Lois Lilley Howe Hub

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As part of our year asking “Who Are Cambridge Women?” meet Lois Lilley Howe. Learn about her life and work.

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Lois Lilley Howe: Pioneer Career Woman, Architect, Cambridge Citizen

By Larry Nathanson This article was originally published as a chapter in Cambridge in the Twentieth Century, edited by Daphne Abeel, Cambridge Historical Society, 2007.  Inspired by Cambridge Historical Society’s 2020 theme—Who are Cambridge Women?—the author has reviewed the manuscript and made a few updates. Introduction Growing up in the house at number three Gray Gardens…

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Growing Up on Observatory Hill

By Rolf Goetze, 2013 As a youngster, I remember tricycling among the trees and bushes at the Harvard Botanical Gardens, off Linnaean Street, before they turned into Harvard apartments. Back then, in the early 1940s, I also recall sledding down Observatory Hill, cluttered by neither trees nor buildings – a site now covered by tennis…

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Cambridge Trees

By Lois Lilley Howe Read January 25, 1950 This article originally appeared in the Cambridge Historical Society Proceedings, Volume 33, pages 94-99 In the records of The Cambridge Plant Club I find that on February 25th, 1901 “Miss Prince of Boston,” no further identified than this, read “an Interesting paper on Trees in our neighborhood.” This was…

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The History of Garden Street

By Lois Lilley Howe Read April 25, 1949 This article originally appeared in the Cambridge Historical Society Proceedings, Volume 33, pages 37-57 WE CANNOT think of Old Garden Street without thinking of the Common which forms one side of it. Yet our thought of the Common is just of a big open space with trees and a…

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Maria Baldwin, 1856-1922: “An Honor and a Glory”

By Daphne Abeel, 2006 Cantabrigian Maria Baldwin, a gifted and imposing African-American educator of the early 20th century, has never lacked recognition. During her lifetime and after her death, she was praised and then remembered. She was exceptional for her era and perhaps for all eras, attracting the attention of the entire community with her…

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The Downside of Progress

By Doug Brown, 2017 Cambridge has made a lot of things over the centuries, not all of them valuable. Our manufacturing history has its dirty, dangerous downside, and dealing with the hazards and by-products of production has always been a challenge in this jam-packed, 7.1-square-mile city. By the end of the 19th century, the technological…

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