Cambridgeport - The Cambridge Historical Commission Blog

The Story of an Ordinary House: 91-93 Windsor Street

Posted on May 19, 2026May 18, 2026 by cambridgehistoricalcommission

91-93 Windsor St in December 1937. Cambridge Historical Commission photo. Cambridge Photo Morgue Collection.

*Detail of Atlas of the City of Cambridge, Massachusetts* (Philadelphia : G.W. Bromley & Co., 1894) showing the location of 91-93 Windsor St.

This is the story of an ordinary house that was demolished. For 59 of the 105 years that this house stood at 91-93 Windsor Street on the corner of School Street, it was owned and lived in by Richard Beckett and/or his descendants. His is an interesting immigrant story…but let’s start at the beginning:

The land on which 91-93 Windsor Street was built in 1836 was originally part of the estate of Spencer Phipps (1635-1757), who was Lieutenant Governor and Commander in Chief “in and over his Majesty’s Province of the Massachusetts Bay in New-England” from 1732 to his death in 1757.

In 1793, Andrew Boardman IV (1745-1817) (later known as Bordman) inherited a portion of the Phipps estate upon the death of his mother, Sarah Phipps. In 1801, he and others laid out Windsor Street through his estate. This was followed in 1803 by surveying building lots in the area west of Windsor St and south Harvard St. (Andrew Bordman also donated the land for the school named after him, located on the opposite corner of School and Windsor Streets. The name of the street was originally spelled “Winsor;” it was not until around 1841 that the spelling changed to Windsor.)

View of the Boardman School building (built 1868) at 105 Windsor Street as photographed by Richard CHeek in July 1968. Cambridge Historical Commission photo.

Subsequently, Josiah Wellington Cook (1805-1891) acquired the land, and in 1836 built this house. Meant as an investment rental property, it was a simple vernacular wood frame double house, with two front doors centered, and a side gable roof with slight returning eves. At the time of its construction, the house was in a working-class neighborhood.

Josiah Cook was in the grocery business until he was elected a director and secretary of the Cambridge Mutual Fire Insurance Company, later becoming president. (The Cambridge Mutual Fire Insurance Company building, built in 1888, still stands in Central Square on the corner of Mass Ave and Inman St.) Cook was a member of the Cambridge Anti-Slavery Society, served as Deputy Sheriff, City Marshall, Assessor of Cambridge, and was a Justice of the Peace for Middlesex County. He is buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery, in Lot #2050 Honeysuckle Path.

Cook owned the building at 91-93 Windsor St until at least 1847. By 1852, it was owned by Charles Hancock, a carpenter who was later partner in the Hancock & Greeley Company, lumber dealers and carpenters. Hancock later dissolved his relationship with Greeley and by 1879 was in the real estate and insurance business, providing “special attention…to collecting rents and the care of Real Estate.” (The Cambridge Chronicle September 10, 1881)

In 1873, the double house was owned by Daniel Gregory Stone, a box-maker who died in 1876 at the age of 55. His wife, Lucy A. (Parker) Stone, was the administrator for her husband’s estate. Following Lucy’s death in 1882, Richard Beckett purchased the property from George A. Parker for $1400 (George’s relation to Lucy A. Parker is unclear). Beckett’s life is interesting as it exemplifies the classic entrepreneurial immigrant success story.

Richard Beckett was born in Tyrone County Ireland in 1833. He was just 18 when he emigrated to the U. S. in 1851. In 1853, he married Ann McClean (1830 Ire. – 1891 Cambridge). Just six years later in 1857 at the age of 24, he became a naturalized citizen and bought his first property at the corner of Eliot Street and Brighton Ave (now called JFK Street) near Harvard Square. Beckett is listed on the deed as a “laborer.” He and his family lived there from 1875-1877. The building was originally a schoolhouse on Garden Street, subsequently moved to Eliot St. Beckett built a brick foundation and added a second story with a French roof.

Detail: *Atlas of the City of Cambridge, Middlesex Co., Massachusetts* (G.M. Hopkins & Co., 1873) showing the location of Richard Beckett’s property near Harvard Square

Beckett worked at the Cambridge Gas Co. for 40 years – rising to the rank of “supervisory foreman” by 1880. Just nine years after arriving in the U. S., the census of 1860 lists Beckett’s worth as $1000, and by 1870 it was $2800. By 1886, he owned a total of four adjoining buildings along Brighton Ave.

Detail: *Atlas of the City of Cambridge, Massachusetts* (G.M. Hopkins & Co., 1886) showing the location of Richard Beckett’s property near Harvard Square

Beckett’s next purchase, in 1875, was a brick townhouse at 11 Broadway. Moving in with his family in 1878, he lived there until his wife’s death and his own, both occurring in 1891. In addition to working for the gas company, the City Directory of 1885 listed Beckett as a purveyor of “liquors, Wines, Etc.”

11 Broadway storefront at center as photographed on December 10, 1899. These buildings were razed in 1935. Cambridge Historical Commission photo.

Detail of *Atlas of the City of Cambridge, Massachusetts* (Philadelphia : G.W. Bromley & Co., 1894) showing Richard Beckett’s property at 11 Broadway

At his death, Beckett’s three properties (28 Boylston, 11 Broadway, and 91-93 Windsor St) were bequeathed to his heirs. His daughter Annie Maria (1859-1936) lived at 91-93 for 30 years, from 1916 until her death in 1936. In 1879, she married cabinet maker James Edwin Stewart Sr. (1862 Canada -1910 Worcester, MA). Edwin emigrated from New Brunswick, Canada in 1872 and petitioned for citizenship in 1888. The couple lived at Annie’s father’s property at 11 Broadway, where the Stewarts raised their four daughters and two boys until James’s Stewart’s Sr. death in 1910. Both are buried in the Cambridge Cemetery.

Portrait of Anne Maria “Annie” (Beckett) Stewart via FindAGrave. Photo added by David M. Carrig.

Portrait of James Edwin Stewart via Ancestry. Photo uploaded by user cw_cook.

James Stewart appears in an amusing anecdote in The Cambridge Chronicle (January 14, 1905) about the thousands of households permitted to raise chickens in Cambridge. He was listed as having 12 chickens on his property at 11 Broadway.

