes” outpaced “receipts” although both words can still be found in usage until the early 20th century.
NOT JUST FOR CRUNCHING: OTHER USES FOR PICKLES AND PICKLE JUICE
We now know that because of its high sodium content, sports players often drink pickle juice to replace what they used in sweating. Pickle juice also stimulates a “neurological reflex that prevents muscles from cramping.” But did you know that it is effective at putting out fires?
Cambridge Chronicle December 24, 1859
VINEGAR
Of course, you can’t talk about pickles without talking about vinegar. One of the largest purveyors of vinegar in Cambridge was Joseph A. Holmes & Co:
Cambridge Chronicle August 6, 1846
In the 1880s, vinegar became a hotter topic than you might imagine. In 1879, Congress passed the “Whiskey Vinegar Law.” While aimed at prohibiting the adulteration of foodstuffs (in part by stating that all vinegar had to contain at least 5% acidity), it also allowed whiskey distillers to use whiskey in the manufacture of alcoholic vapor vinegar, which they called “white wine vinegar.”
A big complicated hoo-ha ensued, involving charges of illicit distilling, food adulteration, tax avoidance and undercutting the apple cider market, and it all got tangled up with a regional Eastern vs Western issue. Most “whiskey vinegar” was produced in the west, and the “alcoholic vapor” process was cheaper. To combat what they saw as undercutting the market for their apple cider vinegar, the eastern apple growers focused on the idea that the law allowed anybody to open a “vinegar distillery” which, while cranking out vinegar, would also be able to crank out barrels of nefarious illicit whiskey without taxation.
Boston Globe April 5, 1881
New England Farmer November 11, 1882
The result of the controversy caused Cambridge (and other cities) to create the position of “Inspector of Vinegar,” a job often combined with the “Inspector of Milk.” It is not clear if the law was ever repealed.
THE MANY USES OF VINEGAR
Now that you know more about the vinegar crises than you ever thought you would need, here are some entertaining articles about the uses of vinegar.
Cambridge Chronicle August 27, 1846
To prevent smoking lamps…
Cambridge Chronicle July 8, 1847
As a teeth-cleaning solution…
Cambridge Chronicle November 18, 1847
As a wart remover…
Cambridge Chronicle October 18, 1848
As fascinating entertainment…
Cambridge Chronicle April 11, 1850
As a cure for poisonous wounds…
The Cambridge Press, August 13, 1887
MORE FICKLE PICKLE FACTS FROM THE INTERNET
You want to avoid being in “de pekel zitten” (Dutch) if you can avoid it. It literally translates as sitting in the pickle, and has come to mean just plan ole drunk.
But you can also be “in a pickle” if you are in a quandary. Shakespeare used the phrase in The Tempest when Alsono asks: “How camest thou in this pickle?” and Trincuclo responds “I have been in such a pickle since I saw you last that, I fear me, will never out of my bones.” Poor Trinculo meant he had been drunk, but eventually the phrase came to mean being in a tricky situation, or a quandary.
Nutritional facts: Pickles provide 20% of the daily recommended amount of vitamin K, which helps your blood clot, 6% of the calcium adults need for strong bones, teeth and healthy nerves, and 6% of your daily requirement of potassium, which also helps your nervous system.
Pickleball, a sort of paddle tennis game, was founded in 1965. Its creators called it “pickleball” in recognition of the “pickle boat” – – a hodge-podge thrown together crew in in crew races. And that reference, in turn, was to the last boat in English yacht races which was called the “fisher,” because that boat, coming in last, would stop along the way to fish for herring which were then – – you’ve got it – – pickled.
Today’s post was written by CHC volunteer Kathleen Fox.
In the mid to late 19th century, virtually all of the monument makers in Cambridge hailed from Scotland, Ireland, and England, as did virtually all of their employees. In 1855, 22% of Cambridge’s citizens were born in Ireland and by 1865 the number of Irish had increased by an additional 20%.[i] Of course it’s difficult to make assumptions about origins based on surnames, but some are pretty clear. In 1885 the City Directory listed approximately 1600 individuals with names beginning with “O’” or “Mc” or “Mac”. And that doesn’t even include all the other Irish and Scottish names that begin with other letters! 70 men identified themselves as working in the marble, granite and monument making businesses that year. One of the earliest, and the most nationally prominent, was Alexander McDonald(not to be confused with an earlier Alex McDonald, a stone worker on Western Ave in 1849.)
Alexander McDonald (1829-1906) was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, the major exporter of granite world-wide—including to the United States. Young Aberdonian granite laborers would frequently work summers overseas, returning to Scotland in the winter to prepare granite for the next year’s export. Beginning around 1865, the shortage of skilled workers in the U. S. led to more and more of these young men emigrating permanently.[ii]
The exact date of McDonald’s arrival in the U.S. is unclear. His obituary states he arrived in New York in 1852, and subsequently moved to Albany, where he met his future wife, Elizabeth Lyall. He appears to have arrived in Cambridge in 1856, apparently with enough capital, at age 27, to start his business.
McDonald proved to be an acute businessman. Given his almost immediate success in Cambridge, it is more than likely he worked as a stone cutter in Aberdeen. In 1867, ten years after starting his monument business, he purchased a granite quarry in Mason, N. H. This he ran “entirely by steam-power without the use of horses or oxen,” and where he put in action the “McDonald Stone Cutting Machine” which he had invented and patented.
From: The collection of building and ornamental stones in the United States National museum by Merrill, George P. (George Perkins), 1854-1929, p.328.
