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The Newetowne Chronicle Fall 2010 The Highest Form of Flattery Volume X Number III By Gavin W. Kleespies and Michael Kenney The Highest Form of Flattery Tory Row occupies an unusual place in Cambridge history. These seven Georgian estates By Gavin W. Kleespies and were built by a group of wealthy families who represented the social elite in Cambridge. Michael Kenney 1 However, as discontent rose in the American colonies, these families came to realize that their political views and lavish way of life were not accepted by the mainstream of Cam- A Federal Grant Helps Bring bridge. All seven families left their estates for safer ground closer to the British military well Our Photos Online before the first shots of the American Revolution were fired. The estates were seized by the By Gavin W. Kleespies 2 Continental Army. Some were used to house officers, others as hospitals, and one was the home and headquarters of General George Washington. Chinese Archives By Cynthia Brennan 2 In an odd turn of fate, while Cambridge residents were The Cambridge Plant and quick to condemn the lives Garden Club and the of excess that these Tory Historical Society estates represented, Brattle By Daphne Abeel 3 Street returned to being the most fashionable address President’s Letter in the city, and these homes The Hooper-Lee-Nichols House (1685) and 149 Brattle Street (1939) By Jinny Nathans 4 became the most sought after soon after the end of the Revolution. In the 19th century a number of Georgian houses, New Things on similar to the Tory estates, were built along Brattle Street, and in the first half of the 20th www.cambridgehistory.org 4 century Georgian Revival became the most popular house style in Old Cambridge. Brattle Street is now more Georgian than it was in the Georgian era. In fact, two of the Tory houses, A Historic Site That Never Was the Hooper-Lee-Nichols House (owned by Judge Joseph Lee during the Revolution) and By Michael Kenney 5 Elmwood (built for Volunteers: Lt. Governor Oliver), Chelsea, Natalie, and Ting 6 have been replicated in Cambridge. John History Around Town 6 Vassall’s house (which became George Wash- Collection Development 7 ington’s headquarters Courtesy of the Longfellow National Historic Site The Longfellow House (1759) and the South Dakota home of W. D. Swain (1910) and the home of Henry History Test Back Cover Wadsworth Longfel- low) has been copied often, including the one pictured in South Dakota. The Tories were not Upcoming Events the only people in Cambridge who built Georgian houses and Washington’s home is certain- Back Cover ly a large part of its status, but it is remarkable how pervasive the style of the Tories became. The Newetowne Chronicle Cambridge actually has many Published by the replicated buildings, some of Cambridge Historical Society which were built to resolve demolition disputes with the Editor, Michael Kenney Cambridge Historical Commis- Design, Gavin W. Kleespies sion. For an account of many of Contributing Editor, these replicated buildings, visit Daphne Abeel www.cambridgehistory.org. Copy Editor, Luise M. Erdmann Elmwood (1767) and 22 Fayerweather Street (1898) The Newetowne Chronicle 2 OFFICERS A Federal Grant Helps Bring Our Photos Online Jinny Nathans, By Gavin W. Kleespies President Robert Crocker, Thanks to a grant from the federal Institute home over the last 160 years. Most of these Vice President Rebekah Kaufman, of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) images do not exist anywhere else. Due to Vice President and matching funds provided by the the constraints of staff time, these photos are Paula Paris, Cambridge Trust Company, the Gund currently available only on a limited basis. Vice President family, and our Council members, the These historic images of Cambridge will be Andrew Leighton, Historical Society is going to create digital Treasurer made available online through the Society’s scans of the CHS Photograph Collection. Mary Webb, website and the website Flickr. The aim Secretary of the project is to allow open access to Heli Meltsner, Our collection has fantastic images of Curator our city and the people who have called it everyone who has an interest in Cambridge. Michael Kenney, Editor Chinese Archives By Cynthia Brennan COUNCILORS In China this summer, I visited academic the local government meant protection during Charlie Allen and medical, public, national and rural, and the Cultural Revolution’s most devastating Darleen Bonislawski even Buddhist temple libraries for a course years, 1967-1969, when many historically Maggie Booz in Chinese Librarianship (the first course important objects were destroyed. Thanks Kathleen Born toward a master’s degree in Library and to key Party officials, People’s Liberation Virginia Jacobsen Frank Kramer Information Science). A society invested in Army soldiers were stationed at the library, Karen Marryat its history and culture fending off would-be was reflected in the well- attackers. This protection ADVISORS maintained historical attracted donations to Daphne Abeel sites and libraries, the Tianyi Library by M. Wyllis Bibbins crowded with eager endangered private Thomas Bracken visitors willing to wait in libraries and special Carol Cerf Lindsay Leard Coolidge clusters that substituted collections. Now about Luise M. Erdmann for our concept of lines. 