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Modern Monday: Harvard Science Center

Posted on April 8, 2019May 14, 2020 by cambridgehistoricalcommission

The Harvard Undergraduate Science Center at 1 Oxford Street, is a pre-cast concrete behemoth designed by Josep Lluís Sert (1902-1983) the Dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Design at the time.

Science Center_2019 — Staff photo of Harvard Science Center (1 Oxford Street) April 2019.

Designed in 1970 and completed just two years later, the Brutalist structure integrates its siting along the three major streets in which it is framed: Kirkland, Oxford and Cambridge Streets and is a visual link between Harvard Yard and the North Yard. The design terraces upward from the pedestrian mall overpass at Cambridge Street to limit the massing and shifts the bulk of the structure back (north) with just a more pedestrian-scaled section fronting the mall. A central spine runs down the building which visually serves as an upwards staircase and terminates at a nine-story tower. Science Center Model_Radcliffe Archives_1970 Science Center Model aerial_Radcliffe Archives_1970

Science Center under construction_Harvard Archives 1971
Approximately two-fifths of the cost of the $25 Million building centered around the two un-adorned concrete towers on the western and eastern walls of the Science Center. The non-descript boxes are water-cooling towers intended to service not only the Center itself, but all buildings in the North Yard. The towers are connected by a massive pump room in the basement. The tarantula-like steel girders seemingly creep over the lecture hall area and serve to support the roof of the auditorium.

Science Center exterior_Radcliffe Archives_1970s

Science Center aerial_Radcliffe Archives_1973

Science Center Interior 1st floor_Radcliffe Archives_1973

Science Center Interior 1st floor_Harvard Archives_2011

It is believed that Sert took inspiration for the design from his former mentor, Le Corbusier, who designed the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard just ten years prior. The Science Center was influenced by an unbuilt project, The Palace of the Soviets, designed for Russia by Le Corbusier in 1931 and worked on by Sert as a young architect. The current Science Center borrows the steel girder and cable vocabulary from the unbuilt Palace of the Soviets along with the use of pre-cast concrete panels to somewhat pay homage to his mentor. Sert loved the use of concrete as an “honest and muscular material that could be molded into any shape” and liked to set splashes of bright color against its textured grey – “like a parade of elephants and parrots”.

LeCorbusier’s Model of the Palace of the Soviets (unbuilt)

Aerial of the Palace of the Soviets (unbuilt)

Harvard later outgrew the Science Center and hired firm Leers-Weinzapfel Associates Architects in 2004 to expand the science village. Three vertical additions of minimal steel-framed glass volumes contrast in materiality from the concrete panel main structure yet echo elements of the initial design. The verticality of the glass panes creates a visual rhythm with the vertical grooves in the older precast concrete panels. At the interior, splashes of color and light flood the spaces and the newly dedicated museum space is visually connected to a light-filled terrace.

Rendering of completed additions by LWA Architects.

Completed additions by LWA Architects.

Interior courtyard with new addition by LWA Architects.

Longfellow Park

Posted on April 4, 2019August 21, 2020 by allisoncrosbie

LongfellowHouse_signature_TomKlein_2016_02 — View of lower garden and memorial with Longfellow’s house in the background

Across the street from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s House on Brattle Street is a 2-acre park extending down to the Charles River, established in memory of the great poet. The park includes an open lawn area off of Brattle Street bounded by several residences as well as the Friends Meeting House of Cambridge and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and descends to a lower garden and memorial on Mt. Auburn Street.

Soon after Longfellow’s passing in 1882, a group of his colleagues organized an association to create a memorial in his honor and formed the Longfellow Memorial Association. The Association sought to erect a monument and create a public park to be given to the City of Cambridge. Longfellow’s children donated two acres, consisting of the central portion of a meadow, in 1883. This donation of land came with a plan illustrating their desire for an open grass area to preserve the view of the river from the house, and a monument located in the northern section of the park. A horseshoe-shaped road was proposed to provide access to subdivided lots planned by the Longfellows.

childrens plan.JPG — Proposed plan by Longfellow’s heirs with the monument located on the upper green space.

