[OSMH] Victorian Brattle Street
Jan. 19th, 2007 02:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidYesterday I went to another of the Middays at the Meeting House. This month's theme continues to be Victorian Boston*, with a talk by historian Charles Bahne. The topic was "A Victorian Boulevard Preserved: Cambridge's Brattle Street." I remembered my crocheting this time, but forgot a pen(cil), so I took no notes.
Bahne pointed out the advantage to a virtual tour over a walking tour: he could talk about things in historical order, rather than geographic. Since he had lots of illustrative slides, this worked very well. I don't remember all of the stories at all (and will include no architectural notes about the distinction of the dwellings); these are just the ones that stuck with me since yesterday.
Brattle Street housed seven Tory families before the Revolution. They fled to Boston when the fighting started, and their houses were taken over to serve the Cause of Liberty. Some were sold, others housed troops or held prisoners. Longfellow House became General Washington's headquarters.
Years later, that yellow house was owned by the Widow Craigie, who'd been left in straightened circumstances after the death of her husband, because the land he owned wasn't enough income (somehow). So she rented rooms. Longfellow heard of this when he came to teach, and he asked to rent a room. She only let him after she ascertained he was not a student. He lived there for a while, and at some point fell in love with the daughter of the richest man in Boston (blanking on his name). The widow died around the time of Longfellow's marriage, so the father-in-law bought the house for him. He lived there until he died. After his death, two of his daughters built houses next along the street, with a son on the other side (very clannish :-).
The street is named for one of the Brattle family. Originally there was a Brattle Street (and Square) in Boston, under what is now City Hall Plaza. The Brattles were ecclesiastics in the church nearby. The third generation moved to Cambridge and built the house that is now Cambridge Adult Ed. He was a churchman too, and a Tory: he fled to Canada when the Revolution came. His son, however, was a patriot, though living in England, and he worked for freedom from there. So when he petitioned to get the house back, it was granted, and the street was named after him too.
A lawyer from Boston moved to Cambridge (last name something like Hubbard, but I'm not sure what). He wanted a better way to get to his offices in Boston, and first started a railway from what's now Harvard Law School to the North Station area. That didn't pay for itself, and he later started a horse trolley line running from Mount Auburn Cemetery to downtown Boston, conveniently running past his house on Brattle Street. However, when electric trolleys started running, the residents of the street banded together to keep these noisy innovations from their street. So the lines went to Mount Auburn and Huron instead, and that likely kept Brattle from much development that would have had the houses replaced with something else. It didn't hurt that when someone was selling, if the neighbors were concerned it would be bought by someone who'd tear it down, they'd band together and buy it until a suitable friend or acquaintance could be found to purchase.
Another man I've forgotten the name of who lived on Brattle financed the factories in Central Square, on Green Street (huge buildings!) that were the first steam-operated bakery factory, which included (among many other local geographically based names of less-popular cookies and crackers) Fig Newtons.
A chemistry professor Hubbard (this must be the one I was thinking of above) lived on Brattle who had a deaf daughter. She ended up having lessons with, falling in love with, and marrying Alexander Graham Bell, who got much funding from his father-in-law.
There were other stories too, but I haven't kept them. They'll be in the podcast, of course.
* I could get used to all this Capitalization in the Middle of a Sentence. It makes me feel Pooh-ish. **
** Hm. Time for a Little Something, perhaps some Honey.
Bahne pointed out the advantage to a virtual tour over a walking tour: he could talk about things in historical order, rather than geographic. Since he had lots of illustrative slides, this worked very well. I don't remember all of the stories at all (and will include no architectural notes about the distinction of the dwellings); these are just the ones that stuck with me since yesterday.
Brattle Street housed seven Tory families before the Revolution. They fled to Boston when the fighting started, and their houses were taken over to serve the Cause of Liberty. Some were sold, others housed troops or held prisoners. Longfellow House became General Washington's headquarters.
Years later, that yellow house was owned by the Widow Craigie, who'd been left in straightened circumstances after the death of her husband, because the land he owned wasn't enough income (somehow). So she rented rooms. Longfellow heard of this when he came to teach, and he asked to rent a room. She only let him after she ascertained he was not a student. He lived there for a while, and at some point fell in love with the daughter of the richest man in Boston (blanking on his name). The widow died around the time of Longfellow's marriage, so the father-in-law bought the house for him. He lived there until he died. After his death, two of his daughters built houses next along the street, with a son on the other side (very clannish :-).
The street is named for one of the Brattle family. Originally there was a Brattle Street (and Square) in Boston, under what is now City Hall Plaza. The Brattles were ecclesiastics in the church nearby. The third generation moved to Cambridge and built the house that is now Cambridge Adult Ed. He was a churchman too, and a Tory: he fled to Canada when the Revolution came. His son, however, was a patriot, though living in England, and he worked for freedom from there. So when he petitioned to get the house back, it was granted, and the street was named after him too.
A lawyer from Boston moved to Cambridge (last name something like Hubbard, but I'm not sure what). He wanted a better way to get to his offices in Boston, and first started a railway from what's now Harvard Law School to the North Station area. That didn't pay for itself, and he later started a horse trolley line running from Mount Auburn Cemetery to downtown Boston, conveniently running past his house on Brattle Street. However, when electric trolleys started running, the residents of the street banded together to keep these noisy innovations from their street. So the lines went to Mount Auburn and Huron instead, and that likely kept Brattle from much development that would have had the houses replaced with something else. It didn't hurt that when someone was selling, if the neighbors were concerned it would be bought by someone who'd tear it down, they'd band together and buy it until a suitable friend or acquaintance could be found to purchase.
Another man I've forgotten the name of who lived on Brattle financed the factories in Central Square, on Green Street (huge buildings!) that were the first steam-operated bakery factory, which included (among many other local geographically based names of less-popular cookies and crackers) Fig Newtons.
A chemistry professor Hubbard (this must be the one I was thinking of above) lived on Brattle who had a deaf daughter. She ended up having lessons with, falling in love with, and marrying Alexander Graham Bell, who got much funding from his father-in-law.
There were other stories too, but I haven't kept them. They'll be in the podcast, of course.
* I could get used to all this Capitalization in the Middle of a Sentence. It makes me feel Pooh-ish. **
** Hm. Time for a Little Something, perhaps some Honey.