Posts Tagged ‘immigration’
May 8: Only a Common Piece of Clay: Exploring the Legacy of the Brickmaking Industry in North Cambridge
Just how big of a role did brick play in the history of North Cambridge? Join Cambridge resident Josie Kuchta for an exploration of the topic. As a recent Wellesley College graduate, Josie has explored architecture through an interdisciplinary lens, critically examining the cultural and environmental context of the built world. In her senior honors…
Read MoreCelebrations of Washington’s Birthday reflect tangled legacies of immigration, integration
Honoring Washington as a beloved president came to include minstrel shows in the early 1900s. That these performances were by prisoners in prisons playing the role of Washington’s enslaved people adds yet another layer of complexity.
Read MoreNorth Cambridge History Hub
North Cambridge History Hub
Read MoreGrowing up in Cambridgeport was unforgettable for Louis Fenerlis, the child of Greek immigrants
Louis Fenerlis, of Louie’s Haircuts in Boston, considers himself to be a proud product of Cambridgeport. When his family moved during during his first year in high school, he says he never adjusted to the new town.
Read MoreIndia Pavilion
Compiled by Deb Mandel, 2022 Years 1979 – present Location 17 Central Square, Western Ave. Website: https://indiapavilion.com/ History Indian food in New England was born here. In 1979, Mohan Singh bought a Central Square pizza house and turned it into an Indian restaurant – something not found anywhere else in Boston at the time. Not…
Read MoreCulinary History Hub
Culinary History of Cambridge By Rain Robertson, and revised by Deb Mandel, 2022 Cambridge holds a rich and distinctive culinary history. It gave America ice, the Porterhouse steak, Peking ravioli, its first star chef in Julia Child, and a hankering for Indian food. This is a survey of 20th century markets, delis, cafeterias, and local…
Read MoreChanging Tides in Cambridge Industry
By the early 20th century, Cambridge was an industrial center with a broad array of factories. People from all over the country and the world came to work here. Why?
Read MoreA century ago, the Fourth of July was a chance to meld old and new traditions
In the early 20th century, the Fourth of July offered concerts, lectures, parades and sporting events to residents of Cambridge and many cities around the country. Whether celebrating in their own neighborhoods with luncheons hosted by local civic or religious groups, playing in or watching a pickup baseball game or track race, or watching the fireworks from the banks of the Charles, Cantabrigians had plenty of options for marking the nation’s birthday. But during the decade between 1910 and 1920, events around the world and across the nation made their way into the city’s Independence Day celebrations, demonstrating how the meaning of the holiday had grown and changed. The holiday is still evolving a century later.
Read MoreS&S Restaurant is still serving up the comfort after more than a century in Inman Square
by Deb Mandel, 2022 In the decade preceding Cambridge Electric Light’s illumination of Cambridge Street, when trolley tracks ran from Inman to Porter Square, a little delicatessen began welcoming hungry patrons. From its opening in November 1919, Rebecca “Ma” Edelstein greeted guests with “es and es,” Yiddish for “eat and eat” – the phrase that lent the…
Read MoreCambridge and the Smallpox Epidemic, 1893-1903
By Beth Folsom, 2021 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…
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