From Dave Brigham:
Cambridgeport is bigger in person than it is on a map.
The camera adds 10 pounds to Cambridgeport.
CAUTION: Cambridgeport in the real world is bigger than it appears.
Yes, Cambridgeport, all of those restaurants, sidewalk art pieces, rowhouses, ghost signs, old churches, freight cars and shuttered gay bars DO make your backside look big.
OK, so I'm no stand-up comic. I'm just trying to get across the point that when I first considered exploring Cambridgeport -- located in the southeastern section of this notoriously liberal enclave -- I pictured walking it in a day and writing one post. I should've known better. I used to work in this area, for Chrissakes!
On my initial foray into Cambridgeport, I wrote about buildings owned or leased by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, known around here, and pretty much everywhere, as MIT (see June 17, 2023, "Cambridgeport, Part I: MIT/Biotechs/Nuclear Reactor/and Maybe Death Rays"). That post included plenty of bio-tech and other science-y companies.
Today, I take on things on the south side of Cambridgeport that aren't connected to the egghead university. Things such as a historic park built by soldiers of the Continental Army; the former home of Myerson Tooth Corp.; the workplace of one-time radio sensations Click and Clack; some cool artist homes; some murals and mosaics; a historic church under renovation; a ghost sign; a breakfast joint in business since 1937; and much more!
Let's start in Paradise.
Or rather, outside it. Located at the corner of Albany Street and Massachusetts Avenue, across from MIT's nuclear reactor, this lovely orange-brick building dates to 1910, per the assessor's office. For many years, Paradise was a gay night club, a "porn covered" place, a "fog rolling, liquor slinging dive," according to this Gay Bars in Boston write-up. "They [had] an upstairs bar with go go boys, and a dance floor downstairs," the review continues. I wonder how many out-of-towners over the years confused this place with the Paradise Rock Club near Boston University, and showed up expecting to see an alt-rock or reggae show and found themselves in unfamiliar, but titillating, territory.
Cambridge's Paradise closed on September 15, 2018, its final bash featuring music by Cajjmere Ray, according to something I read online. I believe the space has been incorporated into the neighboring Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research facility.
Less than a mile away, at a mini-rotary where Albany, Erie and Waverly streets come together, is a sign post honoring a local icon from Cambridge's past.
Henry Goldberg Square recognizes the founder of Cambridge Tire, which was located at 290 Albany Street, very close to this sign. The tire company's "roots [went] back to 1914 when the younger [Henry's father] started a scrap tire and battery business in New Jersey," according to this December 30, 1983, Christian Science Monitor article. The company became inactive in 2019, according to a listing at the Open Corporates web site.
Directly behind this sign, you can see part of 40 Erie Street, a large complex of several buildings that is home to companies including Intellia Therapeutics and Neon Therapeutics. And, as you can see in the photo below, this address is also where an outlet of Flour Bakery & Cafe is located.
Founded in 2000 in Boston's South End, Flour has four locations in that city and in Cambridge. As for the building...I haven't been able to find out anything. It looks old, but everything around is new and is listed as having been built within the last 25 years, according to the assessor.
A short jog away, continuing southwest along Waverly Street, is Fort Washington Park.
Squeezed between two large parking lots, Waverly Street and a lightly active set of railroad tracks, the small park "was built by soldiers of the Continental Army under the orders of George Washington in November 1775," according to Wikipedia. "It is the oldest surviving fortification from the American Revolutionary War and the only surviving fortification from the Siege of Boston."
Well, damn, if that doesn't blow your powdered wig off, nothing will.
(Sculpture of Revolutionary War soldiers created by Madeleine Lord.)
"The property was acquired by the City of Cambridge and restored in 1857, at which time three 18-pounder cannons from the old Fort Winthrop, located on Governor's Island, were installed, and an elaborate granite and iron fence was designed by architect John R. Hall to protect the site," Wikipedia indicates.
The park is lined with trees, and offers a nice oasis in a desert of high-tech and institutional buildings, parking lots and ongoing construction.