Maintaining the open meadow was a concern by all involved in the park. As Longfellow’s son, Ernest, wrote:

“Such a breathing space on the river in connection with the playing fields of
the College, which my father was so instrumental in securing, will one day
be a great boon to Cambridge when it becomes crowded, and would be a
better monument to my father and more in harmony than any graven image
that could be erected.”

longfellow park eliot plan — Plan by Charles Eliot, 1887 (National Park Service)

In 1887, Charles Eliot, a landscape architect who apprenticed with Frederick Law Olmsted, was commissioned to design the park. He envisioned a park with two distinct areas, an expanse of lawn surrounded by the horseshoe-shaped road and walks, and a garden in the lowland with paths and a playground. To mitigate poor drainage, Eliot recommended the upland be used to fill the area and create a brook. He also included shrubs to screen traffic on Mt. Auburn Street, and trees along the edges of the garden. Between the garden and the green, Eliot proposed an exedra, a semi-circular recessed seating area, facing south and on axis with the front door of Longfellow’s house. A proposed walk would lead to the highest point on the site, ending in a terrace and a set of stairs. Only a few elements of Eliot’s design were actually executed. Changes included a large stone stair case instead of the exedra, and fewer shrubs were installed. In addition, trees were not planted on the edges, and the brook was not created.

longfellow park 1889 — View from Longfellow’s house to the river, ca. 1889 (Ellis Gray Loring Papers, Harvard University)

The design of the monument was given to the sculptor Daniel French. The siting of the statue was debated between the heirs who wanted it closer to Brattle Street, and the Association who agreed with Eliot’s original recommendation. The dispute was settled by Frederick Olmsted, Jr. who concurred with Eliot’s idea. Olmsted Jr. also recommended that the design of the monument integrate and redesign the existing steps. The staircase was replaced by a stone retaining wall, designed by the architect Henry Bacon, which forms the base of the sculpture. Two sets of stairs flank the wall, and at the base of the sculpture was a sunken memorial garden designed by Paul Frost.

longfellow park 1900 — View of stone steps connecting the upper and lower levels of the park, ca. 1910 (Library of Congress)

longfellow park 1915 — View of lower level of the park looking back to Longfellow’s house, ca. 1915 (Boston Public Library, Leon Abdalian photo)

175930_AGJKqrFK-Amd_fLso8gDHgQceXg1tr84h7gahukAPdo — View of portrait bust of Longfellow with 6 characters from his poems depicted in bas-relief behind the sculpture

After 1914, pathways were repaved in concrete and narrowed. Houses and institutions were built around the park. In the 1930s and 1940s, several WPA projects repaired the drive and walkways, and planted shrubs and trees in the garden. Lighting was also installed during this time. By the 1970s, a mature canopy of trees had grown in the garden. In 1989, Carol R. Johnson and Associates was hired to address the deterioration of the lower park. Some trees were removed and re-planted, and others were pruned. The lawn was restored, and the area was regraded for erosion control. Granite cobbles were installed at the south gate, and stone dust paving was placed at the base of the monument.

Longfellow Park DSC_1857

Sources
Evans, Catherine, Cultural Landscape Report for Longfellow National Historic Site, Volume I: Site History and Existing Conditions, National Park Service, 1993.

Osterby-Benson, Krisan, “Longfellow Park, A Room With A View,” May, 1983.

Maycock, Susan, and Charles Sullivan, Building Old Cambridge, MIT Press, 2016.

Sarah Wyman Whitman

Posted on March 28, 2019May 14, 2020 by cambridgehistoricalcommission

Sarah Wyman Whitman (1842-1904) was a painter, stained glass artist, and book cover designer based in Boston. Whitman was also a doyenne of Boston society, along with Isabella Stewart Gardner for whom she designed a sign over the entrance to her house, now a museum in the Fenway. Married to Henry Whitman, a wool and dry goods merchant, they entertained in their home on Beacon Hill and summered in Beverly Farms on the North Shore. In addition to her social activities, Whitman was deeply involved in philanthropy. She founded the Boston Water Color Club in response to the Boston Society of Water Color Artists who only admitted men, and co-founded the Boston Arts & Crafts Society. Whitman advocated for Radcliffe College and better educational opportunities for women and children in the public school system, and she was a benefactor of Howard University and Tuskegee Institute.

