hotel – The Cambridge Historical Commission Blog

A Brief History of The Fresh Pond Hotel

Posted on July 23, 2021July 26, 2021 by cambridgehistoricalcommission

View of Fresh Pond Hotel, 1896 (Cambridge Historical Commission)

The Fresh Pond Hotel was built in 1796 on the bluff overlooking the pond on eight acres of land that Jacob Wyeth had purchased from his father, Ebenezer Wyeth.

Detail: Peter Tufts, A Plan of The First Parish in Cambridge, 1813

By the early 1790’s the West Boston Bridge and the Concord Turnpike had made the area attractive to wealthy Bostonians escaping heat and crowds in the city, and Jacob Wyeth’s hotel became a popular resort. Wyeth hired the architects Joseph Moore and John Walton to design the hotel building in the Federal style, which was later updated to the newly popular Greek Revival style.

Lithograph depicting the Fresh Pond Hotel, ca. 1845 (History Cambridge)

Other factors contributing to the hotel’s success were “the building of Mount Auburn Cemetery and Watertown Branch Railroad (which brought people directly to Fresh Pond). It wasn’t long before the Hotel became a buzzing social center. It gave people a place to escape the city heat in the summer and offered fishing, fowling, sailing, rowing, bowling, fine dining with wines and other alcohols, and an orchestra for dancing.”

When, in the 1880s, the hotel was refused a liquor license, business began a downhill slide which lead to its closing. In 1885, the property was sold to the Sisters of St. Joseph who converted the building for their convent.

In 1892 the former hotel/convent went up for auction and was bought by John E. Perry, a Cambridge Alderman. He moved the building to 234 Lakeview Avenue, where it was converted to apartments. Although the exterior clapboards were replaced by stucco, the interior space retains much of its original detail. It is on the National Register of Historic Places.

234 Lakeview Avenue, August 2019 (Google Street View)

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

Sources

“Inside the Architecture: Fresh Pond Hotel” by NeighborMedia Archive.
https://www.cctvcambridge.org/node/614987.
Building Old Cambridge, Susan E. Maycock and Charles M. Sullivan, Cambridge Historical Commission. MIT Press 2016.

A Cambridge Entry in the Green Book

Posted on February 24, 2019May 14, 2020 by cambridgehistoricalcommission

Today’s post was written by CHC Preservation Planner, Sarah Burks.

You likely have heard a lot of talk recently about Green Book, the award-nominated movie starring Mahershala Ali as Dr. Don Shirley, a world class pianist on a performance tour in the southern states during the Jim Crow era. The name of the movie derives from a U.S. travel guide for Black tourists. The Negro Motorist Green Book offered lists of restaurants, automobile service stations, hotels, parks, and other sites that would be safe and welcoming to African Americans traveling for work or leisure. The books were published by Victor H. Green between 1936 and 1967. A new documentary, The Green Book: Guide to Freedom, will air on the Smithsonian Channel on Monday, February 25 at 8:00 P.M. The original books have been digitized by the New York Public Library and can be viewed online here.

Green Book, 1947 cover — Cover of the 1947 edition of *The Negro Motorist Green Book*. Digital Collections of the New York Public Library.

Although Boston had a couple dozen sites listed in the Green Books, Cambridge only had one, a “tourist home” at 26 Mead Street with the contact name of S. P. Bennett.

Green Book, 1947, detail of Cambridge entry p 43 — Detail of the Cambridge entry in the 1947 edition of *The Negro Motorist Green Book*. Digital Collections of the New York Public Library.

Satyra Pearson Bennett was a Cambridge resident who rented out rooms to travelers in her family home. She worked as a linotype operator for several newspapers and was on the board of multiple charitable organizations and city committees. Satyra Pearson was born in 1892 in Rock Hill, Jamaica to Frances and William Pearson. In 1894, Satyra and her parents departed from Kingston and arrived in New York City. The family moved to Massachusetts in 1903, first residing in Worcester and then settling in Cambridge on Mead Street.

