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The Junction: A Cambridge Neighborhood No More

Posted on March 21, 2025March 21, 2025 by cambridgehistoricalcommission

Picture this: you are on Mass Ave headed for Arlington and Porter Square is in the rearview mirror. After about ¾ of a mile, you come to the intersection at Cedar Street and Cameron Ave. You have arrived! You are at the Junction.

As the name implies, this neighborhood originated on North Ave (now Mass Ave), centered around the junction of these streets and, critically, the railroad tracks of the Lexington & Arlington line. The Junction, extending approximately a half mile in any direction from this intersection, became important enough that the Cambridge Chronicle a devoted a weekly column to the neighborhood.

Lamps were put up in 1875 to illuminate the dangerous intersection. In 1880, the Chronicle reported “…It is proposed to erect a new depot on the Lexington Railroad near Cedar Street.” Thirteen years later, after the railroad was well established, the same paper reported: “…Previous to the time this name [the Junction] was given, the locality was not of enough consequence to own a name of its own or require one to distinguish it as a district of the city.” (April 1, 1893).

The Junction

Detail: *Atlas of the City of Cambridge, Middlesex Co., Massachusetts* (G.M. Hopkins & Co., 1873)

The North Cambridge Railroad Station at “The Junction”

North Cambridge Station at Mass Ave and Cedar St. Image gift of F. O’Connell to Steve Surette.

Due to company buyouts and route changes over the years, several railroad companies are associated with the Junction. In 1846, it was the Lexington and West Cambridge Railroad, renamed in 1867 to the Lexington and Arlington Railroad. In 1869, that railroad was purchsed by the Boston and Lowell Railroad. In 1887, it was purchased by the Boston and Maine Railroad, and in 1903 it was called the Arlington Branch of the Boston and Maine. The station itself was originally called the North Avenue Station. By 1894, it was called the Cambridge Station. In 1930, it was the North Cambridge Station.

In 1887, there were 22 trains leaving Boston for the North Cambridge Junction on the Boston & Lowell line. By 1893 there were 28 trains (each way) between Cambridge Junction to Boston on the Boston & Maine RR. It was a complex interchange. In 1900 (Jan. 20) the Cambridge Chronicle reported:

“At the Junction there are four main tracks and seven sidings, making all in all eleven tracks. Now, for these tracks there are at twenty-seven switches, four movable frogs and six locks. These are worked by nineteen levers which are in the signal tower. There are twenty-nine facing point locks thrown by fourteen levers.” Got it?

Massachusetts Avenue at Railroad Crossing looking west, about 1930. Note the horse drawn carriage parallel to the trolley on the left. Image courtesy Frank Cheney.

When WWI broke out in 1917, station agent Joseph Pierce (J. P.) Quilty’s wife, Helen E. [O’Brien], a former operator for the Boston & Maine Co., opened a school of telegraphy at the Cambridge Junction. The school’s purpose was to train women to take over for men who were drafted for military service. There was a proviso: the student had to agree to work for the railroad after being trained.

Business North of the Junction

The area on the north side of the Junction was primarily concerned with commercial manufacturing. Businesses included the Clark Bros. Hay, Grain & Coal plant; the Climax Box Co.; J. Sewall & Co. lumber yard; Middlesex Wagon Manufactory; and various railroad buildings. The proximity to the railroad sidings made this an attractive location for hauling raw materials and shipping outgoing products.

Detail: Bromley, G.W. and W.S. Bromley, *Atlas of the City of Cambridge, Massachusetts* (Philadelphia : G.W. Bromley & Co., 1894)

The Clark Brothers

The Clark Bros. (Augustine W. & Charles N.) went into business at the Junction in 1886. They ran

“a grain elevator and warehouse of commodious size with a capacity of 25,000 bushels of grain and for the storage of twenty cars of hay and straw. In the rear of this warehouse are located the coal pickets, wood sheds, and yard stable. Cars from the Boston and Main railroad unload directly into the coal pockets from a trestle. The pockets have a capacity of 1,500 tons and, including the yard, there is a total capacity of 3,000 tons. …Over 500 cords of wood are carried in stock at all times…the plant is equipped with electric power and is excellently adapted to meet the requirements of the trade.” (Cambridge Chronicle May 6, 1911)

In 1915, the Clark Bros. suffered a catastrophic fire that “completely wrecked the plant.” A year and a half later they were back in business at the same address, 2464 Mass Ave.

R.S. Easter & Son

Robert Small Easter was born in 1835 on Prince Edward Island. He came to Cambridge with his parents around 1848. Easter studied blacksmithing, and by the age of 21 had started his own business at the Junction just behind the railroad depot. In addition to blacksmithing, his business expanded to include wagon making. We know he was at that location around 1860 because of the reference to Cameron Ave in the clip of the obituary below. Around 1897, due to ill health, he returned to Canada. Easter died in 1913. His obituary recalled:

Camp Cameron

Camp Cameron (at the corner of Cameron Ave and Mass Ave) was established in 1861 as a boot camp for soldiers in the Civil War. Numbers fluctuated, but at times the camp housed than 2,000 men. The camp closed in January of 1863 and the soldiers transferred to the more secure Fort Independence on Castle Island in Boston. Today, the site is a small park and the entrance to the continuation of the Alewife Greenway.

Contemporary view of 2409 Mass Ave. Image: Google street view

M. T. Cavanagh & Son Groceries and Provisions

Born in Canada in 1832 to Irish parents, Michael T. Cavanaugh had arrived in Cambridge by at least 1865. He started off as a dry good peddler in Cambridge, and by 1876 had established his grocery store at 346 North Avenue, (later 2429 Mass Ave) where he did business for 40 years. Michael died at the age of 75 in 1906.

Storefront of M.T. Cavanagh & Son Groceries. Image courtesy Mary Lyons.

Brosnan’s Fish Market

Below is a tantalizing photo of J. J. Brosnan’s fish market, “Junc Cash Fish Market.” The business was noted as being located at the Junction in an 1897 newspaper article when it was bought by fish dealer F. D. Norton. John Joseph Brosnahan was baptized in Cambridge in 1871, son of Thomas and Honora Brosnahan. Anyone know any more?

The Climax Paper Box Co.

Who knew Cambridge had a reputation for building boxes? Between 1903 and 1911, nine different paper box companies were advertising in the Cambridge papers, including the Climax Paper Box Co. The company was established in 1907 on Cottage Park Ave. by G. M. Bond. The products produced were primarily confectionary and decorative soap boxes. By 1913 the company had 160 employees, of whom only 30 were men. The company appears to have been a good employer: every June the plant closed while the employees took their two weeks’ vacation, and Bond regularly took all his employees on jaunts to places such as Canobie Lake or Nahant Beach. The Climax Co.’s ball team was part of the Industrial Baseball League, composed of other Cambridge manufacturing companies including Aston Valve, Boston Woven House, University Press, Gray & Davis, and the Boston Confectionary Co. In 1912, the Climax Box Co. output was 12 million boxes.

