Boston Flora

Tag: Massachusetts Bay Colony

  • Wednesday, May 10, 7:00 pm – Building Old Cambridge

    Old Cambridge is the traditional name of the once-isolated community that grew up around the early settlement of Newtowne, which served briefly as the capital of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and then became the site of Harvard College. This abundantly illustrated volume from the Cambridge Historical Commission traces the development of the neighborhood as it became a suburban community and bustling intersection of town and gown. Based on the city’s comprehensive architectural inventory and drawing extensively on primary sources, Building Old Cambridge considers how the social, economic, and political history of Old Cambridge influenced its architecture and urban development.

    Old Cambridge was famously home to such figures as the proscribed Tories William Brattle and John Vassall; authors Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and William Dean Howells; publishers Charles C. Little, James Brown, and Henry O. Houghton; developer Gardiner Greene Hubbard, a founder of Bell Telephone; and Charles Eliot, the landscape architect. Throughout its history, Old Cambridge property owners have engaged some of the country’s most talented architects, including Peter Harrison, H. H. Richardson, Eleanor Raymond, Carl Koch, and Benjamin Thompson.

    The authors, Susan Maycock and her husband Charles Sullivan, explore Old Cambridge’s architecture and development in the context of its social and economic history; the development of Harvard Square as a commercial center and regional mass transit hub; the creation of parks and open spaces designed by Charles Eliot and the Olmsted Brothers; and the formation of a thriving nineteenth-century community of booksellers, authors, printers, and publishers that made Cambridge a national center of the book industry. Finally, they examine Harvard’s relationship with Cambridge and the community’s often impassioned response to the expansive policies of successive Harvard administrations.

    Susan and Charles will speak at Porter Square Books on Wednesday, May 10 beginning at 7 pm. For more information visit www.portersquarebooks.com.

  • Monday, April 23, 6:30 pm – History & Development of Allston Brighton

    Anthony Sammarco, noted author of more than sixty books on Boston and surrounding cities and towns, will outline in an illustrated slide lecture the history of this dynamic and ever evolving neighborhood of Boston. The presentation will take place at the Brighton Branch of the Boston Public Library, 40 Academy Hill Road in Brighton. Free admission.

    Originally known as Little Cambridge, Allston-Brighton remained largely a rural farming area for almost two centuries after the Massachusetts Bay Colony was settled in 1630 by the Puritans. Agitation in the early nineteenth century led to the creation of the Town of Brighton. Throughout the 19th century, Brighton thrived with not only the stock yards where cattle was king, but also numerous nurseries, among them that of Joseph Breck, founder of the Breck Seed Company. That evening, Amy Ryan, president of the Boston Public Library, will announce the Bonifazio and Angela Cocuzzo Cedrone Fund, which Mr. Sammarco created to honor longtime Brighton residents and the late parents of his partner Joe Cedrone. The Cedrone Fund will benefit the Brighton Branch, Boston Public Library.