Join the Cambridge Black History Project as they celebrate their oral history narrators. Gather for an afternoon of refreshments and conversation as we pay tribute to our rich storytelling tradition. Connect with your community during an afternoon of conversation and refreshments!
Cost per person: Free Date: November 8, 2025 Time: 1:00pm – 3:30pm
We hope to see you on this special occasion celebrating Cambridge oral histories. Lift Every Voice is a great opportunity to connect with the Cambridge Black History Project and the community. Please RSVP here: https://cambridgepl.libcal.com/event/15516112.
A long-lost box of photographs has inspired a powerful new exhibition at The Mayor’s Gallery at Cambridge City Hall, celebrating the stories and spirit of working-class communities in Cambridge.
“The Diner Project – Remembering a Time Past But Not Forgotten,” features black-and-white photographs taken between 1974–1977 by then-student and aspiring photographer Andrew Mark Satter. Over three years, Satter documented life inside Russ’s Kitchenette Diner, a 1930s railcar-style diner and beloved East Cambridge institution that served city workers for over 40 years before closing in 1978.
Join us tonight for an opening reception including artist talk, Q&A, and book signing from 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM on the 2nd floor of Cambridge City Hall. The exhibition will be on view through November 14, 2025, during City Hall hours.
The opening event is free & open to all! Light refreshments will be served.
Save the date! It’s time for our annual Preservation Awards.
Each year, the Cambridge Historical Commission honors projects and individuals that have made outstanding contributions to protect the city’s historic character and built environment. The 2024-25 Preservation Awards will recognize projects completed between January and December 2024.
This year, the awards ceremony takes place both in person and on Zoom on Thursday, June 12th. The in-person reception will be held in the City Hall Sullivan Chamber at 795 Massachusetts Ave in Central Square, Cambridge. Light refreshments will be served beginning at 5:30pm followed by an engaging presentation showcasing each project with an introduction of project principals. This event is free and open to the public.
Please RSVP for the in-person event via email to our Assistant Director Kit Rawlins at krawlins[at]cambridgema.gov. If you would like to watch the program on Zoom, register here: https://tinyurl.com/CHCAwards2025. We hope to see you there!
For questions, call our office at 617.349.4683 or email histcomm[at]cambridgema.gov
Together with hundreds of other Jane’s Walks simultaneously worldwide, our walk will honor Jane Jacobs, the urban visionary and author of Death and Life of Great American Cities.
View west from intersection of Concord Ave and present-day Bond St showing Astronomical Observatory and St. Peter’s Church (detail; originally published in Gleason’s Pictorial, 1851)
Join us this Saturday May 10th from 10-11:30am as we explore “The Complex Layering of a Cambridge Neighborhood.” This walk will explore the summit and backslope of Observatory Hill, where many modest workers’ houses have been or are being transformed into luxury homes. Charles Sullivan, Executive Director of the Cambridge Historical Commission, will guide us through this fascinating tour, a “walking conversation.”
135 Garden St: Preservation Award-winning renovation of former candy factory, now a residence
We will begin and end in front of St. Peter’s Church, at 100 Concord Ave, opposite the rear of the Harvard Observatory.
Built in 1847, as Cambridge’s second Catholic church, St. Peter’s aimed to accommodate the large influx of Irish immigrants in the 1840s. We will walk by a variety of brickyard laborers’ cottages, many of which have been dramatically altered with contemporary designs.
21 Kelley St: Renovated worker’s cottage
More recent houses now sit on long-depleted claypits. A wayward California bungalow is tucked behind a Greek Revival domicile on Garden Street, adjacent to an early 20th century planned Garden City-style neighborhood meant as a bulwark against spreading three-deckers.
97 Garden St: blueprint section showing studio and residence of noted artist and former architect George T. Plowman
Post-World War II veterans’ housing occupies Harvard’s former Botanic Garden, across the street from the home of famed botanist Asa Gray. Today, residents are concerned that these historical layers may soon disappear.
88 Garden St: view of Asa Gray House in its original location on the grounds of the Harvard College Botanical Gardens
This tour is free, open to one and all, and will occur rain or shine. RSVP is appreciated but not required. Contact Glenna Lang with any questions or RSVPs: lang.glenna[at]gmail.com.
113 Garden St: Architect’s rendering of the Taylor Square Fire Station
Each year, the Cambridge Historical Commission honors projects that have made outstanding contributions to the preservation of the city’s historic character and built environment. The 2025 Preservation Awards will recognize individuals and organizations for projects completed within the last year. The awards will be announced and presented at a ceremony in late May or early June 2025.
Above: 2024 Preservation Award-winning project 15 Inman Street, an historic 19th Century building located in Mid-Cambridge, near Central Square. The building was first restored and renovated by CHA to house four affordable units in 1988. In recent years, CHA began planning for restoration efforts to bring back its look and character, while ensuring that this important community asset is available for families as a comfortable, unique, affordable and desirable place to call home for decades to come. Roof replacement at the building was completed in 2023. This was followed by the window and siding replacement.
