demolition - The Cambridge Historical Commission Blog

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: 71 Amherst Street

Posted on January 26, 2021January 28, 2021 by Meta Partenheimer

It must be time for … Torn Down Tuesday! Today’s feature is a two-story garage that once stood at 71 Amherst Street.

Drawing of 71 Amherst by Francis W. Wilson. MIT.

Completed in 1909 for Fred Smith, the utilitarian structure was built of poured-in-place reinforced concrete. The design included a long span for the upper floor combined with a low-pitched roof carried by metal trusses. The building was set at an oblique angle to the street, and the second floor was reached by a concrete ramp leading up to a door large enough to admit automobiles and trucks.

The Cambridge Auto Body Shop as featured in the *Cambridge Tribune*, 3 July 1925

The building was later occupied by the Daggett Chocolate Company, which commissioned an addition in 1947. When this addition was demolished in 1981, much of the original design was again visible. The building was purchased from the Daggett Trust by MIT in 1961 and renamed Building E20. In 1972-73 the first floor was reconfigured by the architect Bernard Awtry to accommodate the institute’s newly established Department of Psychology. By that time the industrial sash bays had been largely filled in by concrete block panels pierced by small punched windows.

71 Amherst Street photographed by Robert Rettig, May 1969

The Frederick Smith Garage at 71 Amherst Street was of a typical, but relatively minor, use in the newly developed Cambridge riverfront lands. As the automobile became popular in the first decade of the 20th century, residents of the densely settled areas of Boston’s Beacon Hill and Back Bay needed storage and service facilities that could not be provided in their neighborhoods. Just as Bostonian’s stored their household goods at the Metropolitan Storage Warehouse on Massachusetts Avenue, so they brought their automobiles to be serviced in the Cambridge garages of Mr. Smith and others.

Detail of 1916 Cambridge Bromley Atlas showing Fred S. Smith’s garage.

This building and 79 Amherst Street (Building E10) were demolished in 2000 and replaced by an addition to the neighboring MIT Media Lab.

Sources:
CHC demolition memo, cases D-811 and D-812
MIT report: Proposed Demolition of Buildings E10 and E20

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)

Never want to miss a Torn Down Tuesday or our other historical posts? Make sure to follow us here and on Instagram!

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: Willard Phillips House and Barn, 58 Linnaean Street

Posted on November 19, 2019May 14, 2020 by cambridgehistoricalcommission

The Willard Phillips House formerly at 58 Linnaean Street was constructed in 1841 in the then fashionable Gothic Revival architectural style. Willard Phillips was born in 1784 in Bridgewater, MA and graduated Harvard University in 1810. After graduating, Phillips studied law and by 1826, was a member of the legislature and during this time, he was an editor of multiple law review journals which were distributed all over the country. By 1839, he was made judge of probate for Suffolk County and built his home shortly after in Cambridge. He retired from legal practice in 1845 to become the president of the New England Mutual Life Insurance Company, where he remained until 1865 when he retired.

Circa 1930 image of the Willard Phillips House (58 Linnaean Street) courtesy of HOLLIS Images.

After his death, the property remained in the Phillips family who rented the home to Professor John Trowbridge, who was the Director of the Jefferson Physical Laboratory at Harvard. By 1900, 58 Linnaean Street, land which extended from Linnaean Street to Shepard Street and all buildings thereon were conveyed to Radcliffe College, who also purchased the land of Dr. Bemis next door to develop what is known now as the Radcliffe Quad.

The Phillips House became known as the Trowbridge House, a dormitory for students at Radcliffe while the larger brick dormitories along Shepard Street were being constructed. As the Radcliffe Quad developed into the 1920s, open space became a challenge, and many wood-frame dwellings and outbuildings were demolished or moved. The Phillips House eventually was razed in 1951 for Holmes Hall, a wing of Moors Hall.

Detail of Phillips House and barn at rear, undated photo in CHC Archives.

The original Gothic style barn as part of the Phillips estate was moved in 1926 to the rear of 61 Garden Street and redesigned by Mary Almy, a Radcliffe Graduate and principal architect of the firm of Howe, Manning & Almy which was started in 1900 by Lois Lilley Howe. Radcliffe hired the firm to convert the former barn structure into a field house for athletics on the Radcliffe Quad.

Photograph of Phillips Estate barn at second location behind 61 Garden Street. Image part of MIT Special Collections. Circa 1926.

Location of former Phillips estate barn after renovation to Radcliffe Field House behind 61 Garden Street (Edmands House, dormitory). 1950s Sanborn Map.

The Field House was redesigned in the Colonial Revival style and was nearly indistinguishable from the former barn besides the bargeboards at the side gable of the roof which were retained to showcase the history of the structure.

1968 Photo of Radcliffe Field House taken by CHC.

Ca. 1930s view of Radcliffe Field House, courtesy of HOLLIS Images.

Plans and documents which are in the Howe, Manning & Almy Special Collection at the MIT Special Archives showcase the drawings and floor plans of the space even down to the large wooden beam at the mantle on the interior which reads “In Memory of Rosamond Claire Esty 1925”. Ms. Esty, 22, was a recent Radcliffe graduate who was swept from a ledge in Rockport by rogue waves in and despite her brothers attempts to save her, died in the surf.

1930s interior of Radcliffe Field House and carved wooden mantle reading “In Memory of Rosamond Claire Esty 1925”.