Whitman studied painting with William Morris Hunt of the Boston Museum School from 1868 to 1871, and studied drawing with William Rimmer. In the late 1870s, she traveled to France and studied drawing with Hunt’s former master Thomas Couture. She worked in oil and pastel, painting landscapes around New England as well as floral studies. She also painted numerous portraits, preferring to paint her subjects against dark backgrounds. She exhibited widely in the 1870s through the 1890s, including the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893.

H0062-L00884938 2 — “A Song,” signed S. W. Whitman, 1883, invaluable.com

In the early 1880s, Whitman apprenticed with John La Farge, a stained glass artist who utilized opalescent glass in his work and innovated methods of layering and welding glass. Whitman also used opalescent glass in her own work along with colored and transparent glass. Whitman later started her own firm, Lily Glass Works, and her stained glass windows can be found in churches and colleges throughout New England, including the Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe, Memorial Hall at Harvard University, Trinity Church in Boston, and First Parish Church in Brookline. For Harvard’s Memorial Hall she designed both the elaborate south transept window and the Honor and Peace window on the south side of what is now Annenberg Hall.

sarahwymanwhitman3 — Stained glass at the Memorial Hall, Harvard University, 1900. The left side depicts “honor”, the right, “peace”.

In 1884, Whitman was asked to design book covers for the publishing company Houghton Mifflin. She designed over 200 books, working in the Art Nouveau style using organic forms and delicate line work. She also employed gold stamping and was one of the first to carry the design over the front, spine, and back of the book.

book 02

book 01

book 03

pba02985f01l

jewett

Whitman designed many book covers for her dear friend Sarah Orne Jewett, author of Country Of The Pointed Firs and A Marsh Island, among others. Wyman also designed a stained glass window in memory of Jewett’s father at his alma mater, Bowdoin College.

More images of her book cover designs can be seen at the Boston Public Library’s flickr site, https://www.flickr.com/photos/boston_public_library/sets/72157604192955355/, and at the University of Wisconsin online digital archives.

Sources

Smith, Betty S. “Sarah de St. Prix Wyman Whitman.” Old Time New England, V. 77, No. 266, Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, Boston, 1999.

https://rbscp.lib.rochester.edu/3350

http://www.designworklife.com/2014/04/30/sarah-wyman-whitman/

Sarah Wyman Whitman

http://bindings.lib.ua.edu/designerbios/whitman.html

Modern Monday: McCormick Hall and Katharine Dexter’s Legacy at MIT

Posted on March 11, 2019January 5, 2022 by cambridgehistoricalcommission

In the year 1960, just 22 women were admitted to MIT, in comparison to 914 men. After decades of feeling pressure to admit more female students, President James Killian and his Chancellor Julius Stratton made the decision not only to admit more women to the university, but to actively work to improve the environment and resources available for female students.

Women at MIT Enrollment

The shift to admit and provide better education to young women was described years later in 1970 in a report written by Professor Emily Wick, Associate Dean of Students and the first woman promoted to tenure at MIT:

“Until the Institute could commit itself to educating women in significant numbers, and could provide suitable living conditions, coeds were not overly `successful.’ … Before 1960 women entered MIT at their own risk. If they succeeded — fine! If they failed — well, no one had expected them to succeed. … The class of 1964 entered in 1960 knowing that MIT believed in women students. It was the first class in which coeds, as a group, matched the proportion of B.S. degrees earned by their male classmates!”

Emily Wick_MIT Alum Class 1964 — Emily L. Wick talking with students circa 1963. Photo courtesy of MIT Class of 1964.

An early and vocal advocate for women’s rights and increased visibility of women at MIT, Katharine Dexter, (1875-1967) graduated from MIT in 1904 in biology. She married Stanley McCormick whose mental illness emerged soon after. Throughout her life, she tried to find a biological basis and cure for schizophrenia as well as supporting women’s right to vote as a strong proponent of the suffrage movement. Later in life, she turned her full attention to the construction of the first women’s dormitory at MIT, which coincided with the Institute’s newly established goals for admitting more women. Starting in the 1940s, 120 Bay State Road in Boston was occupied as a women’s dormitory (the only such dormitory for female MIT students at the time), and it housed approximately 19 graduate and undergraduate women students from the early 1950′s until McCormick opened. The Bay State Road dorm was over a mile from campus, which was less than ideal. As a result, Katharine funded a taxi service to shuttle the students to campus on poor weather days.