Seven project categories are eligible for Preservation Awards: restoration, rehabilitation, adaptive use, neighborhood conservation, landscape preservation, archaeology, and education. The award-winning projects will be selected based on the following:
historical and architectural significance of the preserved property;
exceptional quality of the project;
extent to which the project contributed to the preservation of the property; and
impact of the project on the preservation of the city’s historic resources.
To nominate a project, including your own, please submit a completed nomination form and supporting documentation by Noon on Friday, March 14, 2025 to:
Cambridge Historical Commission 831 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02139
The latest edition of the Mapping Feminist Cambridge walking tour, this time featuring Harvard Square, will launch next week. Sign up to reserve your spot!
The Women’s Commission is thrilled to launch the third and final tour of the Mapping Feminist Cambridge series, Harvard Square 1970s-1990s, with two walking tours July 25, 6-8pm and August 11, 2-4pm. Click below to sign up:
Throughout the 1970s to 1990s, Harvard Square activists organized around labor rights, housing justice, education, lesbian advocacy, music, poetry, and more. Come learn about women’s entrepreneurship in the emerging hospitality sector and how many of the restaurants and inns from this era became long-standing establishments, hear about the vibrant music scene in coffee houses and on street corners, discover feminist art tucked into alley ways, and learn how Cambridge youth were also making their mark. While organizing at Harvard University is included in this tour, the primary focus is on local grassroots activism and organizing.
319th Harvard commencement interrupted by Saundra Graham and activists from the Riverside neighborhood, photographed by Associated Press on June 11, 1970 (via Digital Commonwealth)
Mapping Feminist Cambridge is a series of three historic tours focused on the feminist movement in Cambridge from the 1970s–1990s. From the takeover of 888 Memorial Drive, to the formation of the first domestic violence shelter on the East Coast, to one of the earliest feminist bookstores, to the home of one of the initial women’s studies courses – Mapping Feminist Cambridge is a vibrant account of feminist organizing and politics. Each tour – Inman Square, Central Square, and Harvard Square – spans several organizations and provides context about the movement and its priorities including racial equity, reproductive health care and abortion access, women in film and print, healing for survivors, lesbian and bisexual visibility, political collectives, and so much more.
Date/Location: Sunday June 16, 2024, Longfellow House-Washington’s Headquarters NHS, 105 Brattle Street (Rain location: Christ Church Cambridge, 0 Garden St)
Gather for Juneteenth to honor those who endured slavery and seized freedom on Brattle Street on the eve of the American Revolution, their living descendants, and the long history of Black freedom activism in Cambridge and beyond. This free, all-ages event will feature a community gathering with speeches by living descendants, Juneteenth # Pop-Up Poetry, A Denise Plays Hard Event; music, historical displays, family activities, and refreshments.
Event Details 🎤 12:30-12:50 PM Welcome speakers 🎶 12:50-2:00 PM Juneteenth # Pop-Up Poetry, A Denise Plays Hard Event, including: Drum procession with Chibuzo Dunun Libation + Lift Every Voice and Sing Music + poetry, Denise Washington & Akili Jamal Haynes 🧺 2:00-3:00 PM Interactive history and family activities Catered refreshments Partner/resource tables Juneteenth StoryWalk
Each year, the Cambridge Historical Commission honors projects and individuals that have made outstanding contributions to protect the city’s historic character and built environment. The 2023-24 Preservation Awards will recognize both buildings and individuals for projects completed between January and December 2023.
This year, the in-person reception will be hosted by awardee, Middlesex County Juvenile Court at 121 Third St in East Cambridge. The awards ceremony takes place Thursday, May 30th beginning at 6:00pm and will include an engaging presentation showcasing each project, along with an introduction of project principals. This event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served, and on-site parking is available! As the venue is an active courthouse, security screening is in effect.
Please RSVP for this event via email to our Assistant Director Kit Rawlins at krawlins[at]cambridgema.gov. We hope to see you there! 🏢
Each year, the Cambridge Historical Commission honors projects that have made outstanding contributions to the preservation of the city’s historic character and built environment. The 2024 Preservation Awards will recognize individuals and organizations for projects completed in Cambridge between January and December 2023. The awards will be presented at a ceremony in May 2024.
2023 Preservation Award winner: the 1839 Livermore-Fuller house at 8 Ellery Street
Seven project categories are eligible for Preservation Awards: restoration, rehabilitation, adaptive use, neighborhood conservation, landscape preservation, archaeology, and education. The award-winning projects will be selected based on the following:
historical and architectural significance of the preserved property;
exceptional quality of the project;
extent to which the project contributed to the preservation of the property; and
impact of the project on the preservation of the city’s historic resources.
To nominate a project, including your own, please submit a completed nomination form and supporting documentation no later than Noon on Friday, February 23, 2023 to:
Cambridge Historical Commission 831 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02139
Note: All submitted materials become the property of the Cambridge Historical Commission and will not be returned.
For more information on the Cambridge Preservation Awards, or if you have questions regarding the nomination form, please contact the Commission: Telephone: 617.349.4683 | Email: histcomm@cambridgema.gov
Cambridge Open Archives registration is now live! This annual event offers the rare chance to go behind the scenes with a number of unique archives and collecting repositories right here in Cambridge. This event is free and open to the public, but registration is required: click below to view participating repositories and sign up for individual tours taking place June 5-9.