In 1921, Climax absorbed the Moore Paper Box Co. In 1931, the company merged with four other paper manufacturing companies, becoming part of the Consolidated Paper Box Co. Operations on Cottage Park Ave were closed and the building was sold in 1935. Today, the factory is the Emerson Lofts Apartment Building at 22 Cottage Park Ave.

Middlesex Wagon Factory and Repository

James A. Henderson. Image: Ancestry.com.

James A. Henderson (1825-1892) was one of nine children born to Robert Henderson, who, along with his brother John J. Henderson, founded the renowned Henderson Carriage Co. at 2443 Mass Ave in North Cambridge.

In July 1894 a disastrous fire demolished James Henderson’s Middlesex Wagon Co. Arson was suspected. The premises consisted of a three-story main building, a blacksmith’s shop, another 3-story repository for wagons, and in the middle of all these businesses, the Henderson’s 14 room home. The family escaped unscathed.

After James’ death in 1892 his son Wilbert Henderson took over the business and built a new three-story wood frame building that included room for five stores and several apartments. It was called “Middlesex Block” in honor of his father’s company. The first occupants included Mrs. Armstrong’s dry good store, Thomas Marnell’s shoe store, a barber, a drug- store and Wing Hung Lee’s laundry.

Junction News Stand

*The Cambridge Sentinel* 19 August 19, 1905

Across Mass Ave from the Middlesex Block was the Junction News Stand, established by Alfred Belanger. Born in Canada, Belanger arrived in Cambridge in 1891. His advert noting “French Literature a Specialty” reminds us once again of the number of French Canadians living in North Cambridge. Belanger was a man of many trades, active in Democratic politics, subsequently known as a carpenter, roofer, and fire insurance agent. By 1908, Belander had sold the news stand to Josephine Larose.

Businesses South of the Junction

South of the of the railroad tracks the businesses primarily consisted of small storefront businesses, including provision dealers, real estate agents, a drug store, florists, newspaper stands, dry goods stores, a bowling alley, and a pool hall. One of the buildings that housed these small businesses was the Lonergan Block, aka “The Flatiron Building.”

Detail: *Atlas of the City of Cambridge, Massachusetts* (G.M. Hopkins & Co., 1930)

In 1907, real estate investor David E. Lonergan (1865-1923) bought a triangular piece of land at the intersection of Cedar St and North Avenue. By 1909 he had erected a two-story building with room for eight shops on the ground floor. Lonergan matched the shape of the building to the shape of the block, and henceforth it was popularly referred to as Cambridge’s own “Flat Iron Building.” (Later, there was another triangular building at the intersection of Mass Ave and Main St at 1 Lafayette Square, also called “the Flat Iron building”). Some of the stores in Lonergan’s Flat Iron Building had addresses on Harvey St, others on Mass Ave. The storefronts filled up quickly:

*Cambridge Chronicle* September 18, 1909

A. J. Millican along with J. A. Carlisle opened The Standard Furniture Company in the Flat Iron Building—also in 1909. By 1915 it was renamed Millican Furniture Co.

And then there was Herman, The Shoeman, selling his “Educator” shoes:

“Educator” shoes were made by the Rice & Hutchins Co. of Boston. These shoes were marketed to let the child’s foot grow as it should.

Original advertising ink blotter for Rice & Hutchins Educator Shoes, most likely from the 1920’s. With an ink stamp from the Bay State Shoe Store in Worcester Mass. Image courtesy atticpaper.com

Over time the Flat Iron Building businesses included Lynch’s Drug Store (subsequently removed to his own property at 2392-2406 Mass Ave—see below); tailor J. A. D’Orvilliers; a Chinese Laundry; Connor’s grocery; and Alfred Deloria, optician. John T. Keane’s bowling alley and pool room was in the back of the building with its entrance off Harvey St:

The Flat Iron Building suffered three fires within 7 years. The 1911 fire, the smallest and soon extinguished, started in a trash pile in the basement of Joseph Cincotta’s fruit store. The fire of 1915, probably started in the furniture store in the cellar or in the bowling alley, produced serious damage:

*Cambridge Chronicle* March 13, 1915 (excerpt)

The 1918 fire was a true conflagration, destroying, among others, John D. Lynch’s drug store. David E. Lonergan died in 1923. Today what was Lonergan’s Flat Iron Building is the site of the Friendly Corner:

View of businesses at 2408-2420 Mass Ave. Image: Kathleen Fox.

Bock Florist

Immediately behind the Flat Iron Building and existing before that building was erected was William Bock’s Florist on what would become Alberta Terrace in 1911. (The street was named after the Canadian province—another allusion to the predominance of French Canadians in North Cambridge.)

William A. Bock (c. 1944 Germany – 1902 Cambridge) came to this country in 1866. Following his employment with the famed Cambridge nursery Hovey & Co. near Inman Sq, Bock moved to North Cambridge in 1870, becoming manager of S. G. Reed’s greenhouse. By 1873 Bock had bought the premises and began expanding his own business. By 1887 Bock had 10,000 feet “under glass.” The greenhouse was heated by five hot water boilers that consumed about 100 tons of coal a year!

Bock also developed many new breeds of plants, often naming them after well-known historical figures such as the geraniums H. W. Longfellow and Gen. W. S. Hancock. One new breed of a Bouvardia was named “President Cleveland,” which he sent to the President in 1886. In return he received a handwritten note from the Cleveland administration thanking him for the honor.

Advertisement for W.A. Bock Nursery ca. 2390 Mass Ave (present location of Alberta Terrace). Source; Cambridge Tribune April 18, 1887.

After William A. Bock died in 1902, his wife Wilhemina Bock aimed to continue the business, but she died only two years later in 1904. By 1910 real estate developer Ervin R. Dix had bought the property and was beginning to erect apartments at the rear of the lot on Cedar Street before doing the same on the Mass Ave.

Lynch’s Drug Store

John D. Lynch in 1945. *Image*: Cambridge Historical Commission.

