The Newetowne Chronicle Winter 2011 Cambridgeport: Its People and Their Stories Volume XI Number III By Michael Kenney Cambridgeport: Its People and Their Stories Cambridgeport stands, geographically and socially, midway between East Cambridge By Michael Kenney 1 and Old Cambridge, neither a traditional southern European enclave nor the remnants of Puritan New England. This issue of the Newetowne Chronicle focuses on Cambridgeport Ideas Take to the Street for a and its vibrant past through a collection of articles and a report on the celebration of that History Day past on Cambridgeport History Day. By Michael Kenney 2 In the years before the First World War, the neighborhood was dominated by migrants War, Financial Ruin, and from northern New England, “provincials” from Canada, and second-generation Irish. Cambridgeport In the following years, the population growth leveled off before gradually rebounding. By Gavin W. Kleespies 3 New national and ethnic groups arrived and, perhaps most significant, well-educated New Assistant Director - professionals moved into the traditional working-class neighborhood. Islanda Khau 4 A look at the decline and regrowth of the area’s population is a useful starting point. The Brookline Street Rail Line 1920 census counted 26,875 persons in the present Cambridgeport, plus much of what is By Gavin W. Kleespies 4 now considered Area Four. The count was taken after major land-use changes had already Velodrome: A Racing Track for occurred east of Brookline Street, where Simplex Wire & Cable Co. and the National Bicyclists Biscuit Co. had razed some houses during the previous decade. Along the neighborhood By Richard Garver 5 edges lay the Necco candy factory, the Riverside Press, and a Ford Motor Co. assembly plant. Riverside: A Rowing Club for Workers Most useful By Richard Garver 5 for tracking the population change New Digital Archives Assistant - is the 1940 census Shanna Strunk 6 count of 12,858 A Powder Magazine for Swimmers persons in an By Cathie Zusy 6 area closer to the neighborhood’s African American Heritage present boundaries. Alliance Calendar Highlights After declining Accomplishments into the 1960s, By Daphne Abeel 7 the population CHS Wins 2nd IMLS Grant 7 leveled off at 8,670 in 1980. It has CHS 2012 Calendar 7 climbed back with The Evolution of Cambridgeport The G.W. Bromley map of 1916 shows the division between residential and the construction of industrial Cambridgeport along Brookline Street. (Courtesy, WardMaps) Back Cover housing in the old The Newetowne Chronicle industrial area and Published by the three public housing projects in the 1950s. The continuing replacement of industrial and commercial sites along the eastern edge by housing resulted in a count of 10,052 in 2000. Cambridge Historical Society Editor, Michael Kenney The 2010 census reflected the continuing infill of high-end residential construction with Contributing Editor, a count of 12,220. While a 21.6 percent increase from 2000, the number of children and Daphne Abeel teenagers declined by 6.5 percent. Further reflecting the neighborhood’s gentrification, the Copy Editor, Luise M. Erdmann median household income increased from 1979 to 1999 by 66.4 percent while the citywide increase was 40.4 percent. www.cambridgehistory.org The Newetowne Chronicle 2 OFFICERS Ideas Take to the Streets for a History Day By Michael Kenney Jinny Nathans, President There was a raft of ideas floated at the first in an article for Charlie Allen, meeting, in December 2008, of the group that History News Vice President calls itself the Cambridgeport History Project. magazine, was “to Robert Crocker, strengthen people’s Vice President “Put out something enigmatic that arouses connection to our Rebekah Kaufman, curiosity,” suggested artist Ross Miller. “How Vice President community and about a walking tour?” asked Vice-Mayor Andrew Leighton, to the continuum Henrietta Davis. “And couldn’t we mark the Treasurer of its history.” A Maggie Booz, ‘1812 streets’?’’ this writer asked. Secretary more specific goal Heli Meltsner, Nothing was settled, but there was enough was “connecting Curator enthusiasm to hold a second meeting two neighbors to Michael Kenney, months later with a group, now including Jason neighbors, people to Editor Weeks from the Arts Council, Bill August of the places, and current COUNCILORS Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association, and residents to past Gavin Kleespies from the Historical Society – If This House Could Talk” sign William August residents.” all coordinated by Davis’s aide, Penny Peters. posted at 65 Chestnut Street, Richard Beaty Those goals were discussing a 1960s cooperative Frank Kramer that started Tot Lot. Liz Adams Lasser realized, Zusy wrote, Marie Lodi “with handwritten Travis McCready storyboards about a structure’s history posted Jason Weeks at over 70 homes and storefronts.” It was a ADVISORS strictly volunteer effort, and with many donated supplies, it cost less than $100. Daphne Abeel M. Wyllis Bibbins The effort expanded for