James Stewart died in 1910 and was only 48 years old at the time. His death may have occurred under tragic circumstances, as it was recorded at the state hospital in Worcester, known as the Worcester Asylum for the mentally ill. Their eldest son was by that time out of the house, but Annie was left to raise the remaining children on her own.

Two years after her husband’s death in 1912, a notice ran in The Cambridge Tribune advertising a public auction of the “Stewart Estate,” comprised of the three properties owned by Richard Beckett. The lots were referred to as the Stewart Estate because they had been passed down to Anna Marie Stewart, daughter of Richard Beckett. In the notice, 91-93 Windsor St is described as a “Double frame dwelling with small barn in rear, about 3,274 feet of land; Assessed Valuation, $3,000.”

*The Cambridge Chronicle* April 27, 1912

The 1920 Census shows Annie carried a mortgage on 91-93 Windsor; by 1930 she owned it free and clear. Annie’s daughter Ruth lived in the building from 1914-1915, and again after her marriage to Herbert E. Adams, a Chauffer, from 1928-1941.

Others who had lived at #91 included:
1904-1912: Joseph and Helen Marsh. Joseph was foundryman/mechanic
1910: Charles E. Kelley, building mover
1913: Edward A. Gorvina, Driver
1918-21: Mrs. Helen Blanche

Occupants at #93 next door included:
1905 -1906: John W. Green, Tailor
1907 -1911: Mrs. Margaret Gunning, groceries
1911 – 1917: Bernard T. Phelan, Teamster and Mrs. Isabella Phelan, Grocer
1913: Charles H. Burns, Clerk and William J. Burns, laborer
1913: Mr. John C. Phelan, clerk, and Mrs. C. Shaughnessy, Baker
1915-1916: Edward L. Powers, Clerk
1918 -1920: Frank (a driver) and Hattie Fleet
1921: Thomas S. Graney, Laborer, and his wife Sarah.
1925-: Paterson, John (a painter) and Agnes Paterson, along with George K. Paterson, a coremaker
1930: Arthur Villemaire, Chauffer

The Final Act

In 1941, Annie Stewart’s heirs sold the property to Paul Rudak, who razed it, and built a new store on the property. In 1950, Paul Gauthier opened “Paul’s Grocery” on the corner. In 1979, the Gauthier family bought the property, and it became the famed Newtowne Variety until it closed in 2016.

*The Cambridge Chronicle* March 16, 1950

David Gauthier, Burt Gauthier, and John Gauthier, pictured left to right, are the three brothers who ran Newtowne Variety in The Port. Photo courtesy of Wicked Local

In 2004, the Cambridge Historical Commission awarded the Newtowne Variety store a Certificate of Merit “for their contribution to the streetscape and respectful treatment of historic aspects of the building.” After the Newtowne Variety store closed, the property was purchased by “Windsor Ninety Three LLC” and later occupied for a short time by cafe Brew on the Grid. By 2025, the property sold again to Windsor Units LLC for $1,270,000. As of December 2025, 93 Windsor Street is an empty storefront.

Then…and now…

Exterior of a closed coffee shop 'brew on the grid' with brown awning, windows covered in paper, and a parking meter out front.

Today’s post was written by Kathleen M. Fox

Sources
Ancestry.com
Bunting, Bainbridge and Robert Nylander Survey of Architectural History in Cambridge: Old Cambridge (1973).
Cambridge City Directories
Cambridge Historical Commission
Cambridge Public Library’s Historic Cambridge Newspaper Collection
Hail, Christopher. Buildings and Architects of Cambridge
Library of Congress
Paige Lucius R. History of Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1630-1877, with a Genealogical Register
Boston 1877, H. O. Houghton and company; New York, Hurd and Houghton
Middlesex South Registry of Deeds
Wikitree

We Are the Port

Posted on November 26, 2025 by cambridgehistoricalcommission

The publication We Are the Port represents a five-year effort to interview more than 125 longtime Port residents of diverse backgrounds. Over the course of 150 years, the Port faced many challenges – from the federal anti-immigrant acts of the 1920s to plans for an Inner Belt highway that would have displaced many families and businesses. In the last fifty years, residents have joined the struggle for civil rights, including needs for educational parity and a more responsive city government. The community has weathered the winds of change, from the construction of Newtowne Court and Washington Elms in the mid- to late-1930s to the redevelopment of Kendall Square. The generational family stories inspired and moved the author, Sarah Boyer; many shared accounts of the courage of those who left their native countries to face an unknown world, toiling to provide for their families and improve the lives of their children and succeeding generations.

A historic black and white photograph of a woman pushing a baby stroller, accompanied by a young girl, both wearing vintage clothing with hats. — Ruby Higginbotham, her daughter, Suzanne Revaleon, and her son, Paul Revaleon (in carriage), outside 9 Worcester Street, ca. 1920

The following selection of passages comes from the section “Growing Up on Worcester Street” by Suzanne Revaleon Green (1912-2012):

“There were many children in the neighborhood, and we spent many hours playing together. As a little girl, I can remember standing in our bay window at dusk to watch the lamp lighter ride up the street on his bicycle to light the gas lamp at the corner of Norfolk and Worcester Streets.

My father, with the help of our next-door neighbor, a retired Irish carpenter, built me a playhouse in our yard. Parts of its construction came from the demolishing of some beautiful old houses on Norfolk Street, where new apartment houses were being built.

I walked to the Fletcher School on Elm Street each day and returned home for lunch, returning for school within an hour for the afternoon session. We all attended our nearest neighborhood schools.”

To learn more about Suzanne’s experience and those of many others who grew up in Cambridgeport, stop by our office or click here and obtain your own copy of this rich oral history book! For more information, email us at histcomm@cambridgema.gov.

Black and white portrait of an elderly woman smiling, wearing a white blouse and necklace, with a blurred background. — Portrait of Suzanne Revaleon Green, date unknown.

Event: “In our Midst: The Grace of the Black Church”

Posted on February 4, 2025February 4, 2025 by cambridgehistoricalcommission

Join Black History in Action for Cambridgeport (BHAC) this Sunday, February 9th, for a panel discussion titled “In our Midst: The Grace of the Black Church”

Panelists include:
⭐ Mayor Denise Simmons, Moderator
⭐ Dr. Melissa Wood Bartholomew, Harvard Divinity School
⭐ Rev. Jeffrey Brown, Twelfth Baptist in Roxbury
⭐ Rev. Irene Monroe, Theologian, Syndicated Columnist

The Black Church names myriad places, but it also names an idea and paradigm of endurance, renewal, liberation, and grassroots community organizing.