McDonald’s first place of business was on Rice Place (later renamed Maynard Place). He built a wharf on the Charles River directly across from Rice Place—one of only two wharves this far upriver. McDonald’s advertisements first appeared in the Cambridge newspapers in 1857:
Cambridge Chronicle July 25, 1857
Detail: G. M. Hopkins Cambridge Atlas, 1873. McDonald’s Wharf across from Rice Place (later Maynard Place) can be seen bottom right
McDonald’s Wharf. Image: Historic New England
A team of 18 oxen moving a piece of marble for Alexander McDonald, date unknown. Image: Cambridge Historical Commission
Detail: the sign reads “Alexander McDonald Mount Auburn Marble & Granite Works Cambridge Mass.”
McDonald lived for a while further west, in the Jonas Wyeth homestead, and in 1868 purchased land from the Wyeth estate for $4,000.[iii] The land was strategically located across from the front gate to the Mt. Auburn Cemetery, and became the permanent location for his business at #583 Mt. Auburn Street, at the corner on what is now Aberdeen Avenue. On the atlas detail below you can see the Reception House belonging to the Mt. Auburn Cemetery, just across from their main gate. In 1896 when the cemetery closed the reception house (in favor of one inside the cemetery gates), McDonald moved his office and “wareroom” into the building. It still bears the sign stating the date his business was established, “1856”.
Detail: G. M. Hopkins Cambridge Atlas, 1873
In 1873, a dead-end street called McDonald Street had been constructed through his property. In 1895, McDonald sold land to the town to enable extending it through to Huron Ave, thereby providing electric street cars a “turn around.” Thereafter it was renamed Aberdeen St, after the County in Scotland that McDonald was from.
An amusing notice appeared in the Cambridge Chronicle highlighting the use of his marble yard for target practice:
Cambridge Chronicle November 13, 1875
McDonald’s own house was at #643 Mt. Auburn Street. He had permission to raise cows on the premises and, it appears, advertised the services of his bull:
Cambridge Chronicle June 11, 1870
The house can be seen below, second building from the right. Also visible is the rectangular entrance sign for his marble yard along with a couple of monuments on display. The large building on the right is the Mt. Auburn Cemetery Reception House. The image is presumably of a ceremony at the cemetery. The building is now owned by W. C. Caniff and Sons, monument makers, and is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Parade on Mount Auburn St, ca. 1890 (Cambridge Historical Commission)
The Reception House yoday:
Image via Google Street View
Alexander McDonald also provided a shed on his property to house sculptor Martin Milmore’s mammoth Sphinx monument for the Cemetery:
Boston Evening Transcript August 16, 1872
And now we get to the mayor…
WILLIAM FRANCIS BROOKS, LATER MAYOR OF CAMBRIDGE
Cambridge Chronicle December 8, 1900
The May 10, 1899 edition of Trenton Evening Times stated that McDonald had “some 40 artists in his employ.” Many of McDonald’s workers lived on McDonald Street, in the area called The Upper Marsh and across the street from the McDonald Wharf, or further west on Holworthy and Cushing Streets.
Granite workers went out on strike in 1892, but McDonald’s operation seems relatively immune to its effects:
Cambridge Chronicle May 21,1892
William F. Brooks, future Mayor of Cambridge, was one of those workers, who, like his father, had a long association with the company. His father, Patrick Brooks, had emigrated from Ireland in 1851 at the age of 17, ending up in Cambridge 1852[iv]. The family lived at #35 McDonald Street. Patrick worked for McDonald’s Marble and Granite Works for 40 years, purchasing the business after McDonald’s death and passing it on to his son William. William Brooks worked at McDonald’s from 1885 to 1900 before leaving to found a real estate company (Brooks & Conley) and to dedicate more time to his political career. Active in Democratic politics, Brooks had been elected a City Councilman in 1896, President of the Common Council in 1899, Alderman, and Principal Assessor in 1902. In 1909, he was elected Mayor. Brooks held the position for two terms through 1911. William F. Brooks owned the Marble and Granite Works from 1916 until his death in 1925, after which his son, also William F. Brooks, was at the helm until sometime between 1938 and 1940.
Mayor William Francis Brooks Square: Brooks was a friend of MIT President Robert C. Maclaurin, and instrumental in bringing MIT from Boston to Cambridge. In honor of this (and his other achievements), in 2012 the Cambridge City Council dedicated the corner of Vassar St. and Massachusetts Avenue as Mayor William Francis Brooks Square.
MCDONALD’S MONUMENTS: FROM COAST TO COAST
Alexander McDonald & Sons, and his son Norman McDonald’s separate company, were responsible for approximately 850 monuments in the Mt. Auburn Cemetery between 1856 and 1900. The two monuments below to slain Civil War soldiers are good examples of his work:
Lieut. Edgar Newcomb, Battle of Fredricksburg. Image: Stone and Dust
Through his intricate work, McDonald gained a national reputation. At the end of the 19th century, McDonald’s business occupied an office at the gates of Riverview Cemetery in Trenton, New Jersey, and one in Paterson, North Carolina next to the Cedar Lawn Cemetery.
Many of his monuments were of truly monumental proportions. The 70 ft tall obelisk in commemoration of dentist H. D. Cogswell of San Francisco (designed by Cogswell himself) cost $100,000, weighed 400 tons and cost $5,000 to ship. The Oakland Tribune (July 15, 1887) declared it was “the largest shipment ever made across the continent.” A month later, the San Francisco Examiner ran an article (August 11, 1887) describing the monument:
“The mammoth monument of Dr. Cogswell recently arrived overland…laden upon twenty-one freight cars…The base block of stone, weighing twenty-five tons, was loaded upon a truck specially sent from the East to transport the heavy pieces. Eighteen horses were required to haul the base block. In loading it the streetcar rails were bent and the cross walks were broken by the great weight, and a tire ten inches wide came off one of the truck- wheels….the heaviest piece of stone is the shaft, thirty-three feet long and weighing over thirty tons. Thirty six horses will be required to pull the truck….In addition to the twenty-one carloads of stone (granite and marble) of the monument, ten more carloads of coping for the lot are on their way higher across the continent.”