the 2010 History Day, Darleen Bonislawski with a group of “ITHCT Insiders” preparing Kathleen Born “curated” signs for neighborhood business Thomas Bracken Carol Cerf “Pop-Up” history performance by Melissa locations. “I love how the event brings the Lindsay Leard Coolidge Nussbaum Freeman portraying the protest over the past to life,” commented Davis. “I find myself Frank Duehay proposed Inner Belt highway imagining the workers’ village that was Luise M. Erdmann Cambridgeport at the turn of the last century.” Karen F. Falb Also present was neighborhood activist Cathie George H. Hanford Zusy, who determined the project’s future In 2011 Zusy proposed a more ambitious Ted Hansen with one simple suggestion: What about signs project, a series of “vignettes” based on local Chandra Harrington Swanee Hunt that neighbors could put up at their houses events to be developed by Michael Schaffer, a Ellen G. Moot describing their history? veteran producer of historical pageants. Larry Nathanson, M.D. Susan S. Poverman By the next meeting, a date in the fall of 2009 That project required far more funding than the Maxwell D. Solet was set for the first Cambridgeport History Day two volunteer-driven History Days. Local banks Roger Stacey in Dana Park, with a Neighborhood Association were solicited with the help of Ping Wong of Potluck supper to follow. the Cambridge Trust Co. Richard Garver of the STAFF Riverside Boat Club offered a donation from And Zusy’s idea had acquired a name: “If Gavin W. Kleespies, that organization. Executive Director This House Could Talk.” The goal, she said Islanda Khau Assistant Director Mark J. Vassar, Newsletter Sponsored By Resident Archivist Shanna Strunk Digital Archives Assistant Victoria Hickey, Assistant Cambridge Historical Society 159 Brattle Street Central Square Banking Center Cambridge, Mass. 02138 617-547-4252 630 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge www.cambridgehistory.org www.cambridgesavings.com • (617) 441-4298 Member FDIC Member DIF 3 Winter 2011 continued Meanwhile, the ideas that had originally sparked Discovery Day flourished in Dana Park. There were And Zusy went after – and secured – a grant from Mass walking tours led by Kit Rawlins of the Historical Humanities. Commission, a photo identification quiz and a display on The five vignettes – dubbed “Pop-Ups” by Davis – brought Cambridgeport industry by the Historical Society, a scull to life a long-forgotten romantic scandal, Irish rowers and rowing machine brought by Garver from the boat at the boat club, the fight over the proposed Inner Belt club,and photographs and maps brought by Alyssa Pacy highway, the Ford assembly plant, and the telescope lens from the Public Library’s Cambridge Room collection. made by Alvan Clark & Sons. And 1812 street markers are promised for the war’s anniversary year of 2012. War, Financial Ruin, and Cambridgeport By Gavin W. Kleespies For the first 150 years of Cambridge’s history, Cambridgeport was a sparsely populated agricultural area. It was probably best known as a site for harvesting salt hay and oysters from the marshes that lined the Charles River. This area developed thanks to a member of the Continental Congress and the speculative construction of bridges and roads. However, the fortunes of the developers were ruined by embargo and war. In 1777 Francis Dana purchased the Soden Farm and began assembling the titles to most of the land in Cambridgeport. Coming of age just before the Revolutionary War, he became involved in politics and was introduced to George Washington in 1776 by John Adams. He was appointed to the Continental Congress and, as a representative, visited Washington at Valley Forge, traveled with John Adams to Europe to seek funds and alliances, and represented America to Catherine the Great of Russia. After the war, he was appointed the Pages from Francis Dana’s real estate ledgers at the Cambridge Historical Society Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. area, they constructed many of the main roads in the city (Broadway, Hampshire, Harvard, and Mount Auburn streets) While Dana was a man of significant stature in to funnel traffic to their bridge. Massachusetts, he was of unrivaled importance in Cambridgeport. He organized a group of private investors and Two of the landholders, Rufus Davenport and Royal was the primary force behind the construction of the West Makepeace, championed the idea of the area’s becoming Boston Bridge, which stood where the Longfellow Bridge is a shipping port. Their development was centered near the today. Before this bridge, the route to Boston from Cambridge intersection of Broadway and Hampshire Street, and they involved traveling across the Great Bridge (today’s Anderson dug a series of canals, including the still-existing Broad Bridge) and then along the Great Neck through Brookline Canal, to this end. They had some success. Cambridgeport and Roxbury. The West Boston Bridge took travelers along was declared a U.S. port of delivery in 1805 and the name what is today Mass.