At historic St. Augustine’s African Orthodox Church, learn from panelists about the places and the ideas that define the ongoing grace of the Black churches in our midst. This panel is presented in conjunction with the exhibition “Grace: The History of Black Churches in Cambridge” at The Kendall Public Lobby this February—more details on these events at the links below:

A Panel Discussion “In our Midst: The Grace of the Black Church”

Opening Reception for Grace: The History of Black Churches in Cambridge

We hope you will gather for this fascinating and inclusive conversation!

Cambridgeport as a Place Name

Posted on October 30, 2024 by cambridgehistoricalcommission

Cambridgeport originated soon after the completion of the West Boston Bridge in 1793. At that time there were only three farms in all of Cambridge east of Harvard Yard, none of which were near the bridgehead at today’s Kendall Square, and the only connection to Cambridge proper was via a causeway now traversed by Main Street. A new settlement sprang up on the nearest dry ground at Pelham’s Island, which was closer to Lafayette Square than it was to Kendall Square. The marshes on both sides of the causeway near the bridgehead remained unbuildable until real estate investors began to dig canals and create dry ground using the spoil. The area was known only as “the Neck” until 1805, when promoters convinced the U.S. Congress to designate Cambridge a port of delivery, thereby giving rise to the name of Cambridgeport.

Cambridgeport aerial by Lawrence Lowry Aerial Photography ca. 1965

As long as Cambridge remained a town, neighborhood names such as Cambridgeport and East Cambridge had no formal significance (see J.G. Hales, Map of Cambridge, 1830). When Cambridge became a city in 1846 it was divided into three wards, Old Cambridge, Cambridgeport, and East Cambridge (see H.F. Walling, Map of Cambridge, 1854). The Cambridgeport ward ran from Kendall Square west to Lee Street and from Somerville south to the Charles River. As the city grew the old wards were broken up, but the geographic identities of the three neighborhoods remained in popular usage.

Above: Cambridgeport and East Cambridge as depicted in 1830 and 1854.

The original Cambridgeport ward incorporated numerous smaller localities, including the residential neighborhoods of Dana Hill, Riverside, Pine Grove, and the early settlement of Pelham’s Island, which became known as the Lower Port (so called because it was downstream, and furthest from the settled areas of Cambridge). Businesses congregated at major intersections, and other neighborhoods took their names from those squares: Central Square, Lafayette Square, Inman Square, and Kendall Square. All were popularly understood to be part of Cambridgeport.

Traditional neighborhood distinctions began to break down after WWII. In 1949 the planning board divided the city into thirteen districts that were intended to facilitate demographic analysis of the 1950 census (see Cambridge Neighborhoods, 1949). A few of these arbitrary boundaries respected established neighborhoods, but most did not. In this scheme Cambridgeport was reduced to an area south of Central Square, while other neighborhoods traditionally associated with Cambridgeport were given only numbers. Squares were not delineated at all.

Cambridge neighborhoods as defined by the Planning Board, 1949

The new appellations gradually became current in the more transient communities around Harvard Square, but in 2018 the City Council allowed Area 4 to revert to its traditional designation as the Lower Port. Most neighborhood distinctions in Cambridge remain mysterious to newcomers and residents alike.

Today’s post was written by CHC Executive Director, Charlie Sullivan

Black History Month 2023: Reverend Henry Buckner

Posted on February 15, 2023February 15, 2023 by cambridgehistoricalcommission

Perhaps not as well-known as other prominent members of the Black community in Cambridge in the 19^th century is Reverend Henry Buckner (c.1832 Virginia – 1893 Worcester, Mass). Reverend Buckner founded what became the first African American church in Cambridge. It all began in 1870 when he and a group of his like-minded friends met for prayer in his living room at #32 Hastings Street. In 1873, the group was associated with the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and was subsequently known as the St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church. Note that the church website lists it as St. Paul Church—singular—though it is inevitably referred to as plural: St. Paul’s.

Buckner was born in Virginia around 1830. Given the date and location of his birth, it is likely that Buckner was born into enslavement. And, given his name, it is possible that the Buckner family of Virginia were Henry’s enslavers. Henry’s wife, Georgiana Watters, was also born in Virginia around 1830. Her death was noted in the Cambridge Press on February 23, 1889. Five months later, Buckner married Mary P. Mingo (b. 1844 in Virginia). This was both Henry and Mary’s second marriage. Their marriage document lists Henry’s mother as Ann Killis; Mary’ Mingo’s parents were Isaac and Sarah Watters.

Henry Buckner first appears in Cambridge in the 1870 Census, listing him as a blacksmith living in a predominately Black neighborhood (street unnamed). The value of his real estate was an impressive $2000—valued around $40,000 in today’s currency. Henry was not listed in the 1869 Cambridge Directory. The 1872 Directory lists him living at #32R Hastings Street, which ran between Moore St and Portland St in East Cambridge. His occupation was listed as “laborer” until 1892 when he was listed as “Rev. Henry Buckner.”

After 1893, Cambridge changed its street numbering system, and the Buckner’s home was henceforth listed as #70. You can see #70 on the map below just a few doors down from the St. Paul A.M.E. at the corner of Hastings and Portland Streets. Hastings St was closed by 1960, and today the Draper Labs garage stands on church’s former site.

*Atlas of the City of Cambridge, Massachusetts* by G.W. Bromley and Co., 1894 (detail)

In 1900, the current pastor of the Church, Rev. W. H. Burrell, wrote an article for the Cambridge Chronicle about the founding of St. Paul A.M.E.

