The Get-Fresh Flow

From Dave Brigham:

And now for something just a little bit different: photos taken at night last November, after the annual Gathering of the Webnerdz at Summer Shack in Cambridge, Mass.

What? Not familiar with the Gathering of the Webnerdz? Let me explain.

From 1995 to 2001, I worked (initially for stock options that -- spoiler alert! -- turned out to be worthless) for a digital media company that did business under the name Webnoize. Two dozen years after the company went belly up, I still get together at least twice a year with a cohort of former coworkers.

As part of a 2024 feature about Stoneham, Mass., I wrote about the company's former office (see April 6, 2024, "Strolling Through Stoneham"). I also mentioned Webnoize's Cambridge office in a 2023 post (see June 17, 2023, "Cambridgeport, Part I: MIT/Biotechs/Nuclear Reactor/and Maybe Death Rays").

Anywho....

As I'd done once before, after gorging myself with food and beer and plenty of great conversation, I parted ways with my friends and hit the streets of the Fresh Pond neighborhood, camera in hand. I parked at the Fresh Pond Mall, and headed south on New Street, which runs between the shopping complex and Danehy Fields.

I've driven on this street many times over the years, but had no idea of the history of this area. That's why I wander and make photos - so I can research and learn and share.

Alongside several new apartment buildings and a restaurant, there are auto body shops, a public works parking lot and other remnants of older Cambridge. This Cambridge was more polluted and industrial, something that some newer residents might know nothing about.

In 2022, I explored nearby in North Cambridge, and learned about the area's brick-making and chemical maufacturing history (see December 10, 2022, "All About the Alewife Area" and December 3, 2022, "Tip-toeing Through North Cambridge").

Where today stand apartment buildings and life-sciences complexes and athletic fields and much more, there were once industries that polluted the ground and water. While many of those environmental hazards have been cleaned up, the area that I'm covering in this post seems to be in flux.

Located near the southern tip of a long, narrow wedge of land between Apple Cinemas and the eastern shore of Fresh Pond, Black Magic Chimney & Fireplace has been in business since 1978. Less than 1/10th of a mile south is a similar, yet unrelated, business: Adams Fireplace Shop.

"Specializing in antique and reproduction fireplace equipment and antique lighting since 1908," per the company's web site, Adams Fireplace is situated between a Sunoco gas station and an old Cambridge Electric Light Co. property populated with transformers and other serious-looking equipment.

Both of these businesses back up to a long-abandoned rail spur, which was part of the old Watertown Branch of the Boston & Maine Railroad. This spur connected the main tracks, where the Fitchburg commuter train line now runs, to the former Watertown Arsenal (see June 28, 2021, "From Munitions Factory to Suburban Mall and Office Complex...and Beyond").

Much of this old right-of-way has been turned into Watertown-Cambridge Greenway. The section along New Street, running behind these businesses and others, is not part of the bike path.

A few lots north of Black Magic are two relatively new residential complexes: Park77 Apartments and Park87 Apartments.

Here's where things get awful, or should I say, offal.

"From 1901 to 1903, the Cambridge Board of Health operated a smallpox hospital on the site of 75 New Street; few of its patients survived," per a post on the Fresh Pond Residents Alliance web site from July 25, 2014. "The City burned the 'pest houses' after the epidemic.

Wow, I was NOT expecting that!

I wrote about this dread disease, and a pest house in Concord, Mass., many years ago (see January 14, 2020, "Of Pests, Pestilence & Death").

So, what became of this site after the hospital and pest houses were razed? "For more than 30 years, from 1928 to 1962, the City of Cambridge owned the land on New Street that corresponds to today’s parcels at #75 and #87. In 1930 it opened a facility to collect offal (up to 8,000 tons annually according to newspaper reports at the time), which it sold to hog farmers." Offal, per Wikipedia, is the internal organs of a butchered animal.

Alrighty, then!

The Fresh Pond Residents Alliance article linked above includes photos of one of the apartment complexes, as well as other sites along New Street, and historic maps, including one listing a site for the City Offal Dept. In 1946, the City of Cambridge bought those two sites and used them as a landfill.

Alright, I don't want to get too far into the muck. I just wanted to share what I learned about this short old street tucked away in a non-descript neighborhood of Cambridge. This is the kind of crap I love to find out about!

At the intersection of New Street, Concord Avenue and Bay State Road is a commercial building that has been empty for perhaps a few years. It was home for a long time to Sozio Appliances, part of a small chain with stores in Revere and Boston's Dorchester neighborhood.

The business was founded in 1949; I'm not sure when it went out of business. In early 2018, the original store in Revere suffered a major fire, and the owners vowed to rebuild it but I don't think they did.

I used to like driving by this store and checking out the colorful appliances and dinette sets prominently displayed in the second-floor windows.

Here's a photo from the Cambridge Assessor web site showing the appliance store in its heyday.

The assessor's web site says this building dates to 1950.

Across a small rotary -- official name, Brodette Memorial Circle -- is Fresh Pond Gas, which, according to the assessor, dates to 1902!

There is a newer garage adjacent to this office/cashier building, so I assume the building above is the original structure. Or at least part of it is. Very cool.

My final exhibit is just northwest of Adams Fireplace, steps from yet another rotary: Ma Magoo's.

Founded in 1992, this family-owned pizzeria has a "cozy interior...adorned with vintage pizza-themed memorabilia, giving the space a nostalgic charm," per its web site. I haven't found an explanation for the restaurant's goofy name, which of course calls to mind this guy:

Back in the early '90s, I (mis)spent a few nights shooting pool at a place called the Hideaway Pub, which was located in the building tacked on to Ma Magoo's. I was lucky enough to be there one night for a Jagermeister t-shirt promotion....

OK, here's your headline explainer. The relationship between this song -- with it's lyric about "The jigsaw jazz and the get-fresh flow" -- and this neighborhood north of Fresh Pond is weak, sure. But hey, the song rocks.