The railroad right-of-way I mentioned above (and in the first Cambridgeport post) is the Grand Junction Railroad, which connects the former Beacon Park Yard along the Massachusetts Turnpike in Allston to the MBTA's Fitchburg Line commuter rail tracks near North Station. The Grand Junction is "used by the MBTA to transfer southside commuter rail equipment to and from the MBTA Commuter Rail Maintenance Facility, and by Amtrak to transfer Downeaster equipment to and from Southampton Street Yard," according to Wikipedia. "Until 2018, CSX Transportation operated one daily freight to the New England Produce Center and scrap yards in Everett. The Barnum and Bailey Circus train often parked on the Grand Junction while the circus was in Boston."
(Freight cars along the Grand Junction.)
Around the corner from Fort Washington Park, at 625 Putnam Avenue, I spied the amazing work of art below.
"A HOUSE IS MADE OF WALLS AND BEAMS / A HOME IS BUILT WITH LOVE AND DREAMS," is the quote accompanying this fantastic mosaic work on a public housing project known as Putnam Green. The art depicts people of many ethnicities building, playing, riding bikes and spending time together. I haven't been able to figure out who made this mosaic.
At the southern outskirt of Cambridgeport, in the shadow of Memorial Drive as it flies over the traffic circle near the Boston University bridge, I spied a World War II monument.
The carved stone honors the men and women of Cambrideport who served their country "with dedication and devotion" during the battles in Europe and the Pacific.
I know I've made this point before, but the photos below will help prove it: when exploring the backside of America, it's crucial to keep your head on a swivel, and to approach buildings from more than one angle.
I walked past Cambridge Pizzeria on Brookline Street and barely paid attention. Nice little building, I thought. Later in my walk, as I was heading back to my car, I walked past the pizza joint from the east, and that nice little building all of a sudden became an amazing ghost sign!
I can read BORELLI and after that I think it says BROS. I'm not sure if this was a market or just a liquor store, but the retailer offered free delivery of beer and wine. I love stumbling across signs like this, especially ones that are so well preserved.
Prior to walking past the pizza place, I passed a mosaic laid into the sidewalk.
A short walk away from Cambridge Pizzeria, at the perimeter of Old Morse Park, there is display explaining that the work of art I'd just seen is part of the Public Art for Brookline Street Improvement Project. The project consists of several mosaics by artist and teacher Mike Mandel, representing local residents, companies that were once sited in the neighborhood, a former nightclub and more.
"Since the early '90s Mandel's work has worked extensively on public art projects transforming photographic imagery into large scale glass and ceramic tile mosaic murals," according to the second link above. "He has been awarded several NEA grants and a Fullbright Fellowship." He has also published several books.
See more of Mandel's public art projects here.
As for the mosaic shown above, it depicts Geneva Malenfant, a local community activist and former president of the Cambridge Civic Association. Malenfant, who passed away in 2009, was instrumental in realizing the development of the aforementioned Putnam Green affordable housing complex.
As I walked through this part of Cambridgeport, I kept my eyes peeled for more of the mosaics. I found a few others.
"Simplex Wire and Cable Company’s first Cambridge building was built in 1886, and more than a dozen followed before World War I," according to the City of Cambridge web site linked above. "The company was known for its fabrication of steel-wire products, such as bird cages and fire screens. In 1888 the company took over a former bakery at 112 Franklin Street, the first step in an eventual occupation of most of the surrounding blocks. Most of the buildings were razed in the 1970s."
"The Cambridgeport Community Garden, located at the vorner (sic) of Brookline and Emily Street, was started in 1974. At the outset the garden was a vacant lot strewn with trash and garbage. Over the years the community has added a water source, a shed and three composters."
"Bounded by Rockingham, Henry, Chestnut and Brookline Sts. Hastings Square oginated as a gift of land from Edmund Trowbridge Hastings to the City of Cambridge in 1857," per the City web site. "It is listed as part of the National Registory of Historic Places."