1916_Bromley — 1916 Bromley map showing the Pearson residence at 26 Mead Street in Northwest Cambridge

According to Satyra’s 1926 Petition for Citizenship, the family arrived in Boston from St. John, New Brunswick aboard the U.S.S. Calvin Austin in 1913.

Satyra’s father was an ordained minister and was the pastor for many years at St. Paul A.M.E. Church at 37 Bishop Allen Drive in Cambridgeport.

20St Paul AME late 1800s — St. Paul AME Church in the late 1800s

In 1919, Satyra married Cyril Bennett. Cyril was also a Jamaican-born minister, and following their marriage, Satyra moved with him to Detroit. Together they had one son, George B. Bennett in 1920, but the couple soon divorced. By July 1921, Satyra had moved back to Cambridge and lived with her parents at 26 Mead Street. Satyra advertised her dress-making services in local newspapers, and in 1926 began the process to attain her U.S. citizenship.

CambChron_23July1921 — Clipping from the *Cambridge Chronicle*, 23 July 1921

citizen1933 — Frances Satyra Bennett’s citizenship card, 1933

Mrs. Bennett was a founding board member of the Cambridge Community Center, the Citizens Charitable Health Association, and an officer of the Boston chapter of the NAACP. She died in 1977. Her sister, Mrs. Ozeline Pearson Wise, was the first African American woman to work for the banking department of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. She was interviewed in 1978 as part of the Black Women’s Oral History Project. You can listen to their story here and view their entries on the Cambridge Women’s Heritage Project.

26 Mead St Cambridge Assessor's photo 2017 — Bennett House at 26 Mead Street, Cambridge, MA. Cambridge Assessing Department photo, 2017.

Modern Monday: Charter House Motor Hotel

Posted on February 4, 2019May 14, 2020 by cambridgehistoricalcommission

Today’s Modern Monday posting is highlighting the Charter House Motor Hotel (now Royal Sonesta Boston). Completed in 1963, the first tower, with its zig-zag shape was developed by the Hotel Corporation of America, led by founder A.M. “Sonny” Sonnabend.

Charter House Survey photo

Sonnabend decided to locate the company’s first ever high-rise motor hotel in the United States in Cambridge due to its location near transportation routes, businesses, universities and proximity to the downtown Boston area. To stand out from competition, the motor hotel required high quality design, ample parking, and interior amenities including: televisions, radios, air-conditioning, and complete hotel services for all rooms. The word “Motel” was created as a blending of the words “motor” and “hotel” and has since served as a defining piece of roadside architectural history.

Viewed from boat

The Hotel Corporation of America was renamed Sonesta International Hotels Corporation in 1970. Due to the success and location of the Sonesta Hotel on Cambridge Parkway in East Cambridge, the Sonesta Corporation began planning for a renovation and addition to the hotel, doubling the amount of rooms and enhancing facilities for the modern traveler. Architect John T. Olson designed a Post-Modern tower to stand next to the 60’s Modernist hotel. Boston Globe’s architectural critic at the time, Robert Campbell called the original tower an “upended waffle” and noted that the later addition was the region’s first large-scale Post-Modern development.

East Elevation_Window detail zoomed

The Post-Modern tower addition features large expanses of brick and is distinguished by the gabled features at the roof. John Olson, the head architect explained the design and goal as wanting to make a hotel that would look house-like and more domestic than institutional. The triangular gable shape was seen as a symbol for the idea of a house and was repeated both inside and outside of the addition. The pediments over the slightly projecting wings, resemble the long expanses of rowhouses which are synonymous to Boston architecture. Besides red brick, the main cladding material on the building is a green tile, which was selected to resemble the patinaed green copper seen elsewhere in Cambridge and Beacon Hill, just over the Charles River.

Current Photo

The two towers stand proudly at the entrance of Cambridge from Boston and showcase how far architectural taste can change in a matter of 20 years. Globe writer, Campbell stated that “The new wing of the former Sonesta Hotel on the Charles River stands next to its predecessor as if the two were a pair of slides chosen by a professor of art history to illustrate just how far architectural taste can travel in a single generation”. Which wing do you prefer?

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