800px-Katharine_McCormick_on_April_22,_1913 — Katharine Dexter McCormick in 1913. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia.

In 1963, the west wing of Stanley McCormick Hall was dedicated and named after her late husband. Just three years later, the second wing (a second tower) was constructed and dedicated just after her death. Both phases of the building were bankrolled by Katharine Dexter McCormick and were to house women studying at MIT. McCormick Hall was designed by Herbert Beckwith, a member of MIT’s architecture faculty and principal of the firm Anderson, Beckwith and Haible. Elizabeth McMillin Beckwith, Herbert’s wife, also an architect in the firm, assisted with the design. The dorm could today be classified as “Brutalist” in design. The two concrete and glass towers front Memorial Drive and are connected by a low-rise community space. The buildings are used today as all-female dorms housing upwards of 255 students.

Katharine McCormick at Hall dedication 1963_MIT Alum Class 1964 website — Katharine McCormick speaking at McCormick Hall dedication ceremony. Photo courtesy of MIT Class of 1964.

Mccormick Hall 1963_Before addition_MIT Alum Class 1964 — McCormick Hall West Wing. Photo courtesy of MIT Class of 1964.

McCormick Hall_1968_0002 — Image located in McCormick Hall Survey File at CHC. Photo circa 1966.

McCormick Hall_1968_0004 — Image located in McCormick Hall Survey File at CHC. Photo circa 1967.

Aerial 2017 — 2017 aerial view of McCormick Hall and surrounding structures.

To learn more about McCormick Hall, feel free to make a research appointment with us by emailing histcomm@cambridgema.gov.

Susan Butcher

Posted on March 6, 2019March 6, 2019 by cambridgehistoricalcommission

This post is one in a series of stories we will be sharing about Cambridge women, in honor of Women’s History Month.

Susan Howlet Butcher was born in Cambridge on December 26, 1954. As a child growing up in Avon Hill, Susan grew to relish the outdoors and often preferred the company of dogs over playing with children of her age. Susan first became interested in sled dogs around age 16. Speaking about this time in her life during an interview with the Academy of Achievement, Susan remembers:

“I really feel I had a strong sense of myself from the earliest memories that I have. I knew very much who I was, approximately what I wanted to do. I didn’t know I wanted to be a dog musher. And I feel there are many things in life I could have done and had as much satisfaction as I am having. But I knew the type of things that I wanted to do, and I also knew that I wasn’t going to let anybody come in the way of that. When I got my second dog, and I was living in my mother’s house in Cambridge, and she said, ‘You will not get a second dog. I won’t let you have two dogs in the house.’ Instead of saying, ‘Okay, I won’t get a second dog,’ I got my second dog and moved out. So it was always a matter of… (being myself) and happily, and with a good relationship with my mother. This was not a negative thing towards my mother. This was not something that she even took as… I was very lucky to have parents that supported my ability to be responsible.”

07butcher.650 — Susan Butcher with her sled and dogs. Credit: Paul A. Souders/Corbis, 1991

At just 20 years old, Susan relocated to Alaska where she moved into a log cabin in the remote wilderness. She began teaching herself to become a professional musher, dog breeder and trainer. Susan’s family had a long tradition of self-determination and autonomy. Her great-grandfather, Charles Butcher (1846-1916) emigrated to New York from England in 1867. He and his wife, Mary, moved to Boston a few years after the birth of their son, William Laramy (1875–1952).

Butcher_Charles — Undated image of Charles Butcher. Yankee Magazine, 1955.

Charles was a carpenter by trade, but according to an account by his granddaughter, Helen Elizabeth “Betty” Butcher (1914–1994), was appalled at the typical Bostonian’s method of cleaning the wood floors he installed–scrubbing with soap and water. With this in mind, Charles set out to manufacture a wax for cleaning floors, much like the product and technique employed in Europe.