Four other mosaics have yet to be installed, one each for businesses New England Carbide, Strafel Shoe and Nabisco, as well as for Man ay, a nightclub known for alternative and goth music. The club was open from 1985 to 2005, when it was demolished in favor of apartments. Recently, the club reopened in a new space in Central Square.
There are three other works that I was unable to find, one each for Clark & Sons, a telescope maker, Morse School and Tom & Joe, the Hughes brothers who lived in Cambrideport. I came across two sections of sidewalk that looked as though they either had held mosaics that were removed, or may one day soon.
Across Allston Street from Old Morse Park is St. Augustine's African Orthodox Church, which is under restoration.
Located at 137 Allston Street, the church "was constructed in 1886 as St. Philip’s, a mission of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Central Square," according to this Final Landmark Designation Study Report from the City of Cambridge. "It was the first church to open in the Pine Grove neighborhood of Cambridgeport and was so popular that it had to be enlarged two years later. The building was sold in 1928 to the trustees of a new denomination, the African Orthodox Church."
"Through various fund-raising efforts and grants, the Church is moving forward with efforts to restore and update the building," the study report continues. "These efforts have been spearheaded by the Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association (CNA) and Black History in Action for Cambridgeport (BHAC). The CNA worked with the church’s trustees to publicize the building’s deteriorating condition and raise funds for the restoration project. The BHAC has taken up stewardship of the building with the goal of preserving the community service legacy of St. Augustine’s with programs focused on Black culture, arts, history, and education for all."
Such great news about a great project.
Parallel to Allston Street heading northeast is Hamilton Street, where I found some cool old buildings, as well as an unusual juxtaposition of architecural styles, the work home of a well-known radio duo and a few other great things.
I dig this eight-unit apartment building, which dates to 1890. The third-floor addition fits in well and the distressed-brick facade gives this updated place a lived-in look. The low industrial building just to the north of this place is home to shared-scooter company Superpedestrian. The 1930 Atlas map indicates that building was once home to Ohio Chemical & Manufacturing Company. Sure, the business name is fairly non-descript, but it leads into a discussion about how this area of Cambridgeport was once home to denture manufacturers and related companies.
Ohio Chemical, you see, manufactured dental equipment and supplies. And the building adjacent, at the corner of Hamilton and Brookline streets, was once home to Ideal Tooth Company, according to the Atlas map.
Built in. 1890, 90 Hamilton Street is still an office building, although I don't know what company is there. Ideal Tooth was founded in 1917 Boston by Dr. Simon Myerson, according to this article at Prosthodontics.org. The company soon moved to Cambridge, presumably this location. The company's first products were improved porcelain artificial teeth and facings, per the article. In 1937, Ideal Tooth developed the first multi-fired porcelain for denture teeth, according to the article.
In 1947, the company changed its name to Myerson Tooth Corporation. And that takes us across the street to 85 Hamilton, which became the new home to Myerson Tooth, lasting into this century. Check out this Flickr photo from 2007. I believe the company moved out of this building in the early '90s.
Now headquartered in Chicago, the company now known as just Myerson manufactures its removable prosthetics in the Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago, according to its web site.
Evidently, Myerson wasn't the only dental company in the area. "Cambridge actually in this little area had a lot of tooth denture manufacturers in this little stretch that was Ideal Tooth and Myerson Tooth," according to James Rafferty, an attorney cited in a document that I will discuss further in a minute. "I often wonder if it had to do with the fact of all these candy factories up the street," he continued. Rafferty was referring to New England Confectionery Company (Necco), Cambridge Brands (a subsidiary of Tootsie Roll Industries), the James O. Welch Company and numerous other candy manufacturers that were located in Cambridge during the 19th and 20th centuries (see January 5, 2019, "There Was No Way-fer Necco to Carry On" and June 8, 2019, "UPDATE: Strolling Among the L7's in Kendall Square", which mentioned Cambridge Brands).
Only Cambridge Brands remains. As for denture makers, I'm not sure if there were others beyond Ideal/Myerson.