The Mercer County Soldiers and Sailors Monument in Trenton, N. J., completed after McDonald’s death, was “the largest obelisk at that time ever manufactured in the United States” at 50 feet high.[v]
In Cambridge, McDonald and his then partner Jonathan Mann were the contractors for the Cambridge Soldier’s monument on the Cambridge Common. (Augustus Saint-Gaudens, sculptor.)
Civil War Monument on the Cambridge Common photographed by Richard Heath (April 17, 2014)
A side note: McDonald and Mann shared a patent on a thoroughly unlikely product: an improved hoop for ladies’ hoop skirts:
Annual Report of the Commission of Patents, Part I, Vol. I., 1866
In 1872, the partnership between McDonald and Mann was dissolved, although Mann continued to be active in the stone business with McDonald, remaining on the board of the McDonald Stone Cutting Machine Company.
PRIVATE LIFE and DEATH
Alexander McDonald married Elizabeth Lyall (of Albany, N. Y.) in 1859. They had two daughters and five sons.
Two of his sons followed in his footsteps. Frank, who was taken into partnership with his father in 1887, died in 1905 after complications from surgery. His father died Just a month later. Norman McDonald went out on his own the same year (1887) establishing his own company at 212-214 Brattle Street (the current location of Lowell Park on Fresh Pond Parkway). Just three years later, in 1890, his business failed.
Cambridge Press January 15, 1887
Cambridge Chronicle December 6, 1890
After over half a century in business, Alexander McDonald died of pneumonia on January 11, 1906. By now his name had become a brand. Patrick Brooks took over the company, continuing to list it as Alexander McDonald & Sons. when his son William F. Brooks took over in 1916 the name was changed to the Mount Auburn Monumental Marble and Granite Works. Brooks’ son, also William F. Brooks, took over after his death. sold the business at some point between 1938 and 1940 to Nino P. Zapponi. In the late 1950’s the business was bought by William Canniff, whose family still owns the property at #583 Mt. Auburn St.
Alexander McDonald is buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery on Angelica Path, Lot #3471.
Image via Mount Auburn Historical Collections
Today’s post was written by CHC volunteer Kathleen Fox.
The Commission seeks a full-time Archivist to organize and maintain its public archive and create in-person and online programming that promotes the archive and highlights Cambridge history. The archive is founded on an architectural inventory containing survey forms, photographs, and documentation on all 13,000± buildings in the city that is currently being digitized. Other collections include both historic and contemporary materials, such as atlases, papers and manuscripts, books, objects, and ephemera. The photograph collection is estimated to contain more than 60,000 images in all forms. These unique resources are used daily by staff, residents, researchers, and building professionals. The Archivist will oversee the Digital Projects Archivist, who also coordinates the Commission’s social media presence, and supervise relevant interns and volunteers.
Click here to view the full job posting and application instructions.
Of course, Queen Anne never actually set foot in Cambridge. But the style of architecture named after her arrived from England in the late 1800’s. The predominant architect of the style in England was Richard Norman Shaw. It was named “Queen Anne” because of a slightly misconceived idea that the style popular during her reign (1704-1714) was conglomeration of renaissance ornament glued to essentially medieval buildings. But, as it turns out, Shaw and others, while interested in medieval architecture, were far more influenced by Elizabethan and Jacobean buildings. Many Americans first saw the Queen Anne style at the Philadelphia Centennial in 1875, where the British government built several houses in that style. It took off in popularity soon after.
Balanced asymmetry, and abundance of building materials and decorative details are the most predominant exterior features of Queen Anne style. Towers, gables, wrap around porches, Palladian windows, and an assortment of decorative shingles, terracotta tiles, decorative brick work, dentils, columns, spindles, bay windows, balustrades, set back entrances, and wood or slate roofs might all be included. The excess of decoration frequently came to be referred to as “gingerbread.” One might almost call the style “hodge-podge,” except that the asymmetrical variations and exaggerated decoration were intentional design decisions.
Clipping of example Queen Anne diagram from “A Field Guide to American Houses” by Virginia McAlester.
The three examples below demonstrate varieties on the theme.
298 HARVARD STREET
Designed in 1888 by Boston architect J. A. Hasty and built for William Haskett Wood, (1846-1912) on the “Old Morse Estate.”
This house includes six varieties of window treatment, two triangular pediments, a large corner tower with conical roof, decorative millwork, and standard and fish-scale shingles. The exterior front façade features a decorative triangle gable on the left with intricate acanthus carving and recessed panels, supported by shingled brackets. This is balanced on the right by a round tower with an “eyebrow-like” segmental dormer. In between on the roof, and slightly set back is a classic gabled dormer with shingled brackets.
Gable detailing. Photo courtesy of The Harder Group.
Across the second floor are several horizontal courses of shingles, followed by many more courses of fish scale shingle. The three second floor windows reflect the decorative styles and millwork of the windows above them. On the left sculpted millwork, the center more classic, and on the right curved lintels as above in the tower, with fish-scale and other fretwork.
The first-floor porch joins a bay window on the left with the round tower window on the right. Four sets of double turned posts supporting the porch roof, and just below the porch gutter runs a decorative panel of millwork. The deeply recessed front door is bordered by two Palladian style windows. The article below (Cambridge Chronicle, November 3, 1888) describes the luxurious interior. And, should you be concerned, “the plumbing will be of the most approved pattern.”