681px-Butchers_wax — Photograph of Butcher’s Wax. Sample provided by the MFA Objects Conservation Lab. Photo credit: Keith Lawrence, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

This led to the development of Butcher Polish Company. Charles began manufacturing the product in the barn behind his property at 197 Lakeview Avenue near Fresh Pond. Butcher’s Wax was first sold in Boston in 1880.

After Charles passed in 1916, his sons William Laramy and Charles Howlett (1884-1951) inherited the company and ran it much in the same way as their father. Later, their sons, including Charles’ son, Charles II (1916-2004) took over the business. Charles II, known as Charlie, married Agnes and together they had a daughter, Susan Howlet Butcher (1954-2006).

Butcher_CharlesH_WilliamL — Undated images of Charles H. Butcher and William L. Butcher. Yankee Magazine, 1955.

Charles II (Charlie) portrait at Harvard (1939)

Susan Howlet (no date, Alaska Sports Hall of Fame)

Above: Charles II (Charlie) portrait at Harvard (1939) and Susan Howlet (no date, Alaska Sports Hall of Fame)

Susan Butcher became known as a highly-skilled dog musher and in 1986 became the second woman to win the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, an annual sled dog race of around 1,100 miles. In 1990, she became the second four-time winner and the first to win four out of five sequential years. Butcher died in 2006 at age 51 after being diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia in 2005. Two years later, the Alaska state legislature established Susan Butcher Day, observed every year on the first Saturday in March.

Butcher2 — Susan Butcher with her lead dog, Granite (no date, Alaska Sports Hall of Fame)

New Collections Available

Posted on March 5, 2019August 17, 2020 by Brittany F.

We have recently processed four small collections from our holdings and are currently working on updating their accompanying finding aids. Scroll down for sample images and descriptions from these collections. They include: the Hurley Family Photograph Collection, the Benedict Daniels Photograph Collection, the Harry Bagan Photograph Collection, and the Alfred E. Vellucci Snapshot Collection.

Hurley Family Photograph Collection

This collection consists of copy prints and original photographs donated by Virginia Hurley in 1994. Virginia lived at 5 Ellsworth Park in Cambridge and she was an active participant in city politics. As the secretary of the Gold Star Wives of America Inc., she helped protect widows from increased property taxes after the deaths of their husbands. For a period, she worked for the City of Boston as a secretary for Judge David Nelson and then for the Elder Affairs office. She later passed away in 2011.

The photographs in this collection are of the Hurley family’s ancestry, including the Moran, Graves, Welsh and Ward families. The images comprise of group and individual portraits of family members ranging from the late 1880s to the 1920s.

Joseph C. Moran Sr. posing in full Colonial militia attire for the 150th Anniversary of Washington taking command under ‘The Elm.’ Photographer unknown.

While some of the people in the photographs are unidentified, we do know that the Morans were an East Cambridge family of glass workers who were employed by the New England Glassworks company until 1888. Interestingly, on the other side of the Hurley ancestry, David Gregory Welch was known as Peter McGurr during the Civil War.

Portrait photograph of David Gregory Walsh. Photographer unknown.

Additionally, there is an outlying photograph of Marshal Ferdinand Foch at the Cambridge Parade after WWI. He was a French general and he served as the Supreme Allied Commander during the war.

Marshal Ferdinand Foch at the Cambridge Parade. Photographer unknown.

Benedict Daniels Photograph Collection

This collection contains scrapbook pages donated by Helen Benedict Daniels in 1980. Helen was a member of the Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor (Y.P.S.C.E.) and a volunteer for the Red Cross. After she received her degree in natural history from Radcliffe College, she married and moved to Orange, New Jersey. The scrapbook was created by her sister Miriam Benedict, who was a nurse in Cambridge during the 1920s.

A page from the Benedict Daniels scrapbook. Photographer unknown.

Miriam probably worked for the East Cambridge Health Center, which directed attention towards programs that taught young mothers how to care for their newborn children. The unidentified people in the photographs were probably affiliated with the center.

Harry Bagan Photograph Collection

This collection includes three photographs with Harry Bagan, a Cambridge police officer. The collection was donated by Maria Sousa in October 1995; little information has been found on Sousa.

