By Talia Franks The Cambridge Public Schools website lists four early childhood education programs, twelve elementary schools, five upper schools, and three high schools. Each of these schools has its own rich history of how it came to be what and where it is today. Below, we will explore the origins of the names of Cambridge’s twelve elementary schools. The … Read More
From Papists to Patriots: St. Patrick’s Day in Cambridge
By Beth Folsom In the 1840s and 1850s, as a blight on the potato crop left millions of Irish in dire straits, the Cambridge press shared detailed descriptions of their suffering and implored readers to donate to a growing number of relief societies to aid the starving Irish abroad. As the famine reached its peak in the late 1840s, waves … Read More
Call To Artists: Tory Row’s Hidden Black History Project
About the Project History Cambridge intends to install temporary public art on the front lawn of Hooper-Lee-Nichols House (HLN) in the Spring of 2022 to raise awareness of Black history in West Cambridge. All Massachusetts artists are encouraged to apply. Massachusetts was a center of slave trading in New England as early as 1688 when African people were kidnapped by … Read More
A Brief History of “Ten Ten”
By Elizabeth af Jochnick Before Ten Ten was Ten Ten, it was an in-patient infirmary for Harvard students, located next to Mount Auburn Hospital, known as the Stillman Infirmatory. When the University moved its student health facilities to Harvard Square, they put the Infirmary up for sale. Harvard offered to sell the building and the land surrounding it, to the … Read More
Grendel’s Den: 50 years of Stories to Tell
By Daniel Berger-Jones, Company Leader, President, Cambridge Historical Tours, Inc. Grendel’s Den is one of the most iconically Cantabrigian bars there is. Founded in 1971 by Herb and Sue Kuelzer, it’s now on its second generation of family ownership in the hands of their daughter Kari. And at 50 years old, the bar is not only going strong, but has … Read More
Gold Star Memorials in North Cambridge
By Marion Severynse Veterans Day is an appropriate time to pay homage to the role that North Cambridge and its residents have played in the military history of Massachuestts and the United States. There are nine Memorial Pole and Dedication Markers commemorating Gold Star service members in the area bounded by Rindge Avenue, Massachusetts Avenue, and Alewife Brook Parkway. In … Read More
A Lost Park: Longfellow’s Parklands
By Annette LaMond | S.M., MIT Sloan School of Management | Ph.D., Yale University There are various lenses through which to view the history of a city, and the treatment of open space and development of parks may be as revealing as any other. This is particularly true in Cambridge – one of the most densely populated small cities in … Read More
Apply to Become a History Cambridge Fellow
Make history with History Cambridge! We are seeking a storyteller Fellow to help identify, gather, interpret, and amplify the experiences of what it’s like to grow up in our city. Help us share the “Who, What, Where, When, and Why” of Cambridge teens. Who are the people who have influenced you – in your family, your school, your neighborhood? What … Read More
History Hive: Harvard Square Police Kiosks
#HCHistoryHive, we’ve got another mystery for you to solve! This one’s from Pat P. of Naples, FL. Share your memories of this time and place…. “I am writing an essay about a trip to the Boston area in 1963. My buddy and I went there to see a friend who was attending Harvard. When we drove into Harvard Square we … Read More
Cambridge and the Smallpox Epidemic, 1893-1903
By Beth Folsom In our current era of COVID-19, heated discussions of vaccine mandates and the class and racial tensions inherent in these conversations may seem like a contemporary dilema, but an examination of Cambridge at the turn of the 20th century reveals that the city engaged in similar debates around the issue of smallpox vaccination and public accommodation more … Read More