Interior architectural detail at stairhall. Photo courtesy of The Harder Group.
Interior stained glass window with “W” crest for Mr. Wood. Photo courtesy of The Harder Group.
William Haskett Wood was one of those fortunate businessmen whose name matched his profession: lumber dealer. He arrived in Cambridge in 1867 and clerked with lumber dealers Gale, Dudley & Co. Within five years he had formed a partnership with George W. Gale. When this firm dissolved in 1881 Wood went on to buy out Burrage Bros. (wharf at the junction of Broadway, third and Main streets) center of operations. He married Anna M. Dudley. The family lived in the house for approximately 25 years, it passing out of the Wood family at some time between William Wood’s death in 1912 and 1916, when Joseph E. Doherty, Cambridge Water Commissioner lived in the home. In its lifetime this building has been a private home, a Jewish Community Center, the Castle School, (a residential program for troubles children 13-17), and the KLH Day Care Center. In its present incarnation it is a condominium complex.
39 GARFIELD STREET
Built 1885-1886 for Edward Augustus Shepherd (1859-1945)
A much simpler version of Queen Anne Style can be seen in the house at 39 Garfield Street. Although the asymmetry is not as great as 298 Harvard Street, it is evident in the offset entrance and variety of windows and their placement. The peak of the gable is “standard” shingle, but around and below the Palladian windows is fish scale shingle. Other typical decorative features include the cutwork on the eaves, decorative spandrels on the wrap around porch and carving in the tympanum over the front porch stairs. Rosettes (or sunflowers?) featured in the spandrels and tympanum are common decorative details of the style. The skirt below the front rail is also decorative cutwork.
Edward A. Shepherd was a wholesale hay and grain dealer in Boston, and served as both auditor and treasurer of at the Boston Chamber of Commerce. He was married to Helen D. Strean. The family lived in the house for approximately 58 years. His house is surrounded by several other Queen Anne style homes on the street.
33 AGASSIZ STREET
Built 1890 for Horace Phelps Blackman (1833-1917) by Boston architect Eugene L. Clark
The first thing one notices about this house is the use of fieldstone on the first story, “from the fields of Arlington and Lexington.” The usual asymmetry is reflected in the placement a gable with an oriel window on the left, with a tower on the right. Two imposing stone arches surround a window and front door on the first floor. There are a variety of shingle applications: fish scale on the gable and pediment of the gable window, with variegated horizontal courses on the second floor. Tall chimneys with decorative brickwork are another common feature of the style, and one can be seen here on the Lancaster Street side of the house. The side façade also includes a gable with Palladian windows, second floor balcony and a porch. The interior is lavishly finished with mahogany and oak, and described in the newspaper article from 1891 below.
Cambridge Tribune February 14, 1891Interior stairhall, photo courtesy of real estate listing.
Horace P. Blackman was a piano forte and organ maker, first with Chickering of Boston, and subsequently with the Mason & Hamlin Organ & Piano Co. He retired from business in 1892 and served as Alderman in 1893. He became involved in real estate investment. By 1900 he listed himself as “capitalist” of the census that year. He was married to Lydia Lucretian Flint. The Blackman family lived in the house for approximately 32 years.
Welcome to the second and final installment of our series about the evolution of eating oysters and the Cambridge restaurants and eateries that served them in the 19th century.
And now THE BIG QUESTION: Are Oysters an Aphrodisiac?
Jacob Ochtervelt, The Oyster Meal, 1664-65. Private collection.
Eating oysters frequently raises a slight naughty twinkle in one’s eye. Remember Albert Finney in the classic Tom Jones movie? The jury is out on scientific proof about the oyster’s aphrodisiac qualities. These days, it is thought the zinc and amino acids in the bivalve might possibly stimulate sexual desire. So, who knows—the legend might be true. At least Casanova thought so.
OYSTER NEWS Oysters were so popular that items about their origin regularly made the news:
New York: Cambridge Chronicle January 4, 1849
Long Island Sound, New York: Cambridge Chronicle October 15, 1859
Cambridge Chronicle September 19, 1868
Cape Cod: Cambridge Chronicle June 7, 1879
Virginia: Cambridge Chronicle January 1, 1870
Providence River: Cambridge Chronicle March 15, 1879
PRIORITY ON THE MENU
Eduoard Manet, Oysters, 1862. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
“An oyster leads a dreadful but exciting life.” M. F. K. Fisher
Oysters became so popular that they were often the first food highlighted in restaurant advertising, ahead of meats, fruits, ice cream, etc. They were also featured various celebrations.
George Teague again:
Cambridge Chronicle December 29, 1855
Cambridge Chronicle May 28, 1859
Cambridge Chronicle November 12, 1864
Cambridge Chronicle December 25, 1880
Cambridge Chronicle October 14, 1875
AND WHAT ABOUT ALL THOSE OYSTER SHELLS?
What happened to all those oyster shells, you might well ask? They were added to cement, road beds, railroad beds, ground up for chicken feed for hens (for digestion and calcium for egg shells), compost for vineyards, and cleaning the insides of coal burning stoves. Oysters were not allowed to be dumped just anywhere:
Excerpts: Cambridge Chronicle July 2, 1846
THE DROP IN CONSUMPTION
Susan Koolman, in the “Great Oyster Craze” writes: “Whereas New Yorkers in the 1800s ate an average of 600 oysters per year, today Americans eat an average of less than three oysters per year.” Several factors were in play: over-harvesting native beds led to importing oysters, which brought disease with them, which diminished the supply. There were concerns about the sanitation of oyster processing facilities. These concerns were addressed in 1906’s Pure Food and Drug Act. The new regulations were costly, and many oyster houses went out of business. In addition, the 1924 typhoid outbreak in New York, Washington, and Chicago was associated raw oysters.
