West Cambridge History Hub
2026 is our year of West Cambridge! Check out our upcoming events
A Brief History of West Cambridge
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.
History Cambridge Articles
- Three Distinct and Separate Communities: The Old Cambridge Secession Attempts of 1842–44, By Edward Rodley, 2018
- A Lost Park: Longfellow’s Parklands, By Annette LaMond
- West Cambridge’s Lewisville Neighborhood Highlights Resilience of the Black Community, By Beth Folsom, 2026
- Brief History of the Hooper-Lee-Nichols House and Enslaved People, 2019
- Lois Lilley Howe: Pioneer Career Woman, Architect, Cambridge Citizen, By Larry Nathanson
- Cambridge Through the Pages, By Lucy Caplan, 2013
- This carved 1746 corner cupboard has seen a lot, from an enslaver’s ceramics to British prisoners, By Caleigh Lyons, 2023
- The History of Garden Street, By Lois Lilley Howe, 1949
- “Love Letter to Lowell School” is a Valentine to Culture and Community, By Beth Folsom, 2026
- Cambridge’s Caribbean connection runs deep, By Marni Zea Clippinger, 2022
- The Window Shop, Compiled by Deb Mandel, 2022
- Gerry’s Landing And Its Neighborhood By Mrs. S. M. Gozzaldi, 1918
- Printing In Cambridge Since 1800 by Norman Hill White, Jr., 1920
- The Huron Avenue Area: Development of a Streetcar Suburb By Charles M. Sullivan, 2007
- An Intrepid Lady of Brattle Street: Sara Chapman Bull By Ted Hansen
- Memories of the Huron Village By Susan S. Poverman, April 2007
Self-Guided Tours
- Self-Guided Tour: The Work of Revolution in Cambridge
- Self-Guided Tour: Huron Village’s Modern Houses
- Self-Guided Tour: Cambridge and the American Revolution
- Self-Guided Tour: Stories from the Early African American Community of Old Cambridge
- Self-Guided Tour: Loyalist Women of Cambridge
West Cambridge-Based Partner Organizations
- Longfellow House-Washington’s Headquarters National Historic Site
- Cambridge Plant & Garden Club
- New School of Music
- Mount Auburn Cemetery
- Harvard Square Business Association
This Hub is under construction! If you have an addition, please send it to us.
Do you have any questions about West Cambridge? Send us a note at info@historycambridge.org