Memories of Nineteenth-Century Cambridge

By Lois Lilley Howe Read January 22, 1952 This article originally appeared in the Cambridge Historical Society Proceedings, Volume 34, pages 59-76 ONE of my earliest recollections — I cannot date it — is that I asked some older member of my family if it was probable that I should be alive when 1900, the new century,…

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Self-Guided Tour: Loyalist Women of Cambridge

By MaryKate Smolenski, Tufts University Intern, June 2020 Download the tour here as a PDF with photos or without photos Funding for this project was made possible through the generosity of the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati For further reading, see: Who were the Loyalist Women of Cambridge? Introductory post and Part 1: Mary Browne…

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An Intrepid Lady of Brattle Street: Sara Chapman Bull

By Ted Hansen Beginning in 1879, until her death in 1911, Sara Chapman Bull lived in Cambridge, first at “Elmwood” (the Oliver-Gerry-Lowell House), and from 1889 until her death at 168 Brattle Street. A number of facts about her should pique our interest: At age 20, she was married in a semi-secret ceremony in Norway…

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A Tribute to Preservationist Roger Webb

We were saddened to learn of the passing of historical preservationist Roger Webb, a good friend and long-time member of the Society. We will truly miss his warmth, enthusiasm, and seemingly endless energy. During the course of his long and storied career, Roger facilitated the preservation of numerous historic buildings throughout Massachusetts and the country.…

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The Old Hooper-Lee House by Thomas Coffin Amory

From the Proceedings, Volume 16, p. 21-25 [The following is taken, by permission, from the little-known article by Thomas Coffin Amory (H. C. 1830) entitled “Old Cambridge and New,” in the Register of the New England Historic-Genealogical Society for July, 1871. It gives an interesting picture of the house some sixty years ago — very…

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The Hooper-Lee-Nichols House by Mary Isabella Gozzaldi

Read April 25, 1922 From the Proceedings, Volume 16, p. 18-20 This house has been sometimes called the oldest house in Cambridge, and its large central stack chimney shows that it belongs to an early period of New England architecture; but it was originally a farmhouse in Watertown, as Sparks street was the westerly limit…

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Living in the Hooper-Lee Nichols House

This August, former HLN House resident Malcolm Fraizer visited us with his daughter, Holly, and his grandchildren, Daniel and Ruth. While I know this building as my office, Malcolm called it home. It was fun for me to hear how the spaces were used back when it was a bustling household. For example, the Bosphorus…

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Andrew Craigie: Mover and Shaker of East Cambridge

by Daphne Abeel Craigie Street, just to the west of Harvard Square, memorializes Andrew Craigie (1754-1819), but his most significant legacy is his development of East Cambridge. He also arranged to move the courthouse and the jail from Harvard Square to East Cambridge. That move, combined with his building of the Canal (or Craigie) Bridge…

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A Reservoir’s Wall on Reservoir Street

By Michael Kenney, 2013 On a summer day, the passerby on Reservoir Street will find an embankment of wildflowers and shrubs filling the slope behind a massive granite retaining wall. That wall, broken at one point by a driveway rising and turning out of sight, is what remains of the reservoir that supplied water to…

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