Madera Tribune (California) December 11, 1924
Then along came Prohibition, closing a lot of the saloons and taverns that specialized in oysters. All in all, these factors put the “kaybash” on consumption. Later in the 20th century, evolving expectations about environmentally correct and ethical oyster farming have elevated the cost of raising oysters once again.
FOR FUN
More on the love of oysters is best demonstrated by following samples of ads and commentaries over the years. Have you ever considered that thunder might kill oysters? An opposite theory is that thunder inspires oysters to spawn…
Cambridge Chronicle June 4, 1870
“Never serve oysters in a month that has no paycheck in it.” – P. J. O’Rourke, political satirist and journalist
“A good oyster cannot please the palate as acutely as a bad one can revolt it, and a good oyster cannot make him who eats it live forever though a bad one can make him dead forever.” – Rebecca West, author
“Give me oysters and beer, for dinner every day of the year, and I’ll be fine.” – Jimmy Buffett
“All art is autobiographical; the pearl is the oyster’s autobiography.” – Federico Fellini, Italian film director
“Oysters are the most tender and delicate of all seafoods. They stay in bed all day and night. They never work or take exercise, are stupendous drinkers, and wait for their meals to come to them.” – Hector Bolitho ‘The Glorious Oyster’ (1960)
“Animal rights, taken to their logical conclusion, mean votes for oysters.” – Bertrand Russell, polymath
“You ought to try eating raw oysters in a restaurant with every eye focused upon you – it makes you feel as if the creatures were whales, your fork a derrick and your mouth Mammoth Cave.” – Lillian Russell, actress
“I prefer my oysters fried; That way I know my oysters died.” – Roy Blount, Jr., writer
Today’s post was written by CHC volunteer Kathleen Fox
The Great Oyster Craze: Why 19th century Americans Loved Oysters. MSU Campus Archaeology Program. (2019, January 17). http://campusarch.msu.edu/?p=4962.
It’s #TornDownTuesday (or is it #TransferredTuesday)! Today’s Gund Hall is located on the site of multiple buildings on Quincy Street, with the original 48 Quincy Street structure being relocated in 1968.
To start, 42 Quincy Street was a wood-shingled square house with a rear ell that was built in 1844. In July 1844, the President and Fellows of Harvard College granted Henry Greenough the land known as the “Delta”.
Daniel Reiff image, before fire, ca. 1968
Henry Greenough of Boston (1807-1883) was a merchant and amateur architect who was brother to Horatio and Richard Saltonstall Greenough, both sculptors. Henry attended Harvard from 1823-1826 and then studied architecture in Italy. 42 Quincy St, also known as the Greenough House, was built by Greenough for his mother, Mrs. David Greenough (Eliza Ingersoll). This pattern-book Italianate style house is the earliest known house designed by Greenough. He also designed the First Church in Cambridge (1830) and the Cambridge Athenaeum (1851). After his Italianate on Quincy St, he made houses in 1854-1856 with low mansard roofs. Greenough designed his mother’s home with a brick basement, 4 wooden risers for the front stoop, and an unusual canopy with arched openings. It was originally painted brown.
Daniel Reiff images, 42 Quincy Street after fire and demolition, ca. 1968
Greenough House was passed down through the family until 1891 when it was sold to the Corporation of the New Church Theological School, who used it as offices. In 1966 it was obtained by Harvard for its Economics Department offices. Unfortunately, on January 8, 1968 the house was destroyed by a major fire likely caused by a defective boiler. The house was scheduled for demolition later that year to make way for Gund Hall.
48 Quincy Street
Next door was 48 Quincy Street, which has a more pleasant conclusion. Built in 1838 by William Saunders for Prof Daniel Tredwell, 48 Quincy was a Regency Greek Revival style house. It featured wide, flat pilasters on flush boarded walls and a square, hip roof. In 1847, it was bought by Jared Sparks who started living at the address in 1849 when he became president of Harvard. Sparks is considered one of the earliest modern historians. Subsequently known as the Jared Sparks House, it was purchased by the New Church Theological School and in 1901 was moved on the site to make room for the Swedenborg Chapel. However, in October 1968 it was again moved, but around the corner to 21 Kirkland Street, to make way for Gund Hall. You can still see the home today at its new address!
Daniel Reiff image, 48 Quincy Street, now 21 Kirkland Street (“Sparks House”), undated
Many of the images from this post come from our newly available Dudley Borland Card Collection. Keep an eye out for future posts featuring this collection! Would you like us to make it a weekly or biweekly feature?
For more information on these buildings, email us at histcomm@cambridgema.gov.
According to an article in the Scientific American (April 25, 2014), honey bees arrived on the scene about 130 million years ago, having evolved from wasps at a time when “The vast supercontinent of Gondwana was beginning to break up, with South America drifting off to the west of Africa, and Australia moving majestically off to the east. Antarctica decided to head south…”
Fast forward to humanity entering the scene. Honey bees buzzed their way into the culture of civilizations as symbols of:
-the sun, community & celebration: Druids.
-royalty and power: Egyptians.
-the attributes of Christ: Christians.
-Mother Goddess, representing mutual support and fertility: Minoans.
-Aristaeus, god of bee-keeping: Greeks.
-immortality and resurrection: Merovingian royalty.
They were the Italian Renaissance sculptor Bernini’s symbol, and, in general, a symbol for industry, hard work and dedication.
Because of that hard work and dedication, honey bee communities have often served as a model for human society. They appear on the seal of the Massachusetts Historical Society (MHS), which “features a beehive with several honeybees buzzing around it.” (MassHist.org)
Massachusetts Historical Society seal, via masshist.org
The inscription reads “sic Vos Non Vobis” which translates roughly to “you work, but not for yourselves.” It was chosen in 1833 to represent the mission of the MHS.
