West Cambridge History Hub

As defined by the City of Cambridge’s Community Development Department, the neighborhood of West Cambridge is bounded on the west by Fresh Pond, on the north by Concord Avenue, on the south by the Charles River and the Mount Auburn and Cambridge Cemeteries, and on the east by John F. Kennedy Street. It is an economically diverse neighborhood, encompassing not only the multi-million dollar mansions on Brattle Street, but also more modest single-family and multi-family homes and apartment buildings. Although the area just west of Harvard Square is arguably best known for its most famous residents, including William Brattle, Andrew Craigie, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, West Cambridge was also home to working-class laborers and immigrant communities, as well as the area known as Lewisville, where free Black Cantabrigians have lived, worked, and supported one another since the late eighteenth century.