Photo of Radcliffe Field House proposed front elevation, original at MIT Libraries.

The Field House was a success and saw heavy use until the 1960s when the building became known by the College as a “necking hangout”. Radcliffe allowed its female students to study in the Field House with a male companion until midnight by requiring students to sign out a key held at nearby Holmes Hall; this made the Field House the only building at Radcliffe legally available to Radcliffe students and their dates every night. Articles explained that the key was often signed out under assumed names and would go missing and unauthorized duplicates later would proliferate through the Quad.

Radcliffe and Harvard Students posing at recently completed Radcliffe Field House, ca. 1930. Image courtesy of HOLLIS Images.

The Field House was razed by 1970 for the construction of the Currier House.

Torn Down Tuesday: 91 Washington Ave

Posted on September 10, 2019 by Meta Partenheimer

Usually, once a building is demolished, it is gone forever. In today’s Torn Down Tuesday feature, the house that burned was constructed alongside a twin neighbor that still stands, allowing us to enjoy its ornate architecture today. These houses are described in Susan E. Maycock’s and Charles M. Sullivan’s book, Building Old Cambridge.

“The 1870s produced the most flamboyant Mansards in Old Cambridge, with great flexibility of plan and silhouette, a profusion of architectural ornament, and bay windows soaring into Mansard-roofed towers. Much of the greater freedom in architectural detail may be attributed to the widespread use of wood-working machinery. High wages for craftsmen after the Civil War impelled builders to use cheaper machine-made instead of hand-carved architectural decoration in all but the most opulent commissions.”

Washington Ave 91 demolished 1940 — 91 Washington Avenue, ca. late nineteenth century (demolished in 1940)

“Forms were often reduced to geometric shapes that machines could reproduce. Many of the new decorative elements were turned on a lathe or cut with a jigsaw and then nailed together, because ornamentation composed of separate parts could be more elaborate than if carved from a single piece of wood. Machines also facilitated popular details, such as chamfered edges and incised linear designs on exterior ornament and interior marble mantels.”

Washington Ave 81_1960s — 81 Washington Avenue, 1960s

“On one of the highest spots in the city, a profusion of detail enhanced opulent twin mansions built side by side in 1871 for Henry J. Melendy and D. Gilbert Dexter, partners in a boot and shoe business in Boston. Dexter’s house burned in 1939, but Melendy’s at 81 Washington Avenue remains in remarkably original condition.”

Washington Ave 81_1966-67 — 81 Washington Aveneue, 1966-67

“The projecting entrance pavilion displayed a great freedom of design in the elaborate jigsawn and routed scrollwork, bargeboard, brackets, pilasters, and recessed dormers. A dramatic concave-roof cupola crowned the patterned slate roof and offered a spectacular view of Boston. The attention to detail continued on the interior with high ceilings, ornate woodwork, and patterned wood floors.”

Washington Ave 81 DSC_0950 — 81 Washington Avenue, 2009

For more information about the development of Old Cambridge, contact us at histcomm (@) cambridgema.gov or consult Building Old Cambridge by Susan E. Maycock and Charles M. Sullivan.

Building and Structure Documentation Collection: 55 Wheeler Street

Posted on October 10, 2018November 19, 2018 by Meta Partenheimer

Today, we are highlighting a building from our recently opened Building and Structure Documentation Collection. This collection documents buildings and structures in Cambridge that were either demolished or significantly altered. In this case the materials were compiled as a condition of approval by the Cambridge Planning Board for a proposed replacement project.

Aug132018_9169 — 55 Wheeler Street: interior view of reception area

For each building or structure, the corresponding box often includes an architectural description of the building or buildings, a narrative history, and archival photographs, negatives, photograph key(s), and/or electronic copies of the files and photographs.

Documented structures in this collection include buildings from the former Boston Woven Hose & Rubber Company, and the Fogg Museum from the Harvard Art Museum Restoration and Expansion Project. Today we are featuring the documentation of the Abt Associates office complex at 55 Wheeler Street.

Aug132018_9118 — 55 Wheeler Street: exterior facade

The Abt Associates Office Complex, much of which is less than 50 years old as of 2018, is located at 55 Wheeler Street, Cambridge, Mass. Abt Associates – which relocated to other offices in Cambridge in 2017 – is “a consulting firm that specializes in combining social sciences, computer forecasting, operations analysis and systems engineering to address technological advances and social change.” (Historical Narrative, Westbrook Properties Documentation). The firm grew rapidly in the 1960s and ‘70s, and the complex was repeatedly enlarged to enclose a series of beautifully landscaped quadrangles; almost every occupant enjoyed an exterior view.

The internationally renowned architect and urban planner Imre Halasz (1925-2003) was one of the most important designers associated with the complex. Halasz came to the US from Hungary in 1957 and taught at MIT’s School of Architecture and Planning for forty years. His firm, Imre & Anthony Halasz Inc., operated from 1957 to 1991. Halasz was also responsible for the master plan of the NASA Electronics Research Center (later the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center) in Kendall Square.

Abt Associates was formed in Cambridge in 1965 by Dr. Clark C. Abt. The company’s Cambridge location is significant for its associations with an “iconic social sciences research and consulting firm that was forward-thinking for its time, providing child care, a restaurant and recreational facilities for employees.” (Memo, Liza Paden, June 28, 2017).

55 Wheeler Street: pool, looking southwest

Look for more building and structure documentation in future posts!