The article continues:

“The little society rapidly grew to such proportions that it was soon found necessary to secure a more commodious place of worship, and after selecting a suitable location, leased of Mr. James C. Davis (who afterward became a staunch friend of this struggling society) the lot of land corner Portland and Hastings streets, on which the church building now stands, and erected the St. Paul’s A. M. E. church, which for twenty-four years, has stood battling for the right, and which for many years was the only place of worship of the colored people in the city of Cambridge…”

Exterior view of Wood Memorial Church, later St Paul A.M.E., at 50 Portland St (later 98 Portland), no date (CHC collections)

In 1899, Pastor Burrell had begun a remodeling drive. The article concluded with a touching appeal for funds:

In 1882, Buckner represented his church at the first meeting of “colored temperance organizations of Cambridge and Boston” and was named temporary chairman of the group:

Of course, Buckner regularly attended the New England Conference of the A.M.E. Church at Newport, Worcester and other locations. In 1890, at the Conference in Worcester, Mass, Buckner’s transfer to Westfield, Mass was announced. The Pittsfield papers noted that Buckner had served there in 1884 and 1885, noting that in January of 1885 he was called back to Cambridge “on account of his wife’s sickness.”

The June 17, 1890 edition of the Boston Globe noted that Buckner was again transferred to Westfield. Several days earlier, on June 14, he had been referred to as a “supernumerary” in the Worcester Daily Spy. The following year, in June of 1891, he opened the devotional exercises at the morning session of the A.M.E. conference in Newport, Rhode Island (Boston Globe, June 11, 1891).

View of Wood Memorial Church at 31 Austin St (now Bishop Allen Drive) as published in *Cambridge Illustrated*, ca. 1889-1893

It is difficult to locate any information about Rev. Buckner after 1891. A clue as to his death may be seen in the 1893 City Directory under his last name. The only Buckner listed is “Buckner Henry Mrs house 70 Hastings.” Women were generally listed this way only after their husbands were deceased. Meanwhile, the church Henry had founded moved to the corner of Columbia Ave and Austin St in Cambridge after the congregation outgrew their former building at the corner of Portland and Hastings Street. In 1920, the church purchased the Wood Memorial Church on Austin Street (now Bishop Allen Drive).

Postcard showing Wood Memorial Church c. 1910. (CHC collections)

In 1974, Austin Street was renamed Bishop Allen Drive, after the founder of the A.M.E. Church in America. A little over two centuries earlier, in 1784, Richard Allen had founded the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia.

Richard Allen: Image Encyclopedia Britannica

Also in 1974, St. Paul A.M.E. opened the Henry Buckner School at 85 Bishop Allen Drive with the mission to provide care for toddlers, pre-school learning, and kindergarten. So, though we don’t know exactly when the Rev. Henry Buckner passed on, his memory lives on forever in this school.

The St Paul A.M.E. Church at 37 Bishop Allen Drive as photographed by Christopher Hail ca. 1985.

Today’s post was written by Kathleen M. Fox

SOURCES

Cambridge Public Library Newspapers and City Directories

U.S. Census

Genealogy Bank

Newspapers.com

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Richard-Allen

https://st-paul-ame.org/st-paul-history.html

Cambridge Designers: William Everett Chamberlin

Posted on November 16, 2022December 7, 2022 by cambridgehistoricalcommission

We are starting a new series on designers (architects, builders, landscape architects, and others) who have had a lasting impact on Cambridge’s built environment. For our first post in this series, we are featuring a lesser-known architect who lived and worked right here in Cambridge, William Everett Chamberlin.

*William E. Chamberlin, 1907 Class Book courtesy of MIT Libraries*

William Everett Chamberlin (1856-1911) was born in Cambridge on June 23, 1856, to Ann Maria Stimson (1822-1907) and Daniel Upham Chamberlin (1824-1898), a prominent Cambridgeport hardware dealer and president of the Cambridgeport Savings Bank. William Chamberlin (sometimes spelled Chamberlain) attended Cambridge public schools before enrolling at MIT, where he majored in Architecture.

*William E. Chamberlin, Class of 1877 photograph, courtesy of MIT Libraries*.

After graduating from MIT in 1877, the 22-year-old was hired as a draftsman by the esteemed firm of Sturgis and Brigham, architects in Boston. In February 1879, William moved to New York City, and began working as a draftsman at the internationally known firm of McKim, Mead, and White (MMW). Upon arriving in New York, William was quickly overwhelmed. Thinking there was a great deal he hadn’t learned, he was given permission by the firm to travel Europe for over two years to study in the Ecole des Beaux Arts, Paris, and to hone his drawing skills while travelling about the continent. He returned to the office of McKim, Mead & White in New York in early 1882, as the firm was receiving lucrative commissions with its Gilded Age clientele.

*Sketch at Chaumont-Sur-Loire by William E. Chamberlin. Published in Catalogue of the architectural exhibition, Boston Society of Architects (1886).*

Within a few months of arriving in the United States, William quit his job as a draftsman at MMW and returned to Cambridge, seemingly due to poor health – an issue which plagued him his entire life. Later publications explained that Chamberlin suffered from spinal troubles, which progressed enough that it left him confined to a wheelchair for much of his adulthood.

After a season of rest, William opened his own architecture office in downtown Boston, commuting from his parent’s house in Central Square. Recounting the early days of his own practice to former classmates in 1885, he sarcastically wrote: “I have started in business for myself here in Boston, though somehow or other, there don’t seem to be many ‘riche amateurs’ who want to build big ‘musees’ in parks as there used to be in the school programs. Still, I manage to get three meals a day, Voila”!

While Chamberlin joked about a slow start to his office, one of his earliest commissions was among his most important. In 1883, he designed an administration building and hospital wings for the new Cambridge Hospital (renamed Mount Auburn Hospital in 1947) in Cambridge. The building consisted of a main building of three stories and basement, which housed all departments of the hospital, including private rooms and two one-story wards, the whole forming three sides of a hollow square, with the opening toward the south and the river. Chamberlin worked closely with Dr. Morrill Wyman (1812-1903), an expert on the ventilation of sickrooms and public buildings and first president of the hospital, to orient the buildings facing the Charles River to maximize sun-exposure for south facing rooms and provide the full influence of southwestern breezes in the summer. Now known as the Parson’s Building (named after Emily Elizabeth Parsons a Civil War nurse who helped establish the hospital), Chamberlin’s first major commission in Cambridge set-off a prominent, yet largely overlooked career.

After receiving just a few commissions while running his own practice, Chamberlin entered into a business partnership with architect William Marcy Whidden (1857-1929). Whidden was a former classmate of Chamberlin, who’s career path mirrored much of his. They both graduated from MIT in architecture in 1877, they both studied at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, and both worked at the office of McKim, Mead & White. Whidden left MMW in 1885, when propositioned with the idea of running his own practice with Chamberlin. The duo established the firm of Chamberlin & Whidden that year.