Of course, the main attraction of honey bees is what they produce: honey.
TO GET THE HONEY YOU GOTTA KEEP THE BEES
Image via ShutterStock
Instructive articles about raising bees in Cambridge can be found as early as 1847 in the Cambridge Chronicle. Here is a startling idea—bees rob one another (who knew?)
Cambridge Chronicle May 20, 1847
There was the advice to add salt to their diet:
Cambridge Chronicle September 21, 1848
And in 1850, E. W. Stewart was advertising his newly patented “improvement in the rearing and feeding of Bees, for the production of honey.”
Cambridge Chronicle July 4, 1850
The article goes on: “…the food comprises a compound from which the bees will feed very eagerly, and in preference to any flower or artificial food ever before discovered: and sometimes in a single day the value of ten swarms has produced a hundred lbs. of honey, which readily brings the highest price in any market making it a source of very great profit to anyone who should keep bees enough to make a business of it. The honey is the best flavored and is as white and clear as any ever beheld….”
Here’s a comment about women’s suitability as bee keepers that would hardly fly today:
Cambridge Tribune May 4, 1918
While E. W. Stewart extolled the profitability of raising bees in 1850 (above), by 1918 keepers were being admonished that standard “box hives” were definitely not profitable.
Cambridge Tribune December 14, 1918
AND NOW TO THE MAIN EVENT: THE HONEY
Image via Dreamstime.com
Honey became a part of cuisine as soon as humans discovered it. It is believed that mead, which is made with wine and honey, may have been the “first alcoholic beverage known to man.” Greeks and Romans referred to it as “the nectar of the Gods.” In mid nineteenth century, buying honey in the comb seemed to be Cantabridgians’ favorite way to obtain the delectable nectar:
Cambridge Chronicle September 22, 1850
Cambridge Chronicle September 25, 1852
“Extracted honey,” which was less sought-after, came predominantly from California as in this advert of 1890, and mentioned in the following article.
Cambridge Chronicle October 25, 1890
Philip Seymour Crichton, an accountant and émigré from Canada, was keeping bees at his home on Hammond St. near the Harvard Divinity School. The article mentions the general preference for honey on the comb rather than extracted honey from California:
Cambridge Chronicle September 17, 1910
Cambridge Chronicle November 2, 1912
Cambridge Chronicle December 18, 1915
PRACTICAL AND MEDICAL USES OF HONEY
Honey wasn’t just for sweetening food and drink. It was also used as a main ingredient in toothpastes:
Cambridge Chronicle July 19, 1856
For treating burns:
Cambridge Chronicle October 13, 1860
And as an ingredient in soaps:
Cambridge Chronicle February 27, 1858
HONEY AND WAR
Honey bees just fly around doing their business, oblivious to the fact that their efforts played a part in supporting the war effort in both WWI and WWII, when citizens were exhorted to save sugar by substituting honey:
Cambridge Tribune November 24, 1917
Cambridge Sentinel August 17, 1918
Cambridge Tribune September 14, 1918
Cambridge Sentinel October 26, 1918
World War II
Cambridge Sentinel March 7, 1942 (excerpts below)
Cambridge Sentinel July 11, 1942
FUN BEE FACTS
“Honey Bee” by wwarby via Creative Commons
Cambridge Chronicle July 29, 1847
Cambridge Sentinel March 7, 1942 (excerpts)
Cambridge Sentinel January 9, 1915
BEES IN 2021
“Commercial honey bee operations are essential to agricultural production in the U.S., pollinating $15 billion worth of food crops each year. Honey bee colonies are moved around the country to pollinate important agricultural crops such as almonds, blueberries, and apples. Minimizing their losses and ensuring the health of both commercial and backyard colonies is critical to food production and supply.” (BeeCulture.com)
Alarmingly, these days honey bees are in decline. According to the annual survey by the Bee Informed Partnership (BIP) “beekeepers across the United States lost 45.5% of their managed honey bee colonies from April 2020 to April 2021.” (Auburn University Jun 24, 2021.)
Some bees abandon their hives for no apparent reason, a condition called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). It is speculated that a combination of pesticides, limited space, inadequate food supply, parasites or a virus targeting bees’ immune systems may be the cause. Fortunately, this has led to an uptick in interest in beekeeping.
Today’s post was written by CHC volunteer Kathleen Fox
It’s time for a historic building spotlight! We are featuring the former filling station at the corner of Concord Avenue and Walden Street in North Cambridge. Today, the building has a whole new look.
Concord Avenue near the corner of Walden Street, facing east. September 6, 1933.
In the early twentieth century, Concord Avenue served as a main transportation route, though the area had evolved from its early rural roots to a more suburban character. The advent of the automobile as a mode of transportation for the average person opened up this area to further residential development. Fresh Pond and Kingsley Park were also major draws for day-trippers taking a drive into the countryside. With people and cars came the need for fueling stations. The gasoline station at 299 Concord Avenue was one of 8 gas stations to be built along Concord Avenue between 1905 and 1930.
Rotogravure originally printed in the March 8, 1925 edition of the Boston Traveler as part of the series “Colonial Filling Stations of Boston.”
As an example of an early gas station, the Colonial Filling Station at 299 Concord Ave was built in 1924 for $7,000. The building was designed in the Colonial Revival style and executed by Boston-based consulting engineer Allen Hubbard. Born in 1860, Hubbard spent his early life in Westfield, Mass and later became the town’s first major league baseball player. Hubbard attended Yale to obtain an engineering degree and became the college’s baseball team captain. Soon after his graduation in 1883, Hubbard left his baseball career behind and worked as a bookkeeper and engineer for contractors in Boston before forming a business partnership with Hollis French in 1898. Throughout his career, Hubbard would consult on various large-scale engineering projects, including the Boston Public Library.