John D. Lynch (1882/83-1963) graduated from the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy at age 21, and by age 22 had his own pharmacy business. By the outbreak of WWI, he had established pharmacies on Mass Ave, in Inman Square, and Putnam Square as well as in Malden. All but the Mass Ave store were sold soon after he was drafted for National Guard Duty prior to the war. In addition to being a pharmacist Lynch held many political and business roles in Cambridge, including serving as Mayor of Cambridge from 1936-38 and 1946-47, sitting on the boards of several banks, and acting as president of the North Cambridge Board of Trade. Lynch was one of the first occupants of Lonergan’s “Flat Iron Building” in 1909. His store boasted “…one of the finest soda fountains in this part of the city and the delicious drinks dispensed make this section of the store a popular rendezvous. For the convenience of patrons, the store has a long-distance telephone booth and is also a post-office sub-station…” (Cambridge Chronicle May 6, 1911)

John D. Lynch’s Drug store in the Flat Iron Building

John D. Lynch Drug Co. at Mass Ave and Cedar St, ca. 1920. Now the site of stores including the Friendly Corner.

Lynch’s business recovered from the fire of 1918 and remained at the Flat Iron Building until 1922, when he purchased the block just south at 2392-2406 Mass Ave, corner of Norris St. The new building became known as “Lynch’s Block.”

Lynch’s Block at 2392-2406 Mass Ave between Alberta Terrace and Harvey Street. Note the Magazine A.A. (extreme left) located in Lynch building, which also houses Mayor John D. Lynch’s drug store. July 15, 1936. Image: Cambridge Historical Commission

Lynch had a hall on the second floor which he rented out for business associations and club meetings, dances and private parties.

The Magazine A A Club (Magazine Athletic Association) opened on the ground level of the building in May 1933. They were a rowdy bunch, getting suspended liquor licenses several times due to drunkenness, permitting “gambling machines,” staying open after hours and other shenanigans – all while the owner, John D. Lynch, was Mayor. The club ultimately lost its liquor license and was closed in 1937.

Over the years other businesses in the Lynch block included several food markets, real estate companies, furniture stores, lunch counters, clothing stores, shoe stores, and J. P. Carbonneau the “Tonsorial Artist”:

The Junction Traffic Mess

Traffic at the Junction was complicated as trains, horse wagons, trolleys, and pedestrians all tried to navigate the intersection. Poles for electric lights, trolley and telephone wires, traffic signals and junction crossing gates created a confusing landscape. Trains sometimes obstructed traffic on Mass Ave and collisions were not uncommon:

Wagon wheels got caught in the tracks, as happened to this milk wagon in 1910:

Crossing gates and warning bells were installed, but there were still near misses:

Urban Behavior Problems

Not only were there traffic problems at the Junction, but minor unlawful infractions occurred as well:

*Cambridge Chronicle* September 30, 1893

As Time Went By…

In 1894 when North Street was renamed Massachusetts Avenue, street numbers also changed. In 1927 several changes took place. This evolution was linked to efforts to improve long-haul trains scheduled from Boston, including rerouting trains through Porter Square. The number of passenger trains running through the Junction was greatly reduced until they finally didn’t stop at the Junction at all. Freight trains continued until 1987. The rails were eventually removed and replaced by the Alewife Greenway, a bicycle path running from the Alewife MBTA station across the old Junction to Davis Square in Somerville.

Contemporary view of the entrance to the Alewife Greenway. Image: Kathleen Fox.

North Cambridge Station (N.C. Junction until 6/20/1910; abandoned 1927) at 2445 Mass Ave. Image: Cambridge Historical Commission.

Multi-story apartments, condos, and business buildings took over the neighborhood and the old West End Street Railway barns became Trolley Sq.

Today’s post was written by Kathleen Fox

SOURCES

Atlascope. https://www.atlascope.org/.

Cambridge Historical Commission research and subject files

Cambridge Public Library’s Historic Cambridge Newspaper Collection

“The Lexington Branch: West Cambridge to Concord, MA.” Abandoned Rails. https://www.abandonedrails.com/lexington-and-arlington-railroad.

Survey of Architectural History in Cambridge, Volume 5: Northwest Cambridge by Cambridge Historical Commission (1977)

Camp Cameron: The Civil War Boot Camp in North Cambridge

Posted on November 11, 2023November 9, 2023 by cambridgehistoricalcommission

We write this post in honor of Veterans’ Day, November 11, and to shine light on a comparatively little-known Cambridge chapter in the Civil War: that of Camp Cameron, the militia camp established in North Cambridge in 1861 and not to be confused with Camp Cameron in Washington, D. C. We tell the story as reflected in the newspapers of the day…seeing the actual print image – even if a little blurry – most viscerally conveys the feeling of the times.

Picture this: You are walking north on Mass Ave between Porter Square and Alewife. About a half a mile up, directly across the street from the Friendly Corner Convenience store on the left, you see the Law Offices at 2409 Mass Ave, shown below. This is the exact location of Camp Cameron.

On April 15, 1861, three days after the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter, President Lincoln issued a proclamation calling for state militias to raise a total of 75,000 troops. Months before that proclamation, Cambridge attorney James Richardson saw what was on the horizon and had already begun recruiting men for a volunteer militia:

Col. James P. Richardson in his captain’s uniform in 1861 and Richardson’s recruiting broadside. Courtesy of Mrs Edwin R. Sparrow, “Colonel Richardson and the Thirty-Eighth Massachusetts,” by Richard C. Evarts, *Proceedings of the Cambridge Historical Society, Vol. 39*

But before we get to the story of Camp Cameron: the very first militia camp was established in 1861 on Fresh Pond: an abandoned icehouse previously owned by ice dealers Reed and Bartlett was fixed up for barracks to hold 1,000 men. It was called Camp Ellsworth after Col. Elmer Ellsworth, a personal friend of Abraham Lincoln, and the first Union officer killed in the Civil War.

Detail of Map of the city of Cambridge for 1865 by J.G. Chase, courtesy Harvard Map Collection

Very damp, indeed. In fact, a marshy disaster. Lt. Amory of the army declared that the quarters were “unfit for the troops.” So, on June 13^th, after only two weeks at Fresh Pond, the units departed for Camp Cameron on North Avenue in Cambridge, led by Col. Robert Cowdin (1805-1874).

Robert Cowdin, Civil war photographs, 1861-1865, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

Camp Cameron, June 1861-January 1863

The new site consisted of 140 acres along the northeastern section of Mass Ave between Shea Road and what is now Clarendon Ave, extending up the hill to Holland St in Somerville. The land was leased every six months by the government from the Union Horse Railroad and real estate investor Gardner G. Hubbard, namesake of Hubbard Park off Brattle Street, and subsequent son in law of Alexander Graham Bell.

