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Torn Down Tuesday: Newtowne Club

Posted on March 9, 2021March 9, 2021 by Meta Partenheimer

Formed on December 6, 1893, the Rindge Club, named for real estate developer and major City benefactor Frederick H. Rindge, first met in the Odd Fellows Hall building in North Cambridge on December 27, 1893. To accommodate the club’s athletic classes and activities, leaders leased a gymnasium building at 9 Beech Street (now the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses) from Samuel F. Woodbridge. At the behest of Mr. Rindge, the group changed its name to the Newtowne Club in June 1895.

Exterior of the Rindge Club House when located at the Samuel Woodbridge gym, 9 Beech Street. *Cambridge Chronicle*, 20 January 1894

Earlier that year, plans for a new and larger clubhouse were prepared by Boston-based architect J. Chandler Fowler. In June, Mr. Adams, a member of the club’s governing board, purchased land for the purpose of erecting the new building at the corner of Davenport Street and Massachusetts Avenue, about one block southeast of the Woodbridge gym. With a bid of around $30,000, a contract to construct the building was awarded to Wellington Fillmore & Co. and ground was broken towards the end of June.

Drawing of Newtowne Club by architect J. Chandler Fowler, published in the *Cambridge Chronicle*, 19 January 1895

The club officially opened on January 29, 1896 and nearly 2,000 invitations to the open house were distributed to the community. The new club house was described as “one of the handsomest and most substantial buildings in ward 5.”

Exterior of the Newtowne Club, ca. 1895. Historic New England

Designed in the colonial style, the building was “square and grand, with a wide porch, generous windows and dormers on the roof.” The exterior was painted bright red and finished with white trimmings and green blinds. (Semi-Centennial)

A corner of the library and glimpses of front hall and ladies parlor, drawn by L.F. Grant for the *Cambridge Chronicle*, 1 February 1896

“The house contains a fine gymnasium, with stage, six of the best bowling alleys in the state, shower baths, billiard and pool room, ladies parlor, lounging room, ample lockers for a 500 [person] membership, and, all the appurtenance to a first class clubhouse.” (Semi-Centennial)

Detail of the corner of Davenport St and Mass Ave from Cambridge Bromley Atlases, 1903 and 1930

Over the years, the parlors, gymnasium, and other facilities were rented by area groups, clubs, and committees for events ranging from charity parties to film screenings. In 1916, the Newtowne Theatre opened as a tenant of the club on the north end of the building, offering matinee picture shows and small concerts.

Clipping from the *Cambridge Chronicle*, 9 December 1916

Although the Newtowne Club had been prosperous for many years, it soon found difficulty maintaining memberships and meeting the expenses of the building. In 1917, the building was purchased by the Ozanam Council, Knights of Columbus through a foreclosure sale. The K of C also purchased the club’s furnishings and acquired the moving picture accoutrements for the club’s private use. The club was then renamed Newtowne Hall. In 1924, the Mass Ave frontage was sold and a block of stores were built on the clubhouse lawn. The building was subsequently divided and rented to local organizations.

5 Davenport St, ca. 1975. CHC staff photo

In 1960, Stephen and James Zaglakas remodeled Newtowne Hall and opened Stephen James House, an 800-seat function hall and restaurant that was a popular site for social and political functions until it closed in 1991. Several rounds of interior and exterior repairs, alterations, and additions throughout the mid-twentieth century left the building nearly unrecognizable. By the 1970s, the only features from the original 1896 building were the the hip roof and right side dormer. The building was sold and demolished in 1994 to make way for a condominium development.

Sources
Cambridge Chronicle, 19 January 1895
The Cambridge Chronicle Semi-Centennial Souvenir, 1 February 1896
CHC survey files
“Newtowne Club” by the Cambridge Historical Commission and North Cambridge Neighborhood Stabilization Committee, 2000

Torn Down Tuesday: 329 Harvard Street

Posted on November 24, 2020 by cambridgehistoricalcommission

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

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

Photograph c. 1865 showing house, stable, and grounds

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

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

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

Entrance photographed by Jack E. Baucher (August 1964)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Torn Down Tuesday: 17 Frost Street

Posted on June 9, 2020 by Meta Partenheimer

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

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

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

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

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

1930Bromley — Detail of 1930 Cambridge Bromley Atlas

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

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

In 1913, the Cambridge Tribune described Schuyler as follows:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Torn Down Tuesday: 280 Harvard Street

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Torn Down Tuesday: 8 Dana Street

Posted on March 24, 2020 by Meta Partenheimer

Raymond_statearchives — Massachusetts State Senator Zebina Lee Raymond (1804-1872), State Library of Massachusetts

Happy Torn Down Tuesday! Today we are featuring the two-story home that once stood at 8 Dana Street on the corner of Centre Street. Built in 1848, this elaborately ornate Italiante-style home was commissioned by the Honorable Zebina L. Raymond, a Senator and Mayor of Cambridge.