The firm, led by a pair of thirty-year-old architects, was hired to design buildings all over the Boston area. Due to this success, they hired other young, promising architects to assist with drafting. One of those hires was Henry Bacon, who briefly worked for Chamberlin and Whidden before joining McKim, Mead & White. Locally, Henry Bacon could be known as the designer for the steps and walls of the Longfellow Monument in Longfellow Park, but he is best known for his design of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. (built 1915–1922), which was his final project. Within the first few years, the firm of Chamberlin and Whidden saw a lot of activity, including furnishing designs for a six-story commercial building in Boston in the Romanesque Revival style. Their major type of commission, however, was expensive, single-family suburban housing.

*Stores on South Street, Boston, Mass. Featured in American Architect and Building News, February 1887.*

The firm built beautiful homes including one on Highland Street for Robert Noxon Toppan (1836-1901) and his wife, Sarah Moody Cushing. The Colonial Revival style house was built in 1886 and is one of the earliest houses in Cambridge of the style, setting trends for its neighbors. The brick Toppan House exhibits a large Palladian window at the façade, with a rounded center bay and a full-length piazza overlooks the gently terraced landscape towards Brattle Street at the rear.

*House at Cambridge, Mass. Featured in American Architect and Building News, February 1887.*

When a design competition was announced for the new Cambridge City Hall, a few local firms were asked to submit designs following benefactor Frederick H. Rindge’s strict requirements. The advisory design committee suggested that Peabody & Stearns, Van Brunt & Howe, Longfellow, Alden & Harlow, John Lyman Faxon, and Chamberlin and Whidden all submit designs for consideration. Chamberlin and Whidden proposed a stately, symmetrical building with a strong Romanesque emphasis and a central clock tower, capped by a belfry and cupola. Their design was not accepted by Rindge, who selected Longfellow, Alden & Harlow instead. Undeterred, the young firm persevered.

*Chamberlin & Whidden proposal for Cambridge City Hall, 1888. American Architect & Building News, June 1888.*

A second time, Chamberlin and Whidden submitted in a design competition for the English High School in Cambridge, and won the design competition in 1889, securing that job. It would be their final project together in Cambridge. Their plans for the new High School called for a three-story masonry building of stone on the first floor with light-red brick above. The building was long and narrow, giving each classroom ample natural light and ventilation. Articles mentioned that there was little ornamentation as “the desire of all concerned was to construct a simple and dignified building expressive of its serious purpose”. The building was demolished in 1938 for the consolidated Cambridge High and Latin School.

*English High School, photographed 1908. Detroit Publishing Company.*

By 1890, William Whidden had moved west to Oregon and established his own firm. William promoted architect William Downes Austin (1856-1944) to partner of the firm, renaming it Chamberlin & Austin. The new firm kept busy with a steady stream of commissions, but it was clear Chamberlin’s health was preventing him from actively seeking out new projects as he once did. Many of the designs the firm completed as Chamberlin & Austin appear to have been from previous clients, showing their trust in Chamberlin’s quality designs.

One such projects was commissioned by Henry Endicott, whos large home at 151 Brattle Street was designed by Henry Bacon Jr. while working under William Chamberlin in 1888. Two years later in 1890, Endicott returned to Chamberlin to design a smaller residence on the newly laid out Brewster Street, at the rear of the Brattle Street property, for his daughter and son-in-law. The second house, much smaller in size, showcases Chamberlin’s attention to detail with the saw-tooth cut shingle and recessed porch at the entrance and gentle undulating form with continuous shingled siding.

*151 Brattle Street as depicted in American Architect and Building News, May 5, 1888.*

In 1891, William Chamberlin married Emily Douglass Abbott (1858-1916). The couple acquired a house lot on Clinton Street, at the rear of Emily’s father George Abbott’s residence on Harvard Street. That year, William designed his new house on Clinton Street and a renovation for his father’s new home on Harvard Street. The three houses were all direct neighbors. William Chamberlin’s new home on Clinton Street was the first of his own, after decades of boarding with his father and mother in Central Square. For his own house, William designed a modest, 1½ -story structure with prominent gambrel roof. The house, while altered, exhibits Chamberlin’s eclectic sense of design, which often blends styles into a single composition. William and Emily never had children. One year later, William D. Austin left the firm to partner with Frederick W. Stickney forming Stickney & Austin.

*William E. Chamberlin House (1891), 27 Clinton Street, photograph taken 11-2022.*

William E. Chamberlin entered a semi-retirement due to his worsening health, which plagued him most of his life but could never fully step away from his passion for design. When he heard about the death of his beloved former professor at MIT, Eugene Letang in 1891, Chamberlin designed a memorial tablet of bronze set into a carved marble surround. This marker still stands in the Boston Public Library, Copley Square branch location. With this work, Chamberlin showed his skill beyond designing buildings. It is possible that he was the designer of many of his family memorial stones in the family plot at Mount Auburn Cemetery.

*Eugène Létang tablet designed by W. E. Chamberlin. Ca. 1905 photograph, Boston Public Library collections.*

He was hired again by the Cambridge Hospital (now Mount Auburn Hospital) in 1896, designing a Nurse’s Residence just steps away from the Administration Building and Hospital wings he designed over ten years prior. His design for the Nurse’s Residence, like nearly all his work, blends multiple styles effortlessly into a single composition. The brick building displays strong Classical features including the central columned portico and the belt course above the second story windows which reads as a frieze band with ocular windows. Soon after in 1898, he designed the Cambridge Homes for Aged People at 360 Mt. Auburn Street with former partner Stickney and Austin.

Nearly a decade later in 1904, Chamberlin and Boston architect Clarence Blackall completed designs for the new Cambridgeport Savings Bank (where his late father once served as president) in Central Square, Cambridge. The building is perhaps Chamberlin’s most recognizable and stately extant design where he could show-off his architectural versatility. The Cambridgeport Savings Bank is a monumentally scaled limestone-clad structure with a façade dominated by recessed central bays behind an engaged Corinthian portico. The ornate stone parapet which once capped the building was replaced in the 1950s. The Cambridgeport Savings Bank building is Chamberlin’s last known work in Cambridge before his death.