450 years old, the library Karen F. Falb Among the highlights has been transformed: George H. Hanford was the Tianyi Pavilion from being tucked away Ted Hansen Library in Ningbo. Built on the grounds of the Chandra Harrington The Tianyi Pavilion Library in Ningbo Swanee Hunt in about 1561, it is the Fan family complex, Ellen G. Moot oldest private library inaccessible to any Larry Nathanson, M.D. in Asia and one of the three oldest in the researchers, to being open to a public Brian Pfeiffer world. Careful building design protects the enthusiastic about the history preserved Susan S. Poverman Maxwell D. Solet collection from fire and the intense humidity within its walls. Currently, the collection Roger Stacey of Ningbo. Under the rules of its founder, consists of the local histories and government Fan Qin, who was fiercely documents it originally STAFF devoted to the preservation of contained, but it has grown Gavin W. Kleespies his collection, it survived as from 13,000 volumes in Executive Director the private library of the Fan 1949 to 300,000 volumes Cynthia Brennan family until 1935, when there today. The collection also Assistant Director Victoria Hickey was a transition to ownership includes furniture, scrolls, Assistant by a committee of Fan Qin’s calligraphy, stone printing Mark J. Vassar descendants and the local blocks, and something Resident Archivist government. The library that made me homesick: a Shane LeGault Resident Fellow was spared injury from Bricks from Qianjin Hall collection of bricks dating the violence of the Opium from 50-1840 A.D. Like our The Cambridge Wars, the Taiping Rebellion, the Sino- New England Brick Company collection, Historical Society Japanese War, and the Chinese Civil War; the these bricks illustrate the importance of The Hooper-Lee-Nichols House gradually weakening empire and increasing preserving cultural objects, documents, and 159 Brattle Street Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138 influence of Western interests caused political rare books – a goal the members of the CHS 617-547-4252 tumult but left the collection unscathed. The share with people all over the globe. www.cambridgehistory.org 1949 donation of the library and grounds to 3 Fall 2010 The Cambridge Plant & Garden Club and the Historical Society By Daphne Abeel The repair and replacement of the front gate, urns, and services for a decade, the club now pays the firm for annual fence posts at the Hooper-Lee-Nichols House is only the pruning of the yews. latest project undertaken by the Cambridge Plant & Garden Club to benefit the Cambridge Historical Society. The CP&GC holds at least two work days a year at the garden, and some members weed, prune, and deadhead The style of the fence dates back at least to the mid-19th throughout the gardening season. In 2002, the club voted century, although the most notable features, the inset gate to supplement the work of its volunteers with funding for and urns, were designed by Joseph Everett Chandler and the services of a local landscaper and designer, Michael added in 1916. A renovation specialist, Chandler was an Hanlon, and a lawn firm. Since then, the club has been early proponent of the Colonial Revival movement. His responsible for various improvements, including a other work in the area includes the Cooper-Frost-Austin renovation of the boxwood garden, funded partly with a House, the Longfellow House, the House of Seven Gables, grant from the Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts. and the Paul Revere House. The CHS gate is notable for The most recent additions are a pair of pink dogwoods, its inset, concave design and, with the fence, its light and planted this spring. lacy style that harks back to the Federal period and is also reminiscent of the Peirce-Nichols house in Salem. In May 2010, a generous CP&GC member held a neighborhood fundraiser for the restoration of the front gate. Maggie Booz, a past president of CP&GC and the principal of Smart Architecture, contributed new drawings of the gate in the exact proportions of the old gate and posts. The club has accepted a bid from the Ricci Bros., David and Edward (Rocco), for the work. As CHS President Jinny Nathans put it, ‘‘We cannot be too generous in our thanks to the Cambridge Plant & Garden Club for all the services rendered and improvements the club has made to the Hooper-Lee-Nichols House over many years. We are forever in its debt.’’ Plans for the new gate.