Ash Street Historic District

Last updated

Ash Street Historic District
CambridgeMA AshStreetHD.jpg
Ash Street Place
USA Massachusetts location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Usa edcp location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Location Cambridge, Massachusetts
Coordinates 42°22′59″N71°7′34″W / 42.38306°N 71.12611°W / 42.38306; -71.12611
Built1858
ArchitectJohnson, Philip; et al.
Architectural styleGreek Revival, Italianate, International Style
MPS Cambridge MRA
NRHP reference No. 82001916 [1]
Added to NRHPApril 13, 1982

The Ash Street Historic District Cambridge, Massachusetts is a residential historic district on Ash Street and Ash Street Place between Brattle and Mount Auburn Streets in Cambridge, Massachusetts, off Brattle Street just west of Harvard Square. The district consists of ten well-preserved houses, most of which were built between 1850 and 1890. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. [1]

Contents

Description and history

Ash Street is located on the western edge of Harvard Square, extending south from Brattle Street to Memorial Drive. The Ash Street Historic District is located on the northern half of the road, between Brattle and Mount Auburn Streets, including Ash Street Place, a short stub extending eastward. It directly abuts the Old Cambridge Historic District, which lies to the north. [2]

Properties on Ash Street are densely built on small lots. The district includes five houses on Ash Street, four with Mount Auburn Street addresses (located at the four corners of the junction), and one on Ash Street Place. Eight were built between 1850 and 1890, and are stylistically diverse. The oldest house in the district is the 1828 Henry Nowell House at 19 Ash Street; it was originally located on Brattle Street, and was moved to its present location in 1858. [2]

The oldest house to be built in the district is an 1848 Gothic Revival cottage at 6 Ash Street Place; the only 20th-century building in the district is the 1941 house of architect Philip Johnson at 9 Ash Street. This house was designed and built while Johnson was studying at Harvard, and is one of the city's earliest International Style buildings. [2]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harvard Yard</span> Oldest part of the Harvard University campus

Harvard Yard, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is the oldest part of the Harvard University campus, its historic center and modern crossroads. It contains most of the freshman dormitories, Harvard's most important libraries, Memorial Church, several classroom and departmental buildings, and the offices of senior University officials including the President of Harvard University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mount Auburn Cemetery</span> Historic cemetery in Massachusetts

Mount Auburn Cemetery, located in Cambridge and Watertown, Massachusetts, is the first rural or garden cemetery in the United States. It is the burial site of many prominent Boston Brahmins, and is a National Historic Landmark.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harvard Square</span> Plaza in Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.

Harvard Square is a triangular plaza at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue, Brattle Street and John F. Kennedy Street near the center of Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. The term "Harvard Square" is also used to delineate the business district and Harvard University surrounding that intersection, which is the historic center of Cambridge. Adjacent to Harvard Yard, the historic heart of Harvard University, the Square functions as a commercial center for Harvard students, as well as residents of western Cambridge, the western and northern neighborhoods and the inner suburbs of Boston. The Square is served by Harvard station, a major MBTA Red Line subway and a bus transportation hub.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harvard station</span> Subway station in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US

Harvard station is a rapid transit and bus transfer station in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Located at Harvard Square, it serves the MBTA's Red Line subway system as well as MBTA buses. Harvard averaged 18,528 entries each weekday in FY2019, making it the third-busiest MBTA station after Downtown Crossing and South Station. Five of the fifteen key MBTA bus routes stop at the station.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trolleybuses in Greater Boston</span> Electric powered public transportation

The Boston-area trolleybus system formed part of the public transportation network serving Greater Boston in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. It opened on April 11, 1936, with a large network operating for the next quarter-century. Measured by fleet size, the Boston-area system was the second-largest trolleybus system in the United States at its peak, with only the Chicago system having more trolleybuses than Boston's 463. After 1963, the only remaining portion was a four-route cluster operating from the Harvard bus tunnel at Harvard station, running through Cambridge, Belmont, and Watertown. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority took over the routes in 1964.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mount Auburn Historic District</span> Historic district in Ohio, United States