The camp was named after the Secretary of War Simon Cameron. That was another bad choice. Cameron’s reputation for corruption precipitated renaming the camp just a year later in August 1862 to Camp Day. The new designation honored Ralph Day (1802-1887), a successful Cambridge builder who was involved in projects like Porter’s Hotel. Active in Cambridge politics, Day had owned a substantial portion of the land since 1842. Day Street is named after him. By 1854, Day had also sold a large portion of his holdings to George Meacham, a local real estate developer and commissioner of the Cambridge Cemetery. Meacham served as a Colonel in the war, was wounded, and died in 1864. Meacham Road is named for him.

Detail: Map of the city of Cambridge, Middlesex County, Massachusetts by H.F. Walling (1854), Harvard Map Collection

Eventually the 30 buildings on the site housed about 1,000- 2000 recruits!

*Daily Evening Traveller* July 2, 1861 (Excerpt)

Detail: Russell’s Horse Railroad Guide for Boston and Vicinity, May 1862. Cambridge Historical Commission.

Just think of the noise and the smells! Up to 2000 men drilling, marching, and firing arms for target practice. There would be supply wagons clanking through the area, the smell of 30 fires cooking food, latrines, burning trash, and 90 baggage carts clattering down Mass Ave accompanying a regiment on the way to war. Not to mention bellows of up to 1,000 heads of cattle from the nearby Cattle Market at Porter Square, and the smell of the tannery near Alewife Brook.

An official flag raising ceremony took place at Camp Cameron on June 28, 1861. The event was reported on in this sentimental piece describing solders walking “arm in arm with ladies, …whispering loving words into the ears of those who were soon to be separated from them, never, perhaps, to meet again”:

The camp served as a short-term boot camp for the inexperienced volunteers from New England and New York before they shipped out to the war. Numbers fluctuated weekly as troops arrived and departed for the front:

*Boston Evening Transcript* July 1, 1861

*Boston Evening Transcript* August 11, 1861

*Cambridge Chronicle* September 28, 1861

Complaints soon arose around two issues at Camp Cameron. Despite the hopeful newspaper article below, the culinary situation at the camp was nearly intolerable, driving soldiers to regularly leave camp without a pass in search of edible sustenance.

*Boston Evening Transcript* June 21, 1861

One solder wrote “Nine days I have been in camp with a hard board to lie on, without any blanket to cover me at night, and insufficiency of food by day.” (Excerpt from Boston Herald September 3, 1862). The same article described how “many of the men are compelled to come into the city to get food enough to satisfy their hunger.”

*Boston Herald* September 3, 1862 (excerpt)

It was a letter to the editor from E. R. Mudge, a wealthy Boston dry goods merchant whose son had been in the army for a year, that triggered the above article. Mudge noted that not only were the rations bad, he called attention to the large number of deserters: Out of 61 recruits for the 2^nd Regiment, who had enlisted and been sent to camp since …only 31 could be found on Saturday. The rest had deserted.” A year later, Mudge generously put his financial resources behind the recruiting effort for the 2nd Massachusetts Volunteers.

Deserters? That was the second and more serious problem at Camp Cameron. With no perimeter fence nor gate, it was easy for recruits to become “bounty jumpers.”

Here is how the system worked: In addition to their pay—generally about $13 per month—each recruit received a “bounty” of $25 paid by the U. S. Government, and an additional $100 paid by the City of Cambridge. When the need arose for specialized troops, additional bounties would be offered:

On top of these amounts, some businessmen such as Mudge also contributed to supplementary bounties from their private funds to increase recruitment. $1,000 was a pretty handsome supplement!:

Inevitably some ne’er-do-wells took advantage of the loose security at camp to take off for parts unknown. Showing up in another town, they repeated their scam.

*Boston Semi Weekly Advertiser* November 5, 1862

Col. Hannibal Day (no relation to Ralph Day) was the General Superintendent of the Recruiting Services for the State of Massachusetts in 1861. Day also was aggrieved at the bounty jumping situation, which ultimately led to him closing the camp in January of 1863.

Who were these enlisted men?

On August 9, 1862, Congress passed the Recruitment Act, ordering a draft of an additional 300,000 militia. Each state was assigned a quota by the then Secretary of War, Edwin M. Stanton. If the state could not meet the quota, the government would establish a draft in that state to complete the roster. A second Enrollment Act, passed in 1863, increased the bounty paid to recruits, and, astonishingly, allowed individuals to avoid military service by paying someone else $500 to join in their place.

The newspapers published the names of those who had chosen to pay for another man to fight the fight:

This category of replacement is not to be confused with “Representative Recruits.” In 1864, the War Department allowed for those men “not fit for military duty, and not liable to draft, from age or other causes…to procure at their own expense, and present for enlistment, recruits to represent them in the service.” These were called “Representative Recruits.” They were also listed in the papers:

A good description of the men volunteering appeared in the Cambridge Chronicle of September 7, 1861. These were the men who made up Company C, 3rd Recruitment, Cambridge Volunteers, led by the above-mentioned James P. Richardson of Cambridge, during the three months the unit was stationed on the coast at Fort Monroe, VA.:

“Whole number composing the Company, 94.
Born in Cambridge, 17; Boston, 16.
In thirteen other cities and towns in Mass, one each.
Total born in Massachusetts, 46.
Born in New Hampshire, 10; Maine, 8; Vermont, 3; Connecticut, 1; New York, 4; District of
Columbia, 1. Total American, 73
New Brunswick, 4; Nova Scotia, 3; Ireland, 7; England, 6; Scotland, 1.
Ages. – Oldest man, 39 years; youngest man, 18 years, average age, 22-3-95 years. [sic]
Tallest man, 6 feet 2 inches; shortest man, 5 feet 3 inches; average height, 5 feet ,7 one-half inches.
Occupations. – Clerks, 15; printers, 9, carpenters, 7; cigar makers, 6; book binders, 6; shoemakers, 5; painters, 4; soap makers, 2; plumbers, 2; bacon curers, 2; butchers, 2; farmers, 2; teamsters, 5; laborers, 2; wheelwrights, 2; sash and blind makers, 2; confectioners, 2, lawyers, 2; policeman, baker, stereotype finisher, carriage maker, machinist, hack driver, blacksmith, sawyer, physician, silversmith, barkeeper, tinman, cook, tailor, provision dealer, harness maker, 1 each.”

Some recruits belonged to regiments with interesting nicknames. For example, The Irish Brigade – the Massachusetts 28^th Regiment,” recruited at Camp Cameron, was made up primarily of Irish men – by birth or descent. Its nickname was the “Faugh-A-Ballagh,” Irish for “clear the way.”