*Cambridgeport Savings Bank Building, 689 Mass. Ave. CHC Postcard Collection.*

At just 55 years old, William Everett Chamberlin died from a stroke on August 6, 1911, in Manchester Massachusetts, at his father-in-law’s summer house. When news of his passing spread, fellow members of the Boston Society of Architects memorialized of Chamberlin:

William E. Chamberlin was by nature dowered with great personal charm, a clear keen brain, debonair in its perceptions, just in its conclusions; a genius for his profession of architecture which was rare; and a fresh directness of expression tempered by a delicate humor. The active use of these qualities in the work of the great marketplace was first checked and then barred to him by a disease, which prevented his working outside of his home, and for over twenty years he made that home a center of intellectual stimulus to his friends…His noble character vibrated only perfect harmonies, but, unlike the harp in the wind, in him was the soul and the strong will which decreed always, as a duty to his fellow men, that no discords should mar the beauties of this life which, in spite of one great affliction, he found and made so blessed even to the last hour.

Last known photograph of William E. Chamberlin, ca.1910

William E. Chamberlin bequeathed nearly all his sizable estate, estimated at nearly $100,000, to several Cambridge institutions. His widow, Emily D. Chamberlin, received the income from his estate during her lifetime and that after her death. After which, it was distributed in seven parts. Two-sevenths went to the Cambridge Hospital, two-sevenths to the Cambridge Homes for Aged People, and one-seventh each to the Avon Home, the Holy Ghost Hospital, and to the Department of Architecture at MIT, which he remained engaged with throughout his life. Chamberlin’s legacy has lived on not only through his extant buildings, but his generosity, in the William Everett Chamberlain (sic) Prize for achievement in design at MIT and his generous gifts to Cambridge institutions.

William Everett Chamberlin is buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery on Bellwort Path in the family plot. His monument, like many of his family members, was likely designed by himself from his Cambridge home.

*William E. Chamberlin’s monument at Mt. Auburn Cemetery. Much of lettering covered by lichen.*

“Spectacular Fires” – National Fire Prevention Week

Posted on October 13, 2022October 13, 2022 by Meta Partenheimer

In honor of National Fire Prevention Week, check out the description below and accompanying images of “Spectacular Fires” that ravaged Cambridge buildings in the 20th century. The account appeared in the January 16, 1969 edition of the Cambridge Chronicle:

Fire at Memorial Hall, Harvard, 1956 (Cambridge Photo Morgue Collection)

Fire at Squire’s meatpacking plant on Gore Street, April 14, 1963 (Cambridge Photo Morgue Collection)

Fire at the Jordan Marsh Warehouse on Commercial Avenue, July 15, 1965 (Cambridge Photo Morgue Collection)

“Firefighters battling a fire from the truck in Kendall Square” [Warren Bros. Construction Co. on Potter Street], May 6, 1966 (Brearly Collection, Boston Public Library Arts Department)

Before There Were Supermarkets: Part 2

Posted on May 26, 2021 by cambridgehistoricalcommission

Arthur H. Smith (1861-1943)

With his acquisition of Fred Row’s Pleasant Street market in 1885, Arthur Smith became a giant in further revolutionizing grocery shopping in Cambridge.

Like Fred Row, Smith was an émigré from England. Born in London in 1861, he emigrated to the U. S. as a boy in 1870, the year before his fellow Englishman, the teenaged Row. Perhaps because of the “English connection,” Smith briefly worked for Row during the late 1870’s. He then went on to work at other grocers, and established himself well enough that in 1886, at the age of 25, he bought Row’s Pleasant Street Market. The gumption of these two emigres to have bought businesses before they were 25 years old is remarkable—and a familiar immigrant story.

Smith seems to have learned a few things about advertising from his previous employer, changing the name to the impressive Mammoth Market. He printed a proclamation supporting Massachusetts Governor designating November 27, 1890 as a Thanksgiving holiday.

In 1891, Smith sold the Mammoth Market and moved to a larger location on Main Street in Central Square. He intended to build a two-story building with a market on the ground floor and offices on the second floor. But plans were delayed and changed, and it wasn’t until 1895 that he opened “Smith’s Manhattan Market” at 602-614 Main Street. Story has it that It was named “the great Manhattan Market on 125th Street [in] Harlem” (Cambridge Chronicle, Jan. 31, 1891). His advertising emphasized modern conveniences such a big “hygenic” refrigerators, a long- distance telephone on the premises and a “neat little room for ladies to sit in…”

Manhattan Market 1909. (Cambridge Historical Commission)

Smith’s particular innovation in marketing was to include under one roof individual vendors for the usual grocery goods—meat, fruit & vegetables, canned goods, and baked goods. He also sold kitchen implements, and, believe it or not, music and musical instruments. There was even a piano available for “customers to try out the sheet music” before purchasing. An all-day lunch counter was an added attraction. The position of the individual vendors eventually morphed into departments under the same store management. The “Superb and Elegant” Manhattan Market was a big step toward the idea of what we today call a “Supermarket.”

Historically, the first supermarket as we know it today was the Piggly Wiggly, opened in Memphis, Tennessee in 1916. Customers were able to load items into their baskets (provided by the store) themselves and brought them to a central check-out counter. The Manhattan followed this and all subsequent trends in the management of grocery stores.

Excerpt: *Cambridge Tribune* August 31, 1895

The fine print:

After a very brilliant and successful reception, which was attended by thousands who spike in the highest terms of the beauty and completeness of its arrangements, has passed through a week of business which far exceeded our fondest hopes. It may be thought that because of its magnificence the prices may be on an equally magnificent scale. The Manhattan will entirely disabuse your mind of any such erroneous idea. The proof of the pudding is in the eating; so also the proof of the price is in the purchase…The Manhattan will give measure for measure and dollar for dollar as much as can be obtained anywhere.

Excerpt: *Cambridge Chronicle* September 11, 1897

Smith went on to open other stores in the Boston area, as well as a chain of “five and ten-cent” grocery stores. In 1929 the store became a part of Upham’s Corner Market. Smith soon stepped down from active management of the store in and went on to create United Markets, Inc.

Under changes in management and names, a grocery store remained at the site of the old Manhattan Market until at least 1999.

596-600 Mass. Ave. (left), 602-614 Mass. Ave. in 2019 (right) in 2019
(Google Street view)

Stay tuned for the final installment of our series on supermarkets!