CambChron_1June1848 — Clipping describing Raymond’s house, *Cambridge Chronicle* (1 June 1848)

The house and land was purchased by Henry B. Ward in 1856 who in turn sold the house to merchant John S. Paine two years later. Paine’s Furniture Company was once the largest business of its kind in New England.

CambChron_7June1884 — Advertisement for Paine’s, Cambridge Chronicle (7 June 1884)

Paine executed many renovations in the home including new window treatments, gas fixtures, chandeliers, and carpets. The house was again renovated in 1891 when Paine contracted Wellington Fillmore to build a one-story addition.

The home was described in Survey of Architectural History in Cambridge Vol. 2: Mid Cambridge as follows:

Although the gable ends of 8 Dana Street have cornices carried across to form pediments in the Greek Revival manner, the rest of the detail is Italiante. The house is pictorial in effect, with much of its quality depending on the play of light and shadow across the wall surfaces and under the arcaded porches. (p. 53)

In 1911, owner Sterling F. Hayward contracted the well-known Cambridge architect John A. Hasty to complete alterations in the sum of $3,000–nearly $80,000 in today’s money. Hasty is also responsible for designing the Cambridge Mutual Fire Insurance building and “The University” apartments–both on Massachusetts Avenue.

In the 1920s, the building was purchased by Mary M. Collins and converted into multi-occupant housing catering to students and short-term tenants. The building was named Vernon Hall and offered dining options in addition to accommodation.

CambTrib_19Dec1925 — Ad for Vernon Hall, *Cambridge Tribune* (19 December 1925)

By the mid 1940s, the building was in use as a convalescent home and later classified as nursing/rest home. The house at 8 Dana St was demolished in 1975 to make way for an addition of that complex, now known as the Cambridge Rehabilitation and Nursing Center.

hopkins1886 — Detail of Hopkins Atlas showing location of 8 Dana St (1886)

Torn Down Tuesday: Prospect Skating Rink

Posted on December 10, 2019December 10, 2019 by Meta Partenheimer

According to the “Brief Notes” section of the Cambridge Chronicle from March 22, 1884, “Roller skating rinks are booming in Cambridge.” The June 14th edition declared “Everybody goes to the skating rink now.” At this time, a new skating rink was under construction at 30-50 Prospect Street in Cambridgeport.

At the time of the Prospect St rink construction, roller skating rinks were already under heavy use at Union Hall around the corner on Mass Ave and in Harvard Square, and a petition to erect another rink on Green Street was making its way through the city government.

Worcester skating rink, Worcester, Mass., undated. The bottom of the image reads “225 x 100 feet, floor 175 x 73 feet.”. Historic New England.

The economy of Cambridgeport was highly-industrialized, and included ventures in soap-making, musical instrument manufacturing, and confectioneries, among others. A steady influx of immigrant labor allowed these businesses to expand exponentially along with the population, which grew by nearly 10,000 each decade in the mid-nineteenth century. Residents new and old sought recreation to fill idle moments between work and daily obligations.

Roller skating guide (1884) Archives & Special Collections at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center, University of Connecticut Libraries

The United States, and East Coast cities in particular, saw a surge in roller skating popularity after Medfield, Mass native James Plimpton patented an improved version of the roller stake that allowed for more steering control.

Pair of Roller Skates (with leather straps and metal buckles). Sarah Moore Field Collection, Historic New England

To meet this increased demand for skating venues, rinks were constructed at a furious rate during the late 19th century. Construction of rinks in Cambridge allowed residents the convenience of leisure and recreation in their own city rather than making the trek into Boston.

Wood engraving after a sketch by Miss Georgie Davis titled “District of Columbia – glimpses of life at the national capital – a fashionable roller-skating rink” (1880)

The Prospect Skating Academy, as it was known, held a grand opening in May 1884. The ceremony and ensuring party included music by the Cambridge Orchestral Society and “an exhibition of fancy skating.” These events were held frequently, and often included an evening of full entertainment. Costume parties,

Advertisement in the *Cambridge Chronicle* (3 October 1885)

Despite the rink’s popularity, the building was razed just ten years after it was built, replaced by a row of three-story retail stores in 1895.

A fire destroyed most of this newer building in 1948, and as a result, the complex was converted to the one-story line of retail stores that stands today. Current businesses include Improv Boston, Jimmy’s Shoe Repair, and The Boston Tattoo Company.