28th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteers flag, via Massachusetts State House Battle Flag Collection inventory

*Boston Evening Traveller* November 18, 1861 (excerpt)

It is not hard to image in the emotional impact made on citizens by the daily drumbeat of newspaper announcements concerning the camp:

*Boston Evening Transcript* September 6, 1861

*Boston Semi Weekly Advertiser* September, 1861

Frequently, notices included where the troops were being deployed. Today, reading these announcements, we recall the famous battles so familiar to us. But to soldiers at the time, places like Harper’s Ferry, Newbern, or Bull Run, or the Wilderness may have been unfamiliar or even unknown.

*Boston Evening Traveller* June 24, 1861

Boston Semi-Weekly Advertiser February 15, 1862

*Boston Evening Transcript* March 15, 1862

*Boston Evening Transcript* August 11, 1862

*Boston Evening* Traveller August 25, 1862

*Boston Evening Traveller* September 5, 1862

The Denoument

Camp Cameron/Day closed in January of 1863 and remaining soldiers were transferred to the more secure Fort Independence on Castle Island in Boston:

*Boston Evening Transcript* January 22, 1863

Perhaps in preparation for its closure, camp items were auctioned off in 1862 ahead of its close in 1863.

“One Wooden Building, 50 feet by 20.
Ten temporary framed Wooden Buildings, battened and shingled, about 12 feet square.
29 Cast Iron Cylinder stoves, 3 sizes
600 feet 5-inch English Iron Funnel
A lot of 8-inch Funnel
10 Cauldrons, with Russia Iron Covers
2 Iron Bedsteads
2 Husk Mattresses
4 Pair Sheets
2 Pillows
4 Pillow Cases
2 Chairs
Half dozen Axes
A quantity of Raye Straw, &c.

By order of Lieut. Col. H. Day, U. S. A., General Supt. Recruiting Services state of Mass.
Terms of sale, cash.”

Between 1861 and 1865, 4,588 Cambridge men enlisted in the Union Army and Navy. (Cambridge Historical Commission)

In the 1890s, Camp St and Cameron Ave were named after the camp. Fair Oaks St, Seven Pines Ave, Glendale Ave, Malvern Ave, and Yorktown St in the same neighborhood were named after Civil War battles.

An historic marker honoring James S. Richardson and Company C can be found in Central Square near the site of Richardson’s former law office on Richard B. Modica Way—otherwise known as “Graffiti Alley,” the passageway between Central Kitchen and Tent City on Mass Ave. True to its location, the marker is now covered with graffiti. A mockup can be seen here:

Richardson, with a white beard, appears front center in the photograph below, depicting of a reunion of Company C in 1886.

Surviving members of Company C posed for a photograph in front of City Hall, 1886. City of Cambridge Annual Report, 1940.

To Richardson’s left is Lieutenant Chamberlain. To the far left as you look at the picture stands drummer Charles Cobb, holding the drum he had carried throughout the war.

It was not until 1866 that President Andrew Johnson issued a formal proclamation announcing the end of the Civil War.

Where once there were thousands of men training for war, today there are baby strollers, bikes and pedestrians.

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

Sources

Ancestry
Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “military unit”. Encyclopedia Britannica, 26 Oct. 2023, https://www.britannica.com/topic/military-unit.
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Cambridge Public Library’s Historic Cambridge Newspaper Collection
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“A Camp Cameron Enthusiast” by Dan Sullivan. https://thecambridgeroom.wordpress.com/2012/05/29/a-camp-cameron-enthusiast/.
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History Cambridge
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“President Lincoln Calls Emergency Session.” U.S. Senate Historical Office. https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/image/LincolnEmergencySession.htm.
“A Poor Man’s Fight” by William Marvel in Civil War Series: The Civil War’s Common Soldier. National Park Service. https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/civil_war_series/3/sec2.htm.
“‘Representative Recruits’ in the U. S. Army.” https://civilwartalk.com/threads/representative-recruits-in-the-u-s-army.132221/.
“The Story of the Bee” by Mary Towle Palmer. https://historycambridge.org/articles/the-story-of-the-bee/.
“To Protect the Union”: Civil War History in Central Square. Cambridge Historical Commission. https://www.cambridgema.gov/-/media/Files/historicalcommission/pdf/CompanyC.pdf.
“Town recruitment and enlistment quota correspondence, 1862-1864.” Massachusetts Adjutant General’s Office. https://researchworks.oclc.org/archivegrid/collection/data/80284599.
Unit History – 28th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. https://www.28thmasscob.org/history.

Small Business Week: Raspberry Beret

Posted on May 6, 2022May 6, 2022 by cambridgehistoricalcommission

Today for National Small Business Week, we’d love to give a hearty shoutout to Cambridge’s most happening vintage consignment shop, Raspberry Beret! The kind you find in a second-hand store.

Views of 2298-2304 Mass Ave at the corner of Rice St in 1970 and today (CHC staff photos)

The business was founded by Rachael Bankey of Brookline and has been operating in Massachusetts for over 15 years, but their North Cambridge location at 2302 Massachusetts Ave. opened in 2017. When asked what inspired Rachael to break into the vintage business she said, “I have always loved clothes and vintage since I was able to walk into my mom’s closet and try on her clothes. I like knowing that a piece of clothing has a history and that it’s one-of-a-kind. Being able to provide a fun place for people to find interesting and fun clothes is very rewarding.” She said choosing to open her second location in Cambridge was a natural choice because “Cambridge has always been a destination for the creatives.”

If you consider yourself a fashionable creative, with fun clothing to contribute to this awesome business, Raspberry Beret accepts consignments by season on an appointment basis. Visit their website to schedule your appointment today and read to the end to see how I style some of my own Raspberry Beret finds!

It’s not just the clothes at Raspberry Beret that have a cool history. The building that the store currently occupies was originally a two-story residential home with a mansard roof, built in 1867 by Stephen Stiles as shown in this c.1890 photograph taken by Donald C. Presho. At that time, the address was recorded as 6 Rice St.

6 Rice St (now 2298-2302 Mass Ave) c.1890 (CHC collections)

In 1907, a permit was granted to the owner, Adaline Lonergan, and architect, G.H. Tyler to have the existing two stories raised with an additional floor added underneath and add a brick storefront to the perimeter of the house. It’s possible this was done in an effort to preserve the original mansard roof. The 1907, Cambridge Tribune documents the cost of these alterations to total $8,500. The three atlas photos below (1873, 1903, and 1916, respectively) document the building’s evolving footprint and eventual brick addition.