As for this building, which was built in 1938, it is now owned by Miltenyi Biotec, Inc., a global firm based in Bergisch Gladbach, Germany. The company, which provides products and services for biomedical research and cellular therapy, has facilities in Charlestown and Waltham, in addition to California, Maryland and more than a dozen countries in Europe and Asia.
In 2012, the company's representatives appeared before Cambridge's Board of Zoning Appeal (scroll down to page 130) seeking the green light to put two additions on the building: a rooftop pavilion for two small dwelling units, and a basement space. As for the apartments, they were planned to accommodate executives visiting Miltenyi. "They're not transient, but they are not -- it's not envisioned that they would be occupied full time," company attorney Rafferty indicated at the time.
The rooftop work, at least, was never done. When I visited this area, there didn't seem to be any occupation, but it seemed to me that some work was being done.
OK, we move from fixing grills on people's faces, to fixing grills on their cars. OK, that was a weak transition....
Located adjacent to the old tooth-making building, to the east, DeLeo's Auto Body has been in business since 1978. The building, which also houses another auto repair shop that is a bit more well-known, dates to 1925.
(I was quite taken by the rainbow of colors presented on City of Cambridge Solid Waste Collection stickers.)
Does the name Good News Garage ring a bell? If not, how about the names Click and Clack?
Click and Clack were brother Ray and Tom Magliozzi of the nationally syndicated National Public Radio "Car Talk" radio show, which ran from 1977 to 2012, and which lives on in web-site form. The brothers dispensed advice to callers with car problems, cracking up each other and their audience as they did so. I listened casually back in the '90s, and always enjoyed it, even though I knew nothing about cars.
Good News Garage is the auto-body shop the brothers founded decades ago. They got their start in the early '70s with a unique concept. "In 1973, Tom and Ray...started a do-it-yourself shop...called Hacker’s Haven," according to the Garage's web site. "These were the days of car DIY so we thought, let’s open a garage where folks could do their own work and we’ll rent them the space and tools. Was it the brilliant million dollar Swiss bank account-worthy idea that we promised our parents it would be? Not so much."
Although Tom died in 2014 at age 77, Ray still owns (and perhaps works at) the garage.
Looking northeast along Hamilton Street, across Brookline Street, I spied an architectural contrast that I needed to document.
The house, which includes a separate structure in the rear, dates to 1902, and contains condominiums. The tower looming in the background is Lyndon Baines Johnson Apartments, an affordable housing complex run by the Cambridge Housing Authority. Built in the early 1970s, it was overhauled about 10 years ago.
The LBJ also towers over 201 Brookline Street, a circa-1920 building that is now condos but started life as a garage.
Continuing northeast on Brookline Street, you'll come to Aetna Corp., with its nice sign and accurate time/temperature reading.
"For more than 90 years, Aetna Corp. has been installing lighting solutions, solving electrical issues, providing maintenance and upgrades and recommending cost-effective technologies to industrial, healthcare, retail, hospitality, educational, restaurant and property management sectors throughout the New England and Mid-Atlantic regions," according to its web site.
Across Aetna's small parking lot is a cool office space (or maybe residence?) that I suspect has an interesting past.
Dated by the assessor's office to 1899, this building shows up on the 1930 Atlas map as an unspecified commercial property. I believe that Single Speed Design may have designed this update, as that's the name that pops up on Google Maps.
Just a short hop away along Brookline Street, between Valentine and Decatur streets, is a former industrial complex that's been turned into apartments.
These buildings were once home to the George Dyer Co., which manufactured pistons and related products. The buildings were renovated in 1998.
Across the street from the northern end of the old Dyer property is the Moses Gulesian Building.
Currently the site of 24M Technologies, this yellow-brick beauty dates to the 1920s, and was used for a long time for car dealerships and repair shops. It sat vacant for many years before being redeveloped for office space.
Across Tudor Street from the Gulesian Building is the EMF Building, which has nothing to do with the British dance/alt rock band, but plenty to do with other bands as well as toys, electrical supplies and more.
