East Cambridge Ethnic Heritage Center
By Beth Folsom, 2025
The Cambridge Public Library announced in the summer of 1979 that it had received a $36,500 grant under the Library Services and Construction Act to create an Ethnic Heritage Center at the East Cambridge Branch Library. According to the Cambridge Chronicle, the goal of the center was “to provide resource materials in a neighborhood location through which students and adults may be encouraged to investigate and benefit from the variety of experience and accomplishment which resides in their ethnic heritage.” The original plan called for two centers – one at the East Cambridge Branch for Italian, Lithuanian, Polish, Portuguese and Irish materials, and the other at the Central Square Branch for Spanish, Haitian and Greek materials. A decision was made later to consolidate into just the East Cambridge Branch.
Included in the Ethnic Heritage Center were books, periodicals, films, music and other materials related to the diverse array of nationalities in Cambridge, and its location in East Cambridge was a nod to the rich immigrant communities that called that neighborhood home. Designed to bring experiences to the Cambridge public that had previously been available only in university or special collections library settings, the center was meant to be a place where those from a particular ethnic group could see their culture celebrated and where residents could learn about the many ethnic groups living alongside them with whose cultures they were not yet familiar. Over the course of the 1980s, when the center was active, their collections expanded to include other groups such as the neighborhood’s Jewish and Asian communities.
The center collaborated not only with the city but also with the many religious groups, cultural societies and clubs in the area to create programs on the art, music, food, clothing, music and histories of their communities. There were classes in Polish egg painting, Italian opera and Haitian cooking. Some of the events sought to celebrate both unity and diversity, such as a harvest festival where residents from varied ethnic backgrounds were invited to share food and traditions from their culture around the theme of the harvest. Most programs were by and for the people of Cambridge, but visiting representatives from various countries would speak or perform at the center, tying the cultures of these immigrant communities together with the current events and cultural practices of their homelands. This proved particularly significant during times of turmoil abroad, when events in other areas of the world were bringing new groups of immigrants to the city, enriching its cultural life and, at times, causing friction.
By the 1990s, funding for the Ethnic Heritage Center had dried up and the East Cambridge Branch Library had gone back to its previous name, the O’Connell Branch, named for former Boston archbishop cardinal William Henry O’Connell. Many of the materials from the center remained in the library’s collections, however, and the Cambridge Public Library is still a model for other libraries seeking to collect and share materials from a wide variety of cultures.
Were you a Cambridge resident during the 1980s? Do you remember visiting the Ethnic Heritage Center to check out a book or to attend a program? History Cambridge is curious to hear your experiences with the center and the role it played in your community. Was your ethnic heritage included, or were there groups or aspects of multiculturalism you would have liked to see there? Share your stories of the library, the community and the center with us here.
This article first appeared in Cambridge Day.