Photograph of Harry and Helen Bagan. Photographer unknown.

Harry Bagan was married to Helen Bagan, who is showcased in one of the photographs. They were known to be close to the Roosevelt family. He was also a prominent member of the Fat Men’s Club in Cambridge. The Fat Men’s Club was a widespread trend that began around 1910 which celebrated physical girth and required a weight qualification of over 190 pounds.

1951 Fat Men’s Club Outing at Silver Lake, Thompson’s Grove, Wilmington, Mass. Photographer unknown.

Alfred E. Vellucci Snapshot Collection

Included in this collection are mounted photographs conveying a “day in the life” of Cambridge Mayor Vellucci. He became a Cambridge School Committee member in 1951 and by 1955 he began his 34-year position on the City Council. This snapshot collection comes from 1976 and it displays Vellucci’s daily activities, such as conducting desk work, holding meetings, drinking coffee, and attending city council meetings. Vellucci later retired from public office in 1991. The collection was donated by Juliet Turner from the City Hall’s Finance Department in 2011.

Images forthcoming.

The finding aids for these collections will soon be made available online. Please check back soon to access them. Stay tuned for more updates as we continue to process collections and make them available for research!

Most of these photograph collections were donated in the 1980s but we are always accepting personal donations and family memorabilia related to Cambridge, Mass. We encourage you to contact the Cambridge Historical Commission if you have items you wish to offer. Please contact egonzalez@cambridgema.gov with any inquiries about the process.

To view the above collections, please make a research appointment at histcomm@cambridgema.gov. Our research hours are: Monday: 4:00-7:00 pm | Tuesday: 2:00-4:00 pm | Wednesday – Thursday: 10-12 and 2-4 pm.

The Cambridge Trotting Park: Part 4

Posted on March 5, 2019May 14, 2020 by cambridgehistoricalcommission

This post is the fourth and final in a series of four written by guest author, Dan Sullivan, owner of The Book Oasis in Stoneham.

What do I think about the track? It did offer, at least at times, an extremely high level of competition from both horses and the human athletes. Hiram Woodruff, for instance, is in the Trotting Hall of Fame as an ‘Immortal.’ (As is Lady Suffolk.) Besides managing the Cambridge track for a few years, he was also a trainer, driver, and horse owner and wrote a book on the sport. It was said that his “honesty was unimpeachable.” Woodruff was not the only person associated with the track who made his home in the area. Dan Mace, another leading driver, lived in the Cambridge track neighborhood. A study of the city directories shows several people living near the Trotting Park who list their profession as something that is most likely linked to the track, such as horse trainer.

DanMace — “The celebrated trotting horse Judge Fullerton, as he appeared, driven by Dan Mace” published by Currier & Ives, 1874

Because of the drinking and gambling the park was held in very low esteem by its contemporaries. Was it immoral? It is always dangerous to judge another era’s morals. It was seen that way by many locals but other sections of the country embraced such tracks. Was it rowdy? Certainly it could be, but when you compare the number of these types of stories to the way that they were played up, I believe there was an imbalance. Yes, the majority of stories on the track dealt with negative activities and yes, I am sure not all were covered. But if you consider that the track spanned eighteen years there were not actually that many of them. I see the dangerous driving on city streets as a real problem that needed to be dealt with, but I think that the drinking and gambling might have been overblown by the press, considering how isolated the track was. I have to ask myself, “Did the average resident come in contact with many of the rowdier activities?”

JohnStew — “Celebrated trotting horse ‘John Stewart’ as he appeared on the twentieth mile: In his great match against time over the fashion course L.I. Tuesday Sept. 22nd 1868. When he performed the unparalleled feat of trotting to wagon 20 miles in 59 minutes and 23 seconds” published by Currier & Ives, 1868

Also, once the park was no longer allowed to collect ticket revenue, the money from betting was their main source of income. Could gambling have been less of a necessary evil if ticket sales had been allowed to continue?

As often happens with such things, as decades passed the disdain for the track lessened. Several rather nostalgic articles were written after the park closed. I wonder if by that time some of the ‘Young Bloods’ that enjoyed going to the track had become staff members of the Chronicle.