Mount Auburn Historic District is located in the Mount Auburn neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio. It extends along both sides of Auburn Avenue roughly between Ringold Street and William H. Taft Road. The population of Mount Auburn was 5,094 at the 2020 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Margaret Fuller House</span> Historic house in Massachusetts, United States

The Margaret Fuller House was the birthplace and childhood home of American transcendentalist Margaret Fuller (1810–1850). It is located at 71 Cherry Street, in the Old Cambridgeport Historic District area of Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the neighborhood now called "The Port". The house is now a National Historic Landmark.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Main Street Historic District (Auburn, Maine)</span> Historic district in Maine, United States

The Main Street Historic District is a small residential historic district south of the downtown area of Auburn, Maine. The fourteen houses in the district represent a cross-section of residential development during Auburn's growth between about 1825 and 1925. The district extends along Main Street, from Drummond Street south just past Elm Street, and includes a few houses on Elm and Vine Streets. The district was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">First Baptist Church (Boston, Massachusetts)</span> Historic church in Massachusetts, United States

The First Baptist Church is a historic American Baptist Churches USA congregation, established in 1665. It is one of the oldest Baptist churches in the United States. It first met secretly in members homes, and the doors of the first church were nailed shut by a decree from the Puritans in March 1680. The church was forced to move to Noddle's Island. The church was forced to be disguised as a tavern and members traveled by water to worship. Rev. Dr. Stillman led the church in the North End for over 40 years, from 1764 to 1807. The church moved to Beacon Hill in 1854, where it was the tallest steeple in the city. After a slow demise under Rev. Dr. Rollin Heber Neale, the church briefly joined with the Shawmut Ave. Church, and the Warren Avenue Tabernacle, and merged and bought the current church in 1881, for $100,000.00. Since 1882 it has been located at the corner of Commonwealth Avenue and Clarendon Street in the Back Bay. The interior is currently a pending Boston Landmark through the Boston Landmarks Commission.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cambridge Common Historic District</span> Historic district in Massachusetts, United States

The Cambridge Common Historic District is a historic district encompassing one of the oldest parts of Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is centered on the Cambridge Common, which was a center of civic activity in Cambridge after its founding in 1631. It was the site of the election for governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1636, and was a military barracks site during the American Revolutionary War. The common was gradually reduced in size to its present roughly triangular shape, and surrounded by buildings in the 18th and 19th centuries. In 1973 a historic district encompassing the extant common and everything within 100 feet (30 m) of it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1987 the district was amended to rationalize the boundary, which overlapped adjacent districts and included portions of some buildings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brattle Hall</span> United States historic place

Brattle Hall is a historic building along Brattle Street near Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was constructed in 1889 for the Cambridge Social Union – established in 1871 – when that organization moved into the adjacent William Brattle House that year. Brattle Hall was built to house the organization's library, and to provide a space for larger meetings and social functions. Brattle Hall was designed by Longfellow, Alden & Harlow, originally in the Dutch Colonial Revival style, but it acquired more of a Colonial Revival feel with the 1907 addition of brick ends, designed by Charles Cogswell.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Brattle House</span> Historic house in Massachusetts, United States

The William Brattle House is an historic house in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is one of the seven Colonial mansions described by historian Samuel Atkins Eliot as making up Tory Row, housing several prominent figures in early colonial history. It remains in use by the Cambridge Center for Adult Education.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Craigie Arms</span> Historic residential building in Massachusetts, United States

Craigie Arms is a historic apartment house in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Located in Harvard Square, the Georgian Revival four-story brick building was built in 1897 to meet local demand for apartment-style housing. The building occupies most of a city block along University Road, Mount Auburn Street, and Bennett Street. It is notable for its relatively modest decoration and the rounded corner projections.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Building at 259 Mount Auburn Street</span> Historic house in Massachusetts, United States