Allen Hubbard in his Yale catcher’s uniform (via adonisterry.tripod.com)
Hubbard’s design for the hip-roofed structure was elaborately detailed with dentil moldings, a Federal-style doorway with elliptical fan light and side lights, round-arched windows with lancet-arched muntins, red roofing shingles, and a wood balustrade at the roof peak. The masonry detail further embellished the station, with arched brickwork over the windows and a soldier course of bricks at the base, topped by a course of headers. A large sign band filled the space between the doorway and the cornice.
299 Concord Ave ca. 1973-74. Photograph by Richard Cheek.
The station went through a series of owners over the decades. A garage bay for automobile servicing was added in 1938. When the building was surveyed by the CHC in 1973, it was in nearly original condition and one of the oldest surviving of its kind in Cambridge. By 1978, gasoline services had ceased, and the building was converted to office use. Then-owner Cambridge Alternative Power Co., Inc. (CAPCO) undertook major alterations to and built an addition. Subsequent projects included the construction of a windmill and solar greenhouse.
299 Concord Ave in October 1982. Photograph by CHC staff.
In 2003, the CHC received an application to demolish the former gas station and its additions to make way for new construction. Rather than demolish the structure, an updated proposal was submitted in which the new design would preserve the original fabric of the façade to the fullest extent possible.
299 Concord Ave 299 (June 4, 2003)
View of work on façade (August 4, 2005)
Today, the original filling station façade can be seen from Concord Ave.
View north from Concord Ave via Google Street View (October 2017)
SOURCES
“1883 Yale Baseball Captain Added to the Bulldog Club Posthumously” article by Dan Genovese (The Yale Newsletter, Winter 2005) Cambridge Public Library Online Newspaper Database CHC survey files
Wilde is referring to the saying “the world’s mine oyster,” from Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor. In the story, the character Falstaff is haggling with another man over money. After Falstaff refuses to give him a single penny, the man replies “Why, then, the world’s mine oyster, which I with sword will open.” His meaning: I’ll get anything I want any way I can—i.e. stabbing with a sharp instrument as in shucking oysters to find the pearl. Over time, the phrase morphed to mean “You are in a position to take the opportunities that life has to offer.” (Oxford English Dictionary)
“An oyster, that marvel of delicacy, that concentration of sapid excellence, that mouthful before all other mouthfuls, who first had faith to believe it, and courage to execute? The exterior is not persuasive.” (Henry Ward Beecher 1813-1887, brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe)
Even when induced to pry open the shell however, the creature inside was somewhat intimidating. As Jonathan Swift said, “He was a bold man that first ate an oyster.”
No kidding! Just look at them:
Image: bbcgoodfood.com
Though it’s a little hard for some of us to see how anyone found them tempting, LOTS of people did. Oysters have been eaten for eons, but at the beginning of the 19th century in America only the wealthy could afford them. This changed by mid-century when improved harvesting techniques, canning, refrigeration, and railroad express delivery brought the price down substantially. The oyster craze swept the country; eventually even the ordinary working family could afford oysters. Oysters became cheaper than meat, fish, and poultry as a source of protein. By 1885, oysters cost $0.03 each (equivalent to $0.73 today) and dropped to $0.01 (equivalent to $0.25 today) each by 1889.
The oldest restaurant in Boston—the famous Union Oyster House—opened its doors in 1826 under the name Atwood & Bacon’s Oyster House on Union St. in Boston’s Haymarket. It is reputed that Daniel Webster ate there regularly, consuming six plates of oysters at a single sitting. Over the years it became known simply as the Union Oyster House:
Union Oyster House or Capen House, Union St. Built ca. 1714, became oyster house in 1826. Photo: 1855. From Boston Pictorial Archive via Digital Commonwealth
Atwood was “Hawes” Atwood. Originally from Wellfleet, Mass., the Atwoods were active in the oyster business for generations and it is likely that S. C. Atwood in the Cambridge advertisement below was related in some way to Hawes. S. C. mentions his catering experience in Boston. Hawes’ son, Benjamin F. Atwood, also had an oyster house in Boston, and there is a David Atwood appearing in the Cambridge City Directory from 1872 as an oyster dealer living on Seaver Place, with his business at Fanueil Hall Sq.
Cambridge Chronicle November 3, 1866
The earliest reference to oysters in the Cambridge newspapers that have been digitized is the advertisement below for Benjamin Seaver’s Temperance Oyster Saloon. The influence of the Temperance Movement of the 1820’s and ‘30’s was increasing, and Seaver may have thought that providing a “dry” place to eat might lure more customers:
Cambridge Chronicle July 16, 1846
On the other hand, by a few months later, Seaver may have had a change of heart. His ads no longer mention the temperance angle.
Cambridge Chronicle December 3, 1846
Cambridge Chronicle December 10, 1846
George M. Teague, who owned several different eating establishments in Cambridge, did not mention temperance in the advert below, but the following article of the same date about the restaurant did:
Cambridge Chronicle February 20, 1851. #418 Main St, corner Magazine.
Cambridge Chronicle February 20, 1851
Poor George Teague: his first wife died, and 12 years later in 1890 he married his second wife. Three years later (and four years before his own death) the notice below suggests that it was not a good match:
Cambridge Chronicle September 2, 1893
Teague had assumed ownership of the eatery from D. Stone, who in 1847 advertised “City Lunch,” at the same location, under Joseph A. Holmes Co. on Main St. This was in the same building as the Cambridge Chronicle.
