East Cambridge-ish Randoms

From Dave Brigham:

Not all who wander are lost.*

But they do sometimes have a hard time figuring out just exactly where they are. Boundary lines don't matter in the backside of America, although I usually like to know what town or neighborhood I'm in. I recently wandered around East Cambridge, Mass., and crossed over for a little while into the southwestern quadrant of Somerville. Here's what I found.

Built in 1902, this oddball building at 686 Cambridge Street is listed by Cambridge's assessing department as mixed-use. Zillow lists this place as a two-bed, one-and-a-half bath single-family home. Whatever it is, I'd love to know the history of this place, as I imagine being sited next to a set of train tracks, this building must have served some interesting purposes over the past 117 years.

The adjacent Grand Junction Railroad is part of the line that connects east-west Amtrak/MBTA commuter train service near the Massachusetts Turnpike in Boston's Allston neighborhood, with north-south Amtrak/commuter lines that run out of Boston's North Station. The tracks are mainly used to shuttle trains, although there has been talk of running passenger trains along here. There is also a project afoot to site a walking/biking path along the tracks from the Boston University Bridge over the Charles River to Somerville.

Closed since 2013, Joey Mac's was "A proper dive bar, not overtaken by hipsters," per Sean O's eulogy on Yelp. "It was possible to feel intimidated in there." Built in 1932, this place has an apartment on the second floor. Not sure what's to become of the former dive bar space.

Just a pie tin's throw down Warren Street I found this odd-looking residence.

Look closely above the garage doors. The stone plaque reads: WARREN BAKING CO 1920-1933. Here's the story, from a Cambridge Historical Commission's Instagram write-up: "Calogero Giacchetto, an Italian immigrant, founded the Warren Baking Corp. in Cambridge around 1920. It is likely Giacchetto named the company after the street, which was dubbed in 1867. The entire bakery complex consisted of a house and storefront at 32, small brick building at 34, and industrial bakery at 36-38 Warren. Giacchetto lived with his family at 34 Warren until his death in 1958 at age 67. Warren Baking Corp published a petition in the Cambridge Chronicle on 28 March 1957 to register and conform its title to land that had been previously occupied by the Lechmere Theatre and Rydberg Bakery on Cambridge Street. It is possible that the company had plans to expand before Mr. Giacchetto's death, but these plans were never seen through. Warren Baking stayed in operation until the late 1970s. The company owned the land and remaining buildings until at least 1977, when the business was assessed for unpaid taxes at 581-591 Cambridge St. The Pavilion condominiums were built at this location between 1986 and 1988."

A short roll of a beer bottle takes you to 43 Warren Street, home to the Warren Pals Social Club, located in a building that dates to 1929.

As regular readers know, I have a bit of a thing for social clubs, especially ones that tout the members' ethnic background or military affiliation. The Warren Pals Club is one of the least-friendly looking joints I've seen. I'm guessing it's just a neighborhood club. I imagine the beer is cheap, the music corny and the talk more than occasionally dirty.

Within the next 25 feet or so I crossed the line into Somerville, just short of Medford Street. There, I saw this brick behemoth.

This is the former home of North Packing & Provision Company. Established in 1855 and incorporated in 1890, North Packing slaughtered and processed cattle and shipped beef products out by rail. The company also marketed by-products such as soap, margarine and lard, per this Somerville Times article.

These days, the former slaughterhouse complex's tenants include Prime Storage and Earthworm recyclers.

Continuing along the fringes of Somerville, I came across the home of Somerville Brewing.

Brewers of the Slum Brew ales, Somerville Brewing is located on Ward Street in a former warehouse that I know nothing about. The company filed for bankruptcy in late September, but is continuing operations until at least early November while a judge considers the company's financial position.

Around the corner, on South Street, I found Golden Cannoli Shells. Or Union Square Donuts.

The cannoli maker vacated this site in recent years, moving to a 30,000 square foot manufacturing facility in Chelsea, Mass. Founded in 1970, Golden Cannoli Shells holds the Guinness World Record for the largest cannolo (singular of cannoli). As for Union Square Donuts, the company moved into this production location...at some point. Does it really matter? I hope they've put up a better sign since I took this photo.

From the donut/cannoli plant I trekked on along South Street to an area with a dizzying variety of businesses and residences. Hemmed in by the Roosevelt Towers housing complex, the Jamspot music rehearsal facility, a construction storage lot, a screen printing business, Taza chocolate and Nissenbaum's junkyard (see April 7, 2016, "Sweet and Junky") is the South Street urban farm. And parked in front of the farm on the day I was strolling around was this little whip.

This is a Fiat Panda, with some sort of European license plate. So there.

Here's a shot of a Nissenbaum's sign.

Somerville is known for its bathtub Marys and Jesi (is that the plural of Jesus?). Back over the line in Cambridge -- getting away from East Cambridge and closer to Inman Square -- I found a bathtub angel.

A short distance away I saw a wonderful brick church with an impressive frieze over the entryway.

Only it's not a church anymore. The former Immaculate Conception Church was redeveloped by Just A Start Corporation in 2012, with funding provided by the City of Cambridge and the Cambridge Affordable Housing Trust. The property was sold off by the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston in 2007 but the redevelopment took five years to see completion because of a nasty fight with neighbors over the use of the building.

The development is known as the Windsor Street Condominiums, and features 14 mixed-income units. The church was dedicated in 1913 for a local Lithuanian community, per the Boston & Beyond web site.

Next door to the church is an apartment building that's a little rough looking. Can you guess what this place used to be?

If you guessed "a funeral home," give yourself a pat on the backside.

If I had to hazard a guess about the building below, which is on the other side of the former funeral home, I'd say, "cemetery memorial" vendor. Just has that look.

OK, that's it for this trek. I have another East Cambridge post coming up in the near future, as well as an installment about Inman Square.

*I've heard this saying for years but had no idea until I typed it up there that it's a line from a poem that J.R.R. Tolkien wrote for The Lord of the Rings.