Today’s post was written by CHC volunteer Kathleen Fox.

Sources:

Cambridge City Directory and Newspapers

Wikipedia

Nationaldaycalendar.com

https://grocershall.co.uk/the-company/history/

Merriam Webster’s Dictionary

https://nationaldaycalendar.com/7-inventions-that-made-grocery-shopping-easier/

https://time.com/4480303/supermarkets-history/items at the checkout

St. Augustine’s African Orthodox Church – Cambridge’s Newest Landmark

Posted on February 27, 2021March 2, 2021 by cambridgehistoricalcommission

View of St. Augustine’s African Orthodox Church, 1964.

On February 22, the Cambridge City Council unanimously voted to designate St. Augustine’s African Orthodox Church a Cambridge Landmark. This designation recognizes only a select number of individual properties that are important to the City as a whole, protecting them so that their unique qualities are maintained for the benefit of all the residents of Cambridge.

Located at 137 Allston Street in Cambridgeport, St. Augustine’s African Orthodox Church is owned by the Trustees of The St. Augustine’s Mission. The church is also the home of Black History in Action for Cambridgeport (BHAC), a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting programs focused on sharing Black culture, arts, history, and education with the general public. BHAC’s mission is to sustain and revitalize St. Augustine’s as a neighborhood center for assembly, empowerment, and outreach.

View of St. Augustine’s African Orthodox Church with recently completed new roof.

The property was originally part of the estate of Mrs. Washington Allston [Martha Remington Dana Allston] as drawn on a survey by William A. Mason and W. S. Barbour dated May 1, 1862 and filed in the Middlesex County (South District) Registry of Deeds, Plan Book 33, Plan 5. The rector of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Central Square, Rev. Edward M. Gushee, acquired the property in 1886 to construct a mission of St. Peter’s. Rev. Gushee died in 1917 and bequeathed the property to his son Richard, an Episcopal minister in California. A new priest was appointed by the Diocese of Massachusetts, but the congregation dwindled over the next few years and could not sustain the church financially even though Rev. Richard Gushee continued to own the property. In 1927 Rev. Gushee sold the property to Central Square furniture dealer Morris Bobrick, who may have intended to use the property for storage but who defaulted on his mortgage. The property was bought at auction by Nettie E. Fernandez who in turn sold it to individuals associated with the African Orthodox denomination in 1931. The St. Augustine’s property continues to be owned by the trustees of The St. Augustine’s Mission.

Allston Street was named for Washington Allston (1779-1843), an artist who pioneered America’s Romantic movement of landscape painting. He married Martha Remington Dana, the daughter of Chief Justice Francis Dana, who owned most of the property in this area. Allston Street is a through street parallel to Putnam Avenue and intersecting with the main thoroughfares in the neighborhood, including Magazine, Pearl, and Brookline streets. The neighborhood is characterized by dominant north-south streets, uniform intervals between the cross streets, and sustained setbacks. Only on four streets – Green, Franklin, Allston, and Putnam – can one traverse the entire area in an east-west direction. Early building locations appear to have been determined by land elevation or proximity to Central Square. In 1830 there were only three cross streets; in 1854 there were six; and by 1873 the current street layout was virtually complete. South of Allston Street is a slightly elevated and once heavily wooded area known in the 19^th century as Pine Grove. In 1838 Edmund Trowbridge Hastings (1789-1861) and other Dana heirs laid out the Pine Grove subdivision with 131 house lots on Allston, Chestnut, Henry, Waverly, Sidney, Brookline and Pearl Streets. The original plan included a residential square around Fort Washington and another on Brookline Street that became today’s Hasting’s Square. Although some lots were sold, the area was too isolated to attract development even after the Cottage Farm (B.U.) Bridge was completed in 1851. Martha Allston’s land on the north side of Allston Street (including the site of St. Augustine’s Church) was subdivided in 1862 but remained substantially undeveloped until the 1880s, when the neighborhood began to fill up with one- and two-family houses. Construction of the Morse School in 1890 spurred development, and by 1910 the neighborhood was complete. It remains essentially unchanged today, although the school was demolished in 1957 and the site became a park.

From the founding of Cambridge in 1630 to the construction of the West Boston (now Longfellow) Bridge in 1793, only three families lived east of Quincy Street on “the Neck,” a marshy, wooded peninsula formed by the Charles and Millers rivers. The opening of the bridge spurred development. By this time two Cambridge men owned most of the land in Cambridgeport: William Jarvis controlled properties north of Massachusetts Avenue and Justice Francis Dana to the south. (Much of the rest – and all of East Cambridge – fell to Andrew Craigie.)

Jarvis was the U.S. Inspector of Revenue. Dana, who descended from an old Cambridge family and resided on a large estate on Dana Hill, served as Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court from 1791 to 1806. The two men worked with the Proprietors of the West Boston Bridge to lay out Massachusetts Avenue and Main Street but did not otherwise develop a master plan for the area. Justice Dana developed his holdings slowly and carefully. In 1798 Jarvis was convicted of misappropriation of customs duties; the federal government seized his properties and sold them off to multiple owners.

Justice Dana died in 1811, and his heirs continued to develop Cambridgeport in the same careful pattern. What is now Allston Street was a part of Justice Dana’s estate left to his daughter, Martha Remington Dana Allston (Mrs. Washington Allston).

St. Augustine’s African Orthodox Church was built in 1886-87 as St. Philip’s, a mission of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Central Square. The remote site was chosen to attract parishioners from the surrounding neighborhood who found it difficult to get to church in Central Square. It was the first house of worship to open in the former Pine Grove neighborhood and attracted so many worshipers that it needed to be enlarged two years later.

St. Philip’s was designed by the New Bedford architect Robert Slack, who oversaw both the original construction and the 1888 expansion and worked with the local builders Kelley & McKinnon. Talented and prolific, Slack did not specialize in one style; he designed private homes, churches, and institutions, including a new wing at Harvard’s Peabody Museum.