Cambridge Chronicle April 8, 1847
Also, in 1851 Charles H. Foster advertises his Oyster Saloon under Lyceum Hall (built 1841) in Harvard Square. The Harvard Coop demolished the Hall in 1924, but the columns of the current façade are reminiscent of the original. Note the sign for “Restaurant” in the lower right. Over the years there were several iterations of restaurant at the location, including one run by Charles F. Belcher, who also briefly ran the concession at the Mt. Auburn Cemetery Reception House.
Cambridge Chronicle September 27, 1851
Lyceum Hall ca. 1860. Image: Southwest Harbor Public Library.
Close by, in at least 1848, John Goodridge had an “Oyster Saloon” on Brattle Street in Harvard Square several years before this advert below appeared in 1852 (Brighton St. was the current JFK Street):
Cambridge Chronicle February 21, 1852
HOW TO EAT OYSTERS
Oysters are an excellent source of vitamin B12 and are also rich in minerals, including selenium, zinc, and iron. The best way to get all of their nutritional benefit is to eat them raw. It was once thought that one should eat oysters only in months whose name contains an “R,” which excludes May, June, July and August. The theory was that one might avoid oysters during this time as there are bacteria levels in “red tides” in the summer months, or to give oysters a break while they spawn. Some claimed that summer oysters had a bad taste.
Cambridge Chronicle May 10, 1873
Cambridge Chronicle October 29, 1853
These days, oyster farming is highly regulated and these conventions no longer apply.
Oysters were eaten in pies, pickled, escalloped, stewed, fried, raw, or in soups. According to an article in the Salem Register in 1850 (March 11), “Stewed oysters and boiled eggs are digested in three hours and a half—an hour more than is required by the same articles raw.” Mmm…
Fried: Cambridge Tribune April 21, 1888
Pickled: Cambridge Chronicle October 7, 1847
Stewed: Cambridge Chronicle March 28, 1868
Oysters were sold by the quart or gallon:
Cambridge Chronicle March 22, 1856
(Maybe this was the problem that befell this Maine lady after eating four quarts)
Cambridge Chronicle December 13, 1873
And eaten with style
Cambridge Chronicle December 27, 1873 (excerpt from article on the American Restaurant)
Today’s post was written by CHC volunteer Kathleen Fox. Check back soon to read part two!
Today, we continue to mourn the loss of the great Bob Moses, but celebrate his life and legacy in Cambridge, Mississippi, and nation-wide. Robert Parris Moses was born in 1935 in New York City, where his parents Gregory and Louise, a janitor and homemaker, respectively, prioritized education in the home. Raised in a public housing complex, Moses attended New York City’s public but highly selective Stuyvesant High School, before graduating from Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y., eventually earning a master’s degree in Philosophy in 1957 from Harvard. He continued his education at Harvard, but the death of his mother and subsequent illness of his father reportedly forced Moses to abandon his doctoral studies, and return to New York, where he became a math teacher in the Bronx.
Bob Moses in Mississippi, 1963. Photo by Harvey Richards
When news spread about the civil rights movement, specifically the denial of African Americans the right to register and vote in the South, he was compelled to leave teaching in 1960 and travel to Mississippi. The young civil rights advocate tried to empower Black Mississippians—often sharecroppers—to vote. Moses faced violence from the KKK, local police forces, and other white segregationists for his successful attempts. At one point during a voter-registration drive, a sheriff’scousin bashed Mr. Moses’ head with a knife handle. Bleeding, he kept going, staggering up the steps of a courthouse to register a couple of Black farmers. Only then did he seek medical attention. There was no Black doctor in the county, Mr. Moses later wrote, so he had to be driven to another town, where nine stitches were sewn into his head. When he tried to file charges against a white assailant, an all-white jury acquitted the man, but luckily a judge provided protection to Moses to the county line so he could leave. Undeterred, Bob continued his fight.
Bob Moses in NY, 1964. Roberty Elfstrom photographer, via Getty.
Bob Moses at SNCC conference in Waveland, MS, November 1964, Photo by Danny Lyon.
As his notoriety grew, Moses would withdraw from the primary ranks of the movement, fearing that his presence would overshadow its needs. He turned his attentions to protesting the Vietnam War, noting in a 1965 speech that “the prosecutors of the war” were “the same people who refused to protect civil rights in the South.” He spoke out against the war and worked with young leaders to march and protest in cities all along the east coast. Suspiciously, he was drafted soon thereafter, despite being five years over the age limit. Denied conscientious-objector status, Moses and his wife Janet moved first to Canada and then to Tanzania, where he taught school. There, the couple began a family; three of their four children were born on the continent.
Bob Moses (right) protesting the Vietnam War in Washington, DC, Aug. 6, 1965. Moses and fellow protestors were splashed with red paint by counter-protesters.
Moses lived in the Port neighborhood of Cambridge with his family for a number of years before moving, eventually settling in Florida. The family lived at a house at the corner of School and Cherry streets. They restored the house and were given one of our first ever Cambridge Preservation Awards. Another lasting legacy in Cambridge is the Moses Youth Center on Harvard Street in the Port neighborhood of Cambridge, so named after Bob and his wife Janet. The building was renamed after the couple in 2015 by the Cambridge City Council in honor of the couple’s “tremendous contributions to the continuing civil rights movement and their unwavering dedication to the progress of all Cambridge residents.” Bob Moses died on Sunday, July 25 at the age of 86 in Hollywood, Florida. He is survived by his wife Janet, daughters Maisha and Malaika, sons Omowale and Tabasuri, and seven grandchildren.
Bob, Maisha, and Janet Moses, 2018 photo by Cambridge Community Foundation.
