cial History Ed Spe ition word area 4 newsletter Special Edition 4word Number 18 January 2004 Area 4—A Neighborhood with a Long The Early History History of Innovation and Leadership of Area 4 ne of the challenges facing 1630–1793 today’s neighborhood resi- Farms, Swamps, and Marshes O dents, especially young peo- Cambridge was originally named New- ple, is how to continue a long history towne when it was founded in 1630. The of local industrial and commercial new settlement, meant to be the perma- leadership and innovation. What will nent capital for Puritan leaders of the Bay be the innovations and industries of Colony, remained the capital until 1634. It the future? Will we be prepared to was said that the first commercial business meet the challenges that lie ahead? was a tavern, licensed to sell beer and Does everyone have an equal oppor- bread, located in Old Cambridge (in the tunity to excel? Today we have a vast area of Harvard Square). Until the early bio-tech and high-tech industry on 1800s, the population remained largely our doorstep, and endless opportuni- George Close Company, Confectioner Yankee, middle class, and protestant, and ties at the cutting edge of informa- Photo from Cambridgeport—Busy and Beautiful. Old Cambridge had political supremacy in tion, technology, and science. Will we Courtesy of Cambridge Historical Commission the town. all have access to those opportunities? Cherry Street, he knew he had finally per- Cambridgeport (land including Area 4, Invention of the Sewing Machine fected the first sewing machine. He later Area 3, and the current Cambridgeport When you walk down Cherry Street established a workshop at 740 Main neighborhood), was low-lying, partially today you can no longer hear the sewing Street. He received a patent for his wooded, and bordered by swamps and machine at 55 Cherry Street, or see Elias machine on September 10, 1846. Unfortu- marshes. Throughout the first century of Howe Jr. bent over his worktable develop- nately, Howe was ahead of his time. He settlement, Area 4 was primarily agricul- ing the first sewing machine. In 1845 he traveled to England to market his tural, valued for pasture, salt hay, and created a machine that sewed 250 stitches machine but, short on money, he pawned oysters. Pelham’s Island, twenty acres a minute, and when he was able to sew his earliest sewing machine model and along Main Street east of Lafayette Square two suits of clothes at his residence on continued on page 2 continued on page 11 Early Days at Newtowne Court— A Conversation with A Conversation with Jane Richards: pg. 4 Suzanne Revaleon Green: pg. 8 Looking Back at Gordon’s St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church Central Square Theater: pg. 5 95th Anniversary: pg. 9 African American Heritage Trail Settlement Houses in Area 4: pg. 10 in Area 4: pg. 6 Map of Area 4 Historic Area 4 Public Schools: pg. 7 Locations: pg. 16 Read all editions of the 4word in PDF at mit.edu/dryfoo/Area4/4word 2 Area 4 Innovations Clark Streets. The Imperial Chocolate Company, the manu- continued from page 1 facturers of Empress Chocolates, was located at 62 Hampshire patent and returned home. On his return Street and 182–192 Clark Street. It to Cambridge in 1849 he discovered that employed 175 people. The Bay many machinists had copied his earliest State Confectionery Company design. In particular, Isaac M. Singer had employed over 60 people at its profited from Howe’s design. In 1856, ten plant at 141 Hampshire Street. years after Howe’s initial patent, a patent The Russell Candy Company, trial ended successfully and Howe located at 253 Norfolk Street, received a royalty for each sewing ceased operations in the 1930s, machine sold. This Area 4 resident of and the building was demolished Former Squirrel Brand factory, Broadway and Cherry Street had invented a machine in 1993. Boardman Street that became basic to American life. Photo by Gerald Bergman Cambridge and Boston were once considered the hub of the candy industry in the United States. Boston was a major port for sugar, molasses, and cocoa beans, and sugar refineries such as the Revere Sugar Company and Domino fed the area’s candy fac- tories. Until recently three candy companies remained in or near Area 4. NECCO (New England Confectionery Company), which was famous for its coin-shaped wafers and for its Valentine’s Day Squirrel Brand Nut Chews logo 253 Norfolk Street, Russell’s Chocolates hearts with messages; Squirrel Brand Company, which made the Photo from The Cambridge Easter Magazine, 1914. Courtesy of Cambridge Historical Commission World Leader in the Candy Industry Squirrel Nut Zipper as well as The manufacture of candy in Cambridge other treats; and Cambridge was begun by Robert Douglass in 1826, in Brands Inc. a small building on Windsor Street. He moved soon after to a building on Dou- Last year NECCO ceased opera- glass