Details of 1873 Hopkins, 1903, and 1916 Bromley atlases (via Atlascope)

This storefront has been home to many businesses over the years including Water House Market, Dover Market, X Files Recovery, and a vintage furniture store.

Exterior of 2302 Mass Ave when it was occupied by Dover Market (CDD Urban Design Study, 1981) and later XFiles Recovery (Assessor’s photo, 2015)

And now for the reveal!

Today’s post was written by CHC Archivist, Viv Williams

Ice Cutting at Jerry’s Pit

Posted on January 25, 2022January 11, 2022 by cambridgehistoricalcommission

The warm weather in early 2022 made it hard to believe that as late as 1935 commercial quantities of natural ice up to 13” thick were harvested from a disused clay pit in North Cambridge.

Annual ice cutting campaign at the Johnson plant, Rindge Avenue. *Cambridge Sentinel*
October 11, 1924

In the days before mechanical refrigeration, ice harvested from local ponds was harvested in huge amounts every winter, stored in enormous wooden icehouses, and distributed to households everywhere. The role that Cambridge’s own Nathaniel Wyeth and Frederick Tudor played in developing this industry at Fresh Pond has been extensively documented, but after the City of Cambridge closed the ice houses in 1891 most of Cambridge’s domestic ice – apart from a small amount harvested from the Glacialis, or Artificial Pond, off Concord Avenue – was sourced from Spy Pond in Arlington or from New Hampshire.

Layout of the Johnson Ice Cream plant. Sanborn Map Co., ca. 1929

Cambridge’s defunct ice industry was resuscitated in 1920 under unlikely circumstances. John B. Johnson, a New Hampshire native, had been making ice cream on Columbia Street since 1911. Johnson purchased 225,000 square feet of land off Rindge Avenue in the fall of 1919 and announced that he expected to save up to $15,000 a year by harvesting his own ice from Jerry’s Pit. He immediately erected a small icehouse (a double-walled wooden building insulated with sawdust) and that winter filled it with 3,000 tons of ice. In 1920 he built a two-story ice cream factory adjacent to the icehouse and closed his Columbia Street plant.

J.B. Johnson Ice Cream factory, 361 Rindge Avenue. L-R: factory, icehouse, and stable. *Cambridge Sentinel,* April 1, 1922

The next few winters were suitably cold, and in 1921 and 1922 Johnson was able to harvest 4,000 tons in each season, filling the icehouse with a conveyor belt at the rate of twenty-six 400 lb. cakes per minute over ten working days. After storing surplus ice outside under tarpaulins for a few seasons, Johnson more than doubled his storage capacity in 1925. Not every year offered suitable weather – at least a few weeks of clear, very cold nights and an absence of significant snowfall – but there were substantial harvests in 1930 and 1934, when up to 70 men and several horses brought in cakes 13” thick. 1935 turned out to be the last harvest, as Johnson fell ill and was unable to keep up with mortgage payments. The business continued in other hands until 1938, when the lender foreclosed. The factory buildings were cleared in 1940. The Board of Health denied a subsequent owner permission to use the pond as a dump, and the Dewey & Almy Co. purchased the property in 1942.

Johnson Ice Cream advertisement. *Cambridge Chronicle*, Dec. 14, 1934

Jerry’s Pit has always had a checkered reputation. Brickmaker Jeremiah McCrehan mined clay at the site until one morning in 1860, when, as his son told the story to the Cambridge Chronicle in 1927, he went to work at the pit and found 4’ of water in it. Some operators that tapped underground springs found it profitable to pump their pits dry, but McCrehan abandoned his mining operation instead. Ice was harvested there for domestic use in 1892, but the Board of Health objected, calling the water “entirely unfit for this purpose.”

The pool is a favorite place for such washing as is done by the foreign element who live in the neighborhood; it is a capital place for drowning stray cats and it is often used in this manner by the festive youth who gambol on its banks and who plash about in its shallows in their bare feet; it is, in a way, the cesspool of that neighborhood, and yet during the coming summer a large number of people will dilute their water with ice cut from its surface.
Cambridge Tribune, May 21, 1892

Jerry’s Pit was a de facto neighborhood recreation center, a site for swimming in the summer and skating in the winter in a neighborhood with few such opportunities. J.B. Johnson’s use of the ice in its manufacturing operation was apparently unobjectionable because it was not sold for human consumption. Johnson permitted swimming and skating throughout his ownership, and in 1927 allowed Cambridge’s Recreation Department to improve the facilities and staff the place with lifeguards. In 1943 the Dewey & Almy Co. built a bathhouse and toilet room at its own expense, which the city operated until the Metropolitan District Commission opened the Francis J. McCrehan Pool nearby in 1960.

“It’s a long wait for Linda Lavin, Donna Labo and Tommie Robichaud as they line up at the diving board of Cambridge’s new MDC pool to be the first to try it out.” *Boston Record-American,* July 25, 1960. CHC Photo Morgue Collection

Today’s post was written by CHC Executive Director, Charles Sullivan

Sources

Cambridge Historical Commission files

Cambridge Public Library, Historic Cambridge Newspaper Collection

Sinclair, Jill. Fresh Pond: The History of A Cambridge Landscape. The MIT Press, 2009

Weightman, Gavin. The Frozen Water Trade. HarperCollins, 2001

Historic Building: 299 Concord Avenue

Posted on August 13, 2021December 4, 2023 by Meta Partenheimer

It’s time for a historic building spotlight! We are featuring the former filling station at the corner of Concord Avenue and Walden Street in North Cambridge. Today, the building has a whole new look.

Concord Avenue near the corner of Walden Street, facing east. September 6, 1933.

In the early twentieth century, Concord Avenue served as a main transportation route, though the area had evolved from its early rural roots to a more suburban character. The advent of the automobile as a mode of transportation for the average person opened up this area to further residential development. Fresh Pond and Kingsley Park were also major draws for day-trippers taking a drive into the countryside. With people and cars came the need for fueling stations. The gasoline station at 299 Concord Avenue was one of 8 gas stations to be built along Concord Avenue between 1905 and 1930.

Rotogravure originally printed in the March 8, 1925 edition of the *Boston Traveler* as part of the series “Colonial Filling Stations of Boston.”

As an example of an early gas station, the Colonial Filling Station at 299 Concord Ave was built in 1924 for $7,000. The building was designed in the Colonial Revival style and executed by Boston-based consulting engineer Allen Hubbard. Born in 1860, Hubbard spent his early life in Westfield, Mass and later became the town’s first major league baseball player. Hubbard attended Yale to obtain an engineering degree and became the college’s baseball team captain. Soon after his graduation in 1883, Hubbard left his baseball career behind and worked as a bookkeeper and engineer for contractors in Boston before forming a business partnership with Hollis French in 1898. Throughout his career, Hubbard would consult on various large-scale engineering projects, including the Boston Public Library.