CambChron_24March1924 — Clipping from the *Cambridge Chronicle*, 24 March 1924

I said at the beginning that the Cambridge Trotting Park had not left much of a mark on today’s map of Cambridge. That is true in the sense that one would not know it existed by just looking at a map. It did affect the way the map of Cambridge looks, in an odd way. Almost a century after the original park had opened, a greyhound park was proposed for Cambridge in 1935. It got approval from the state. It would have been built near Concord Avenue and Fresh Pond, completely changing that section of the city. After much debate, that track was built in Revere rather than in Cambridge. What stopped it? The trotting park closed in 1855. To prevent anything like it from ever coming back, the city enacted a new law in 1856 that gave the mayor and the council veto power over any new racing facility.

The Cambridge Trotting Park: Part 3

Posted on February 26, 2019May 14, 2020 by cambridgehistoricalcommission

This post is the third in a series of four written by guest author, Dan Sullivan, owner of The Book Oasis in Stoneham.

Most of the local stories related to the track dealt with the dangerous riding and driving of the patrons on their way home. It seemed that after spending a day watching others race on the track many people would race each other on the streets of Cambridge causing a safety hazard. To make matters even more scandalous, some of the racers were women! “Their mouths poured forth clouds of smoke, from cigars they were puffing, and boisterous songs, while urging their horse to his speed.” Headlines cried out, “Nuisance” and “Furious Driving.”

furious_driving — Clipping from the *Cambridge Chronicle*, 13 December 1849

Police blotters also made mention of illegal alcohol and card playing at the hotels on and near the track. There were also a few prominent stories about fights at the track..

The longest story in the Chronicle that even mentioned an event dealt with Lady Suffolk racing a mile on June 14, 1849. It was stated that: “It was considered a great occasion by those who take pleasure in such amusements…. One of the horses on the Course beat anything ever before heard of – trotting his mile in two minutes and twenty-six seconds!” Not only is the horse not named but she is referred to as ‘he’. Most of the remainder of the article dealt with how congested and ‘dusty’ the roads leading to and from the track were. The Chronicle even reported the highest single-day volume of alcohol ever consumed in Cambridge. It was obviously not seen as a proud milestone for the city!

A similar coverage was given for the Stetson-Grindell ten-mile race. The paper dealt more with traffic and how much was taken in tolls on the West Boston (now Longfellow) Bridge that day. Volume was so high on the bridge that extra men were called into work.

Even as the property was put up for sale it still caused a scandal as a rumor spread that the property would be purchased by the Catholic Church.

A few decades later a local Baptist church, in looking back on its early days and its neighbors, the course and the hotels, recalled a fire at one of the hotels as “the great purifier” for the area.

CambChron_26Oct1848 — Clipping from the *Cambridge Chronicle*, 26 October 1848

The two boxing events that were held there met with the same disdain by the Chronicle: “We are of the opinion that those whose business it is to look after such matters, will cry ‘enough’ before these persons are allowed to test the skill they possess in pounding each other to a jelly. Let not Cambridge be disgraced by any such proceedings!”

JohnSull — “John L. Sullivan, champion pugilist of the world. Born in Boston, October 15th, 1858” published by Wm. M. Clarke, ca. 23 November 1883.

Check back next week for Part 4, the conclusion!…

The Cambridge Trotting Park: Part 2

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

This post is the second in a series of four written by guest author, Dan Sullivan, owner of The Book Oasis in Stoneham.

Decades after it closed, A.G. McVey, a journalist who played on the track as a child, remembered the opening of the track this way: “Hiram Woodruff and his brother William, who ran the Old Elm House in North Cambridge, were appointed to take charge. The soil was of clay composition and the footing was good … races took place nearly every fine day.” The Trotting Park was laid out by the local engineer and surveyor Charles A. Mason. It was said to be as flat as a “billiard-table.”

Woodruff_LC — “Dutchman” and Hiram Woodruff as printed in Currier & Ives, 1871. Library of Congress.