259 Mount Auburn Street is a small historic house built in the Italianate style of architecture located in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Lowell</span> Historic house in Massachusetts, United States

The Lowell is an historic triple decker apartment house on 33 Lexington Avenue in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Built in 1900 to a design by local architect John Hasty, it is a rare multiunit building in the Brattle Street area outside Harvard Square. The Colonial Revival building has a swan's neck pediment above the center entry, which is echoed above the central second story windows. Doric pilasters separate the bays of the front facade, and the building distinctively has side porches, giving it added horizontal massing. It was built before the decision was made to locate the electrified trolleys on Mount Auburn Street instead of Brattle, a decision that reduced interest in building more multiunit housing in that area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Old Cambridge Historic District</span> Historic district in Massachusetts, United States

The Old Cambridge Historic District is a historic district encompassing a residential neighborhood of Cambridge, Massachusetts that dates to colonial times. It is located just west of Harvard Square, and includes all of the properties on Brattle Street west of Mason Street to Fresh Pond Parkway, all of the properties on Mason Street and Elmwood Avenue, and nearby properties on Craigie Street. The district includes five National Historic Landmarks: Elmwood, the Reginald A. Daly House, the Oliver Hastings House, the Mary Fiske Stoughton House, and the Longfellow House–Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site, as well as several other houses listed separately on the National Register. The district follows the general route of the Watertown Path, an early colonial road that supposedly followed a Native American trail. This portion of the way became known as Tory Row during the American Revolution, because many of the fine mansions lining it were owned by Loyalists. In the 19th and early 20th centuries it continued by a fashionable location, and now features a number of architecturally significant buildings. It includes 215 contributing buildings and one other contributing sites over an area of 52 acres (21 ha). One included building is the Cambridge Historical Society's offices, which are in the NRHP-listed Hooper-Lee Nichols House, located at 159 Brattle Street.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dexter Pratt House</span> Historic house in Massachusetts, United States

The Dexter Pratt House is an historic house in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is remembered as the home of Dexter Pratt, the blacksmith who inspired the poem "The Village Blacksmith" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reversible Collar Company Building</span> United States historic place

The Reversible Collar Company Building is a historic factory building at 25–27 Mt. Auburn & 10–14 Arrow Streets in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The building has a complex construction history, consisting of several buildings constructed separately between 1862 and 1907, and gradually combined into a single structure. The oldest portions were built by Allen and Farnham, a printing business. The property was sold to the Reversible Collar Company in 1867, which expanded the facility. The company at first manufactured paper shirt collars, but later also produced paper and paper-fabric combinations for use in products like wall charts and maps. The buildings on the site were sold to the Boston Bookbinding Company in 1897. In the late-1960s the building was converted to office and commercial space.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Salem–Auburn Streets Historic District</span> Historic district in Massachusetts, United States

The Salem–Auburn Streets Historic District is a residential historic district at Salem and Auburn Streets in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The district includes a collection of houses that is among the oldest in the Cambridgeport section of the city, and includes most of the houses on two blocks of these streets. The district was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brattle Street (Cambridge, Massachusetts)</span> Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US

Brattle Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts, called the "King's Highway" or "Tory Row" before the American Revolutionary War, is the site of many buildings of historical interest, including the modernist glass-and-concrete building that housed the Design Research store, and a Georgian mansion where George Washington and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow both lived, as well as John Vassall and his seven slaves including Darby Vassall. Samuel Atkins Eliot, writing in 1913 about the seven Colonial mansions of Brattle Street's "Tory Row," called the area "not only one of the most beautiful but also one of the most historic streets in America." "As a fashionable address it is doubtful if any other residential street in this country has enjoyed such long and uninterrupted prestige."

References

  1. 1 2 "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
  2. 1 2 3 "MACRIS inventory record and NRHP nomination for Ash Street Historic District". Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Retrieved March 5, 2014.