Allen Hubbard in his Yale catcher’s uniform (via adonisterry.tripod.com)

Hubbard’s design for the hip-roofed structure was elaborately detailed with dentil moldings, a Federal-style doorway with elliptical fan light and side lights, round-arched windows with lancet-arched muntins, red roofing shingles, and a wood balustrade at the roof peak. The masonry detail further embellished the station, with arched brickwork over the windows and a soldier course of bricks at the base, topped by a course of headers. A large sign band filled the space between the doorway and the cornice.

299 Concord Ave ca. 1973-74. Photograph by Richard Cheek.

The station went through a series of owners over the decades. A garage bay for automobile servicing was added in 1938. When the building was surveyed by the CHC in 1973, it was in nearly original condition and one of the oldest surviving of its kind in Cambridge. By 1978, gasoline services had ceased, and the building was converted to office use. Then-owner Cambridge Alternative Power Co., Inc. (CAPCO) undertook major alterations to and built an addition. Subsequent projects included the construction of a windmill and solar greenhouse.

299 Concord Ave in October 1982. Photograph by CHC staff.

In 2003, the CHC received an application to demolish the former gas station and its additions to make way for new construction. Rather than demolish the structure, an updated proposal was submitted in which the new design would preserve the original fabric of the façade to the fullest extent possible.

Today, the original filling station façade can be seen from Concord Ave.

View north from Concord Ave via Google Street View (October 2017)

SOURCES

“1883 Yale Baseball Captain Added to the Bulldog Club Posthumously” article by Dan Genovese
(The Yale Newsletter, Winter 2005)
Cambridge Public Library Online Newspaper Database
CHC survey files

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.

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

National Inventor’s Day

Posted on February 11, 2021February 12, 2021 by cambridgehistoricalcommission

DEWEY AND ALMY CHEMICAL CO.

Today we are celebrating Inventor’s Day with a look at two Cambridge inventors who founded the Dewey & Almy Chemical Co. on Harvey Street in North Cambridge: Bradley Dewey and Charles Almy.

Dewey and Almy met on their first day as freshman at Harvard in 1905. They remained friends throughout their years at Harvard and then at MIT, where they studied chemical engineering. After graduation, they went their separate ways until WWI found them assigned to the Chemical Warfare Service. There, both holding the rank of Colonel, they helped supervise the development and production of gas masks. Dewey was in charge of the Gas Production Defense Division, for which he received the Army Distinguished Service medal. Discharged from the army in 1919, the two men went into business together with an aim to provide chemical research that would lead to useful products for industry.

BRADLEY DEWEY

Bradley Dewey was born in Vermont in 1887, the son of Davis Rich Dewey (who became a Professor of Economics at MIT) and Mary Cornelia Hopkins. He received his Harvard B.A. (cum laude) in 1908 then went on to MIT, receiving his second bachelor’s degree, this time in chemical engineering, in 1909. After MIT and until the start of WWI, he worked for the American and Tin Plate company and U.S. Steel.

CHARLES ALMY

Charles Almy was born in 1888 to the Cambridge judge Charles Almy and Mary Ann Cummings. After receiving his A.B. in chemical engineering from Harvard in 1908, he became a research assistant in applied chemistry at MIT. He received his degree in chemical engineering from MIT in 1910. Following graduation, he worked for the American Vulcanized Fibre Co. of Wilmington, Delaware, and the Virginia Red Oil Products Corporation in Baltimore. After establishing Dewey & Almy, he moved away the chemical engineering aspects of the company to become its sales manager. He was described as “a quiet young man with a subdued but absorbing enthusiasm for his business.”

THE DEWEY & ALMY CHEMICAL COMPANY

Their efforts began in a tin shack at 235 Harvey Street in North Cambridge and, literally, at Dewey’s mother’s kitchen stove at 2 Berkeley Street.

Presaging future concerns about the site, neighbors were worried about the possible stink of “rendering grease” and reclaimed rubber, as well as acid production and “similar offensive operations” on the site. (Cambridge Chronicle, 16 August 1919)

Dewey & Almy developed gas masks, synthetic rubber, and rubber-based products, as well as fishing line, latex sealants, plastic bags, and adhesives. During their first decade, the chief product was a water-based compound useful for sealing tin cans and affixing their labels:

Gold Seal Tin Paste: Advertisement from *Canning Age*, 1922

Later, recognizing the needs of the growing frozen foods industry, they developed latex films used for packaging grocery products. A 1939 Life Magazine featured a demonstration of “Cry-O-Vac,” their protective packaging for meats:

“Demonstration of Cryovac Latex Balloon,
Developed by Dewey and Almy Chemical Co. of Cambridge, Massachusetts”

Another invention was an adhesive for gluing cork to the inside of bottle caps. One of their biggest hits was “Grippt,” which they advertised as “One adhesive for every use.” Grippit “cannot wrinkle paper” and is “clean … everlasting.” Smears and excess product “are easily cleaned off with the fingers without soiling them” (Cambridge Sentinel 9 April 1921).

Other products included:

“Multibestos” railroad car brake linings. (Multibestos is a form of asbestos.)

Model train advertising Multibestos (image from eBay)

1943 Signal Corps, U. S. Army Balloon M-278A

U.S. Army Signal Corps balloon via Ehive

“Darex” meteorological balloons

And then, amid all the chemical dispersants, latex and rubber vulcanizing cement, and safe-food packaging, came “Thickit” for use in whipping cream!

Advertisement from *American Stationer And Office Management*, 1921

JERRY’S PIT

In 1942 Dewey & Almy purchased a lot immediately adjacent to Jerry’s Pit. Originally a 19th century clay pit for area brickworks (and probably named for the owner of the pit), the area had become a popular swimming hole. The following year the company donated $5,000 to the city to build bathhouses and toilets on the site, which it agreed to manage. This was no doubt in part to assuage community concerns over possible contaminants from the company. After the W.R. Grace Co. bought Dewey & Almy, these concerns eventually led to the closing of the swimming hole in 1961.

Jerry’s Pond, aka “Jerry’s Pit,” in the 1950s. Near Alewife. (CHC photo)

In 1944 Dewey & Almy received its second Army-Navy Production Award for meritorious services. Charles Almy noted, “This is a tribute to the men and women of our Cambridge plant…I am proud of their determined efforts.”

Preferred Stock of the Dewey and Almy Company dated 20 April 1945.