The church is reminiscent of an English village chapel but is distinctly American in its wood construction and simple expression. The exterior was shingled and stained dark red with trimmings of dark blue. The 50-foot-tall tower was surmounted by a gilded cross and enclosed a bell made at the Meneely foundry in Troy, New York. The main entrance was through a foyer on the right front. The interior featured an open-timbered auditorium with rows of cane chairs with hassocks for the congregation, double-hung windows with colored lights, and five decorative chancel windows high above the altar. The 1888 expansion involved cutting off the chancel end and moving it back 31 feet and building a section between with a transept on the south side, making the inserted section 31 feet by 34 feet. This increased the overall length from 60 to 90 feet and doubled the seating capacity to about 400. The basement was finished for use as Sunday School and guild rooms.

Image of church after expansion. Note the original side entrance. *Cambridge Chronicle*, Sept. 15, 1888.

St. Philip’s was a personal project of Rev. Edward M. Gushee, who served at St. Peter’s Episcopal in Central Square until Easter 1888, when he became rector of St. Philip’s. A wealthy, generous man, Rev. Gushee owned the building, presided at services, and was the parish’s sole financial benefactor. Gushee died in 1917, leaving a small allowance to the parish but bequeathing the building to his son Richard, an Episcopal minister in California who apparently had no wish to return to Cambridge. The diocese supplied the parish with a priest for a few years, but the congregation dwindled and could no longer support either a rector or the building. In 1927 Richard put the building up for sale, advertising it as suitable for “storage, church or remodeled for dwelling” (Cambridge Chronicle, August 26, 1927).

In August 1928 Richard Gushee sold the property to Morris Bobrick, a furniture dealer in Central Square who may have used it for storage. Two years later Bobrick sold it to the trustees of a new church, identified in the newspapers as the African Orthodox Society. In 1932 the Cambridge assessors gave the trustees as George Alexander McGuire, Rev. Gladstone St. Clair Nurse, and Elvira Headley.

Bishop George A. McGuire (1866-1934) established the African Orthodox Church in 1921. McGuire was born, raised, and educated on Antigua; he came to the U.S. in 1894 and two years later was ordained an Episcopal priest. He served in numerous parishes and was praised for both his preaching and his organizational skills. In 1910 he attended Boston University’s medical school, but in 1913 he went back to Antigua to nurse his mother.

In 1918 McGuire returned to the U.S. and began to move in a new direction. He campaigned for equal rights for Black Americans and severed his ties with the Episcopal Church to protest its systemic racism and discrimination against Black clergy. McGuire became an associate of Marcus Garvey and worked with Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA); Garvey in turn endorsed McGuire’s idea that true equality and spiritual freedom could only be achieved by an all-Black religious denomination – a church attended by people of color and administered by Black clergy. The bishop broke with Garvey in 1924, probably over the latter’s increasingly radical ideas on racial nationalism.

In the fall of 1921, St. Luke’s African Orthodox Church opened at 252 Green Street (now the site of the Green Street Garage). In 1931 the denomination took possession of the dilapidated St. Philip’s and renamed it St. Augustine’s African Orthodox Pro-Cathedral, with Bishop McGuire at its head. (A pro-cathedral is a church named by a bishop to serve as his seat but which remains under the governance of the vestry.) When Bishop McGuire died in 1934 the African Orthodox Church could claim approximately 30,000 members in thirty congregations in the United States, the West Indies, South America, and Africa.

General Sources

Cambridge Chronicle, June 6, 1887; September15, 1888; January 17, 1930.

Cambridge Sentinel, January 13, 1940.

Cambridge Tribune, June 18, 1887; January 28, 1888.

Survey of Architectural History in Cambridge, Cambridgeport. Cambridge Historical Commission, 1971.

Harvard Square Library, https://www.harvardsquarelibrary.org/cambridge-harvard/washington-allston/

Black History in Action For Cambridgeport, https://www.bhacambridge.org/history

Wikipedia entries for Rev. George A. Maguire and the African Orthodox Church

Black History Month: George D. Callender

Posted on February 26, 2021March 1, 2021 by Meta Partenheimer

Have you ever wondered where Callender Street in Cambridgeport got its name? The original street was approved in 1838 as part of Putnam Place, laid out between 29 Hews Street and 152 Putnam Avenue. In 1874, it was part of Hewes (Hews) Street and extended to 47 Howard Street. For reasons unknown, the street was renamed Grigg Street in 1877 and retained this designation for over seventy years.

Clipping from the *Cambridge Chronicle*, 8 March 1945

On October 18, 1949, the City Council ordered that the name of Grigg Street be changed to Callender Street in honor of Private First Class George Duncan Callender, a young man killed in action during World War II.

View down Callender Street east of Dodge Street, ca. 1950 (Cambridge Planning Board)

George was born in Cambridge on February 3, 1923. His mother, Gladys Odessa Pyle (1902-1966), was born in Saint Michael Parish, Barbados; his father, Eleazer T. Callender, died in 1925 when George was just an infant. Gladys, who went by Odessa, then married Marcus Elder Sr. (1904-1982) on June 3, 1926. Elder was a painter and immigrant from Castries, Saint Lucia. George graduated from Webster School in 1938 and from Rindge Technical School in 1942. In 1941 Callender, nicknamed “Lefty,” became a founding member of the Aggie Associates, or the “Aggies”, an all-Black basketball team based in Cambridge.

Clipping from the *Cambridge Chronicle*, 5 March 1942

George Callender (also spelled “Callendar” in some sources) enlisted on April 22, 1943 and was later assigned to Unit 366th Infantry Regiment, Company M.

U.S., World War II Draft Card for George Duncan Callender

At the time of his enlistment, George was living at 49 Grigg Street and working at Wards Baking Company at 140 Albany Street.

Advertisement for Wards Baking Company, published in the *Cambridge Sentinel*, 8 September 1928

After his enlistment, he trained at Fort Devens, Massachusetts, and at Camp Atterbury, Indiana.

Enlisted Men’s Barracks, Fort Devens, Mass., ca. 1930-1945. Retrieved from https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/cj82kc208

Initial reports stated incorrectly that George died in combat on February 9, 1945, in Tuscany, Italy; later, it was determined that the fight had taken place in Germany. George was laid to rest in Cambridge Cemetery. In 1946 the Aggie Associates were renamed the George D. Callender Associates in memory of him. The house at 49 Grigg, a triple-decker built in 1913 by George B. Blacknell, was later purchased by the Cambridge Housing Authority and demolished in 1953 to make way for the Putnam Gardens housing community. Today, a marker honoring George D. Callender stands at the corner of Putnam Avenue and Callender Street in Cambridgeport.