"The EMF Building was built in 1920 as a factory for the National Company, a manufacturer of 'mechanical specialties'; initially these were toys and household items but later included mechanical components of radios," according to this 2019 Preliminary Landmark Decision Report about the property from the City of Cambridge. "The company soon focused on production of short-wave radio receivers. National and a related electronics company, Browning-Drake, occupied the Brookline Street factory until the late 1920s, when it was purchased by Devices Corp., a manufacturer of exercise machines that entered bankruptcy in 1934. Later in the decade it was occupied by a manufacturer of oil burners and heating oil tanks."
The report continues: "Abraham 'Uncle Abe' Katz...began EMF in Cambridge in 1928....Katz’s new retail store, EMF Electrical Supplies, expanded into home appliances after WWII...Katz initially used the building as a warehouse, but sales grew and in 1950 he retained Cambridge architect William L. Galvin to design an 8-foot-deep addition with plate glass windows for retail displays."
The black-on-orange signs that decorate the building today are original to the site's use as an EMF store. They obviously have been retouched, but I'm happy they were kept. Happy, however, isn't the word many local musicians would use for those signs or for anything to do with this complex of buildings.
"EMF continued in business until about 2005," the Landmark Decision Report continues. "William Desmond then leased the building from the Katz family for a ten-year period and it began to emerge as a place for art to be made and shared. Eventually, the interior was sectioned off into rooms that could be leased by artists of all sorts. Room rentals ranged between $450 and $650 a month; the cost was shared by sub-lessees, which kept the spaces accessible to emerging artists and musicians."
"The EMF Building offered rare, affordable studio space near Central Square, which has long been a regional art and music hub," the Report continues. "Many aspiring musicians collaborated on song projects, all the while gaining experience and fostering their own creativity and expression....While the EMF primarily housed musicians, visual artists often collaborated and showcased their work both on and inside the building. The spaces inside the storefront became pop-up art galleries."
In addition to musicians and artists, the EMF building housed a live-music venue called the Mix Hut. But all the good times started souring by 2014, I believe. Long story, short: artists petitioned the City of Cambridge for help in buying the building, but the city eventually declined. In 2018, artists and musicians had to clear out and the building was renovated and an addition was put on. In cities like Cambridge and Boston that are experiencing rapid growth in condos, hotels, life-science towers and more, former industrial spaces like the EMF building get snapped up by developers and artists and musicians too often get the boot (see March 19, 2022, "Developer to Give Legendary Jam Space a Hand," about the former Sound Museum in Brighton).
The old EMF building is currently home to Wistia, a video hosting and marketing company.
The mural on the building's north side was painted in 2014 by Caleb Neelon, whose work I have highlighted on the blog in the past.
The low building underneath the mural was built separately from the EMF structure, and was originally erected for the Metropolitan Ice Company.
I am going to skip over perhaps the most well-known Brookline Street address -- the Purple House -- until the end of this post. Near the northern terminus of Brookline Street, just before it hits Massachusetts Avenue, is a restaurant that's been in business since 1937.
Brookline Lunch offers both American and French Gourmet takeout, and serves breakfast and lunch. The two times I walked by here making photos for this blog, there was a line out the door. According to this Off the Beaten Path post, actor Casey Affleck once worked here. The building dates to *cough cough* 1900.
Around the corner from the restaurant, at 205-215 Green Street, is a nice set of brick rowhouses.
The buildings allegedly date to 1900.
I want to highlight a few outliers before wrapping this post up with some cool art-related stuff.
This is 533A Putnam Avenue. I really dig the light-blue design and the number on this building. A Google search didn't bring up too much, other than this address used to be or still is home to Thunder Sky Pictures, which specializes in video production, arts shows, events and artistic services. With canvases visible through the window, this space looks like it was or will be soon an art gallery. The building dates to 1910.
