Eighty-five Aromatic Years In Harvard Square By Catharine K. Wilder, 1968 A tiny island exists today in Harvard Square about which the poet Robert Hillyer, Harvard ’17, writes: Not all goes up in smoke, here smoke appears To give stability in changing years. Leavitt & Peirce, whose name evokes a host of blue haze memories, has the honor of being … Read More
The Riverside Press by James Duncan Phillips
The Riverside Press By James Duncan Phillips Vice President And Treasurer Of Houghton Mifflin Company Read 27 April, 1926 In Hawthorne’s House of Seven Gables he makes that delightfully simple old character, Uncle Venner, say, “In two or three years longer, I shall think of putting aside business and retiring to my farm. That’s yonder — the great brick … Read More
Café Algiers: A hidden gem with a long history
by Ruth Hobeika After almost five decades in Harvard Square — at 40 Brattle Street, home of the Brattle Theatre — this much beloved international style coffeehouse shuttered on August 31. The final decision was reached August 25 after negotiations between the land-lord, who cancelled the lease, and original owner Emil Durzi fell through. “It was never just about money,” … Read More
Cambridge, A Pioneer Home Of Electronics by Harold B. Richmond
Cambridge, A Pioneer Home Of Electronics By Harold B. Richmond* Read October 28, 1952 As a sort of Christmas present last year, my very good friend and a distinguished citizen of Cambridge, the late Elmer A. Noden, appeared one day in my office to inquire if I would be the next speaker at the Cambridge Club and talk on the … Read More
Early Cambridge Newspapers by George Grier Wright
Early Cambridge Newspapers By George Grier Wright Read January 24, 1928 In the fall of 1839 two school boys, Peter L. Cox, aged fifteen years, and his brother Henry S., aged twelve years, conceived the idea of publishing a weekly paper for Cambridge. These boys belonged to a family of printers. An older brother published a paper in Virginia, … Read More
Boston Woven Hose and Rubber Company: Eighty-Four Years in Cambridge (Part 2) by Alden S. Foss
[Continued from last week] Two Wars And Two Depressions, 1899-1951 There is an artist’s drawing of our plant made about 1915. Actually, it reminds me of the first time I saw Al Jolson. He comes on stage as a chauffeur, long linen duster, linen cap, goggles, and of course black-faced. He starts to talk about the bad roads … Read More
Boston Woven Hose and Rubber Company: Eighty-Four Years in Cambridge (Part 1) by Alden S. Foss
Boston Woven Hose and Rubber Company: Eighty-Four Years in Cambridge By Alden S. Foss The Boston Woven Hose and Rubber Company was founded in 1880. Based on a survey made by the Cambridge Chamber of Commerce, it is the oldest of the dozen largest industrial concerns continuously in business in Cambridge. It is now in its eighty-fourth year. … Read More
The Howl by Richard Griffin
The Howl was born in 1992 from a conversation held in midair over the Atlantic Ocean. My wife, Susan Keane, and I were returning from a vacation, and we were in the mood for a new project, preferably one that would benefit our neighborhood. We finally agreed that some kind of periodical could bring the people of Howland Street closer … Read More
When Sweet Flavors Filled the Air by Michael Kenney
When Orra L. Stone compiled his History of Massachusetts Industry in 1930, he counted no less than 29 candy-manufacturing firms in Cambridge. There were giants like the New England Confectionary Co., whose 1,400 workers produced some 500 varieties of candy, including the iconic NECCO wafers, at its plant on Massachusetts Avenue, and small family-run firms throughout Cambridgeport and East Cambridge. … Read More
Swimming in a Countercultural Sea by Dick Cluster
For much of its brief existence between 1968 and 1970, the 16-page tabloid underground newspaper Old Mole featured a column of short items called Zaps on page 4. Here are two: “PEACE CORPS EXPELS 13 FOR ANTI-WAR ACTIVITY –– a real, live headline from the Washington Star.” “If it isn’t in the New York Times Index, maybe it didn’t happen.” … Read More