street. In 1848, B. P. Clark, a salesman tions in Cambridge and consoli- for Robert Douglass, started a candy busi- dated their plants in Revere. ness in Area 4 and built a factory at 443 NECCO was the country’s largest Massachusetts Avenue in 1874. Royal Dou- candy company when it opened glas began making confections in 1826 on in 1927 on Massachusetts Avenue. Massachusetts Avenue. Later his firm was Its building, which was the largest joined by those of Isaac Lum at Broadway candy manufacturing plant in the Junior Mints, a product of Cambridge Brands and Hampshire Street and Jeremiah Withal world, is being converted to a in Area 4 on Essex Street. George Close erected a 500,000-square-foot biotech devel- building in 1879 on the corner of Broad- opment. Broadway Baptist Church of 1866 was way and Windsor Street, where he damaged by fire in 1889, and was rebuilt employed 125 people to produce candy. D. The Squirrel Brand factory on Boardman in a typical Queen Anne fashion. The M. Hazen and Company began business Street has been converted into affordable church was abandoned by the congrega- in 1876. In 1882 it purchased 5,600 feet of housing and its land on the corner of tion in 1966, and the building was subse- land and a two-story building, located at Broadway and Boardman Street features quently used by the Salvation Army as a 42 Elm Street. In 1890 more land was pur- the continuation of community gardens community center. chased and the building increased to three and a new park scheduled for completion stories high. Hazen employed 100 people in summer 2004. The Broadway Baptist Cambridge Brands Inc., located at 810 Main to make a specialty of chocolates, bonbons, Church was once located on the corner of Street, is the only candy manufacturing and caramels. H. F. Sparrow began his Broadway and Boardman Street. The foun- plant remaining in Cambridge. About 200 business in 1887, in a two-story building dation of the church, which was demol- employees, many of whom are Portuguese on Windsor Street, and in 1891 he erected ished in 1972, remains buried under the and Central American immigrants, carry on a factory on the corner of Hampshire and current community gardens. The original continues on next page January 2004 3 Curtis Davis and Company (later Lever Brothers) had its soap factory on the Kimball and Davenport, Cambridgeport, large expanse of land that now includes the Garment District used-clothing store Massachusetts. Original Davenport and Draper Laboratories. One of their products was Welcome brand soap, a Car Works, rear of 579–587 handshake was its trademark. Wagons filled with Welcome soap traveling down Massachusetts Avenue, 1832–1842 Broadway, selling soap to residents, were a common sight in Area 4. The George Photo courtesy of Mrs. H. D.Winslow. Page Box Company is in the background, Hampshire and Broadway Street, 1889. Cambridge Historical Commission Photo courtesy of Curtis Mellen Collection from the Cambridge Historical Commission the candy tradition started by brothers Jim Invention of the Center-Aisle followed suit at Main and Windsor and Robert Welsh in 1925. Cambridge Railroad Car Streets. Brands, a subsidiary of Tootsie Roll Indus- Charles Davenport, working out of a tries, makes Junior Mints; Sugar Daddy, the building on Massachusetts Avenue from By the 1880s, the company had 125 differ- old-fashioned, rectangular caramel pop 1832–1842, where the Cambridge Harvest ent products on the market, and in 1883, wrapped in yellow paper; Sugar Babies, a Co-op Market now stands, developed the Davis began his promotion of Welcome soft caramel; and Charleston Chew, a first center-aisle railroad cars, which were Soap. In 1898 Lever Brothers took over Cur- nougat bar covered with chocolate. Accord- the first modern railway passenger cars. tis Davis and Company, and maintained a ing to the company, Cambridge Brands The building behind 579–587 Massachu- factory there until the 1950s, by which time produces approximately 14 million boxes of setts Avenue contained Davenport’s first it had become one of the largest soap com- Junior Mints and 13 million Charleston railway car assembly line. In 1842 the com- panies in the world. Whenever you use Chew bars daily through a process that is pany moved to Main and Osborn Streets Dove, Caress, Shield, and other Lever almost entirely automated. Halloween where it continued until 1857. Here he Brothers soaps, you are continuing a tradi- accounts for more than one-third of Tootsie added doors and platforms at both ends of tion begun 200 years ago in Area 4. Roll Industries net sales for the year. Did the cars. In 1846 Davenport was one of the someone in your family collect a treat made incorporators of the Grand Junction Rail- The First Telephone Conversation right here in Area 4? road, whose tracks form the eastern edge The first successful telephone conversation of Area 4.