McVey went on to say: “There was no grandstand, rude seats being made inside the pole by planks nailed on the tops of posts. There was a low fence built around the track and youngbloods drove out in all kinds of equipages from the whalebone buggy to the one-horse shay.” He also stated that the track was never profitable. This is a situation that was made worse by an 1846 article in the Chronicle that mentioned the track was brought in front of the local Police Court twice for charging admission to a sporting event in violation of an existing statute. The facility went through some improvements because another description of the track does mention that it later had a grandstand in front of and slightly to one side of the entrance to the Track House. There was also a judges’ stand.

CambChron_30July1846 — Clipping from the *Cambridge Chronicle*, 30 July 1846

Some of the events could be described as gimmicks. I assume they were created to increase the uncertainty of the betting. A blindfolded man ran the track pushing a wheelbarrow running against time and running into both fences, John Stetson ran a mile pulling a sulky; a horse trotted sixteen miles with an added weight of 41 pounds. One race was a trotting horse against a horse pulling a wagon loaded with 263 pounds. One race was held against two untrained street horses.

In 1855 the property was divided into 275 housing lots and auctioned off. It is somewhat ironic that this enterprise, that was never profitable, would have what was probably it’s most successful day just before it closed. On May 15, 1855, John Grindell of New York and John Stetson from Boston ran a ten-mile race that drew 15,000 spectators.

NW_Camb1874 — Detail of 1873 Cambridge Hopkins Atlas showing the area after the course was sold and divided into lots

So how exactly did the locals view the track? When the property was auctioned off, the New York Herald stated that, according to locals, it “was voted by all good people a wicked concern.” Looking back, in 1893, the Chronicle referred to the track as “anything but a moral centre.”

Check back next week for Part 3…

The Cambridge Trotting Park: Part 1

Posted on February 12, 2019May 14, 2020 by cambridgehistoricalcommission

This post is the first in a series of four written by guest author, Dan Sullivan, owner of The Book Oasis in Stoneham.

Part 1

Just a casual glance at an 1854 map of the city makes it clear that North Cambridge was a very different place than it is today. Now the map is crowded with streets, and the houses on them are built on small lots. Massachusetts Avenue is lined with businesses. By contrast, 1854 shows an area with very few streets. Most business in the area consist of a few farms and the brick industry. The one area that is beginning to show some ‘crowding’ is the village of Dublin, which is made up of Rindge Avenue, Sargent Street, and Dublin (now Sherman) Street. Few landmarks would be recognizable by a modern visitor. The most prominent feature on that map is something that has left little trace on today’s landscape; the Cambridge Trotting Park.

NW_Camb2019 — Aerial view of Northwest Cambridge, 2019

From 1837 until 1855 North Cambridge had a sports arena that often drew thousands of spectators and had such a high level of talent that it regularly generated national news. Famous horses such as Black Hawk and Lady Suffolk raced on the track. The strange thing is, it got almost no coverage from the Cambridge Chronicle, and the stories that did appear in that paper seldom focused on the actual sporting events. Many did not even mention them.

NW_Camb1854 — H.F. Walling & Co. map of Northwest Cambridge, 1854

The course was one mile around and followed a route that was just inside what are now Rindge Avenue, Harvey and Cedar streets, and about one hundred feet beyond Clifton Street. The name ‘Trotting Park’ is slightly misleading. Yes, that was the principal type of event held on the course but not the exclusive type. Besides being the site of multiple types of horse racing, the park also hosted many foot races, or what was known at the time as ‘Pedestrianism.’ I have found descriptions of a greased pig chase, two boxing matches, and multiple mixed event ‘handicapped’ races. In addition to these there was one event that came close to what we would call a track and field meet today. It consisted of a hammer throw, a mile run, and the one-hundred–yard dash with other less traditional events.

Pedest — *Beadle’s dime hand-book of pedestrianism : giving the rules for training and practice in walking, running, leaping, vaulting, etc., etc. Together with a full account of the great Weston feat*, 1867

running — Detail of ‘Running’ section, Beadle’s hand-book, 1867

My principal sources for information for these events are out of state newspapers. Why, you might ask, would these papers cover the events at the Cambridge Trotting Park and yet the hometown paper almost completely ignore them? The answer was an ethical one. You see, the principal activity at the Park was not sports competition, but rather the gambling that took place on those events, and Cambridge in the 1800’s would rather have ignored that.

Check back next week for Part 2…