Out of all the buildings in Cambridgeport, from MIT's nuclear reactor to the old garages where death rays may be under construction, from the EMF building to the old tooth-making factory, none intrigues me as much as 162 Sidney Street.
LoopNet says this little building has two floors, each with an open floor plan, but that any tenant must rent the entire building. The Cambridge assessor dates it to 1940, but I'm dubious of that decade. It looks older.
Surrounded by warehouse-sized tech firms, sleek life-science office complexes and new-ish apartment buildings, this squat brick building is like an old man in a rumpled brown suit yakking into a rotary-dial phone while all the half-zip-fleece biotech nerds all around him are goosing up their dating profiles with ChatGPT.
The building is owned by Rotterdam Realty, as are the adjacent buildings. That company was founded in 1945, according to the Better Business Bureau. I haven't been able to find out what company, if any, occupies these buildings. A company called Maark, which I believe is a consultancy of some sort, occupied this building in recent years.
Who built this little place? What early tenants were here? Was it built before 1940? Why is it still standing? I have a lot of questions. I like to imagine that this place was used as a newspaper office at some point, with a fedora-wearing editor chain-smoking and pulling a bottle of whiskey out of his desk drawer more than a few times a day. Anyway....
This Sidney Street mystery is the Cambridgeport analog to Boston's sole surviving West End tenement, which I wrote about in 2014 (see "Last Building Standing").
Less than 500 feet east of this great old building is a cool sculpture spanning the Waverley Path. I'm not sure whether the multi-use path is spelled "Waverley," as is shown in city documents about the project, or "Waverly," as Google Maps has it. The latter would make sense, since there is Waverly Street that practically intersects the path.
However you spell it, the path connects Albany Street, at the point where the roadway intersects with Erie and Waverly streets, with Pacific Street where it meets Purrington Street. The path runs along the former right-of-way of a spur of the Grand Junction railroad, which I referenced above.
The sculpture, called "Quake," was created by DeWitt Godfrey, and installed in 2015. Godfrey's studio is located in Hamilton, New York. I really enjoyed his work called "Lincoln" at the DeCordova Museum in Lincoln, Mass., when I saw it a few years ago.
A short jog away from 162 Sidney Street, which I featured above, is an interesting house where artist Peter DeCamp Haines and poet/artist Sekyo Nam Haines live and, I believe, work.
Built in 1902, this house/studio is nestled into a nicely shaded lot that fits into a corner of a large biotech building that fronts on Sidney Street. I imagine the huge panel of windows above the garage door illuminates a nice studio space.
Finally, another artist's residence/studio/canvas, which is known as the Purple House.
Located at 37 Brookline Street, Peter Valentine's home and constantly evolving work of art is a three-family home built in 1907. "Beloved throughout Cambridge for his bountiful spirit and kindness, Peter literally colored the city's culture for nearly a half-century, not only by maintaining his home as a public art installation, but also by his presence around the city, appearing in homemade patchwork clothes of clashing hues, fabrics and patterns," per his obituary at Legacy.com.
Not only an artist, philosopher and local character, Valentine was a strong-willed opponent of The Man. "Some 30 years ago, when MIT was preparing to build University Park, plans called for demolishing the house Peter was living in," the obituary continues. "Peter refused to leave. He asked university administrators if they would order MIT scientists to abandon their research. His work, he told them, existed within the walls of the house where he had developed an electromagnetic psychic defense system; students included the author William Burroughs. Backed by the tenants' association, a decade later MIT relented, giving Peter the three story house, and moving it a block over."
Fight the power, indeed.
Valentine died last August, at age 80.
Earlier this year, the current owners of the house agreed to sell it to Just A Start, a nonprofit organization that plans to transform the property into a dozen affordable apartments.
Below are three videos: the first one a short documentary about Valentine; the second one comprised of video messages from the local community after Valentine's death; and the third one featuring Valentine explaining to the City Council why Central Square should be renamed Starlight Square.
For more about Cambridgeport-adjacent things, see June 23, 2020, "Walking Through the He(art) of Central Square."
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