AFTERWARD

Dewey & Almy opened plants around the world, and the list of its inventions and products is long. In 1954 it was purchased by the W.R. Grace company, which expanded the site to include properties on Whittemore Avenue. After Grace emerged from bankruptcy in 2014, it spun off a separate company, GCP Applied Technologies, which now occupies the site.

During WWII, Bradley Dewey had become Federal Rubber Administrator. He received the medal of the Society of the Chemical Industry in 1944 and was awarded several honorary doctor degrees. He retired as president of Dewey & Almy in 1952 and became chair of the Board of Directors. In the mid-1950s, he formed the Bradley Container Corp., a joint venture with Olin Mathiesen for producing plastic food containers. He sold out to the American Can Company three years later. While in Cambridge he had served two terms on the Cambridge School Committee. He moved to Concord, New Hampshire, in 1968 and died there in 1974 at the age of 98.

Charles Almy died in 1954 at the age of 65. He had been a civic leader in Cambridge, on the Advisory Council of the Cambridge Civic Association, and a Trustee of the Foundation for Vision. He was a director of the Cambridge Trust Co; Vice President of the Cambridge Savings Bank; and President of the Corporation of the Brown & Nichols School, his alma mater. After his death, the Cambridge City Council passed a resolution “attesting to the inspiration and support which he brought to the public officials of Cambridge and to his contributions to the progress which the city has attained …”

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

SOURCES

Cambridge Library digital newspapers online

American Stationer and Office Management Vol. 88, 1921

Cambridge Sentinel 11 June 1921

Canning Age, Vol. 3 1922

Newspapers.com

Genealogybank.com

Smallpox Inoculation – Cambridge Leads the Way

Posted on December 12, 2020December 17, 2020 by cambridgehistoricalcommission

Nineteenth century cities were notably unhealthy places, rife with all sorts of infectious diseases. Tuberculosis was the leading cause of death in Cambridge at the beginning of the 20^th century, but significant numbers died in periodic epidemics of diphtheria, typhoid, scarlet fever, malaria, and measles – all nearly forgotten today. However, none of these caused greater fear than smallpox, a highly communicable virus that killed as many as 60% of those it infected and often left the survivors badly scarred.

[Sickbed with pox victim and text with decorated initials]. Frontispiece and text in: Een excellent tracktaet leerende hoemen alle ghebreken der pocken sal moghen ghensen / Paracelsus. Thantwerpen : Thantwerpen : Gheprint by J. Poelants, 1553.

Smallpox originated in Asia in the third century CE. European explorers carried it to the new world, where it caused the death of entire local populations – including an estimated 90% of the Native Americans in Massachusetts Bay in 1617-19. An outbreak in Boston in 1721 infected over 5,000 people, of whom 844 died, and epidemics recurred in 1730, 1751, and 1776-78. Cambridge’s Dr. Benjamin Waterhouse introduced Dr. Edward Jenner’s improved smallpox vaccine to America in 1800, but inoculation seemed counter-intuitive to most people and was never common. (During this period Waterhouse supplied Thomas Jefferson with enough to protect his family and two hundred slaves.)

Waterhouse, Benjamin, 1754-1846, “Letter from Benjamin Waterhouse to Edward Jenner,” OnView: Digital Collections & Exhibits, http://collections.countway.harvard.edu/onview/items/show/6624. In this letter, Waterhouse describes for Jenner the difficulties he has encountered with inoculations of spurious matter and asks for some additional vaccine, specifying that the matter be sent on soaked threads pressed between glass and sealed with wax.

An outbreak of smallpox that struck Cambridge in 1872 and 1873 infected 290 people, of whom 57 died. The city offered free vaccinations and isolated infected persons at the almshouse, and eventually these measures prevailed. The next epidemic originated in Boston in 1901 and struck with much greater force. Cambridge’s first case was reported in October, and this time the city’s new Board of Health swung into action with an aggressive campaign of mandatory isolation of infected individuals, vaccination of everyone living in neighboring houses for the distance of a city block, and fumigation of the infected premises with formaldehyde gas. The city did not attempt to quarantine well persons because such measures were too difficult to enforce; at the mere rumor of a quarantine the inhabitants would scatter; if they were left in place their health could be monitored. Active patients were isolated as far as possible from populated areas in three houses on New Street that the city took by eminent domain expressly to serve as a temporary “detention hospital.”

View of “The New Almshouse” published in the Cambridge Chronicle, 22 March 1851

Free city-wide vaccination clinics were not sufficient, and in March 1902 the Board of Health ordered that all inhabitants of the densely settled neighborhoods in the eastern part of the city who had not been successfully immunized within the previous five years had to submit to vaccination. Teams of doctors went from house to house and vaccinated everyone they could find. Libraries, schools, and churches were closed in June. During the summer, doctors accompanied by police officers visited every house in the city, and anyone who could not produce evidence of vaccination or refused to be vaccinated was summoned to court.

By August 18^th, 1902, the incubation period for new cases had passed, and the epidemic was over. In all, Cambridge doctors vaccinated 56,213 persons over a ten-month period. Of the reported 192 people infected, 32 died. By comparison, Boston reported 1,596 cases; in both cities, the mortality rate was about 17%.

The city burned down the houses on New Street in 1906, and the epidemic passed into history as the last major smallpox outbreak in the United States. However, memory of the episode survives in the landmark case of Jacobson v. Massachusetts, in which the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the ability of the City of Cambridge to require citizens to submit to vaccination.

Detail of New Street on 1903 and 1916 Cambridge Bromley Atlases.

The case was brought by Rev. Henning Jacobson, Assistant City Clerk Albert Pear, and two others who refused to be vaccinated. Rev. Jacobson, who was pastor of the Augustana Lutheran Church, refused for religious reasons, while Pear produced a note from his doctor exempting him on medical grounds. The Cambridge District Court judge was not swayed and fined each man $5.00. The Massachusetts Anti-Vaccination League took up their case; when the Supreme Judicial Court ruled against the men, the league supported their appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. In a unanimous decision, Justice John M. Harlan confirmed that: “Upon the principle of self-defense, a community has the right to protect itself against an epidemic of disease which threatens the safety of its members” [Jacobson v. Massachusetts, 197 U.S. 11 (1905)].

The authors of an article published in the February 17, 2005, issue of The New England Journal of Medicine state: Rejecting the contention that mandatory vaccination violated an individual’s right to due process and equal protection as guaranteed by the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, the Court held that states may limit individual liberty in the service of well-established public health interventions. For 100 years, this seminal opinion has served as the constitutional foundation for state actions limiting liberty in the name of public health. (Parmet et al., N.E. Journal of Medicine 352:7)I