Cambridge Style, or Every Possible Type of Housing

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ritchiew

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I don't really know where to to post this, so move it if there's a better spot, but I wanted to share some pictures.

Lately, I've gotten interested in the architecture of Cambridge. More specifically, Cambridgeport. Even more specifically, this narrow strip between Magazine and Pearl Streets. Because lots of neighborhoods in the Boston area ended up with some dominant form of housing, like apartment buildings, or row homes, or three-deckers, or single family detached housing. But between Magazine and Pearl Streets, nothing dominates. It has absolutely everything. It has the most varied type of housing of any neighborhood I can think of, all packed together.

It's interesting for a few reasons. First, it's just pretty. Also, you can really see every stage of the development of the neighborhood. And also also, when it seems like every new housing unit is SFH or a 5-over-1, it's cool to see the incredible variety of housing that got built before zoning restriction and building codes.

Anyways, here are the pictures, which I'll have to put over a few posts.

Apartments next to smaller homes
First, these pairs of pictures show buildings that are immediately next to each other -- big, brick apartment building adjacent to a much smaller wooden house or duplex
1717179340397.jpeg


1717179370788.jpeg


Single Family Homes
The neighborhood still has lots of single family homes. At least, that's how they were built. Some are still single family, but many have been split into apartments (which used to be legal). And they're of all kinds of architectural styles. I'll call the first two here "extremely Victorian."
1717179761262.jpeg


Row Houses
Of various materials and styles
1717179919529.jpeg


And increasingly large apartment buildings and towers
1717179998723.jpeg


And all of this is just scratching the surface. Because all the pictures in this post so are are from just ~1/4 mile stretch of Magazine Street.
 
(continued)

There are more Row Homes
Wooden row homes. Brick row homes. Row homes that got that weird asphalt shingle siding slapped on decades ago.
1717180583092.jpeg


Occasional duplicated buildings
Walking down these streets, almost no two buildings are the same. But sometimes you see little stretches of the same building, from the same blueprints.
1717180675285.jpeg


Ground floor businesses
There are houses and apartments where ground floor businesses were wedged in after the fact (which, again, used to be legal).
1717180808853.jpeg


More ground floor businesses
But for these businesses, it looks like the building was always designed to have a ground floor corner store. Hard to say for sure. In one case, it is still a little market, and in the other, it's now an art gallery.
1717180947438.jpeg


Massive housing complex
Magazine Street has Woodrow Wilson Court, which is a multibuilding housing complex. There's no way to photograph the whole thing, so here's the pleasant front gate and a diagram of property.
1717181177273.jpeg


Newer Buildings
There's not a lot built after the 1930's-ish, but there's some. The top two here are very recent. The bottom on looks very 70's, but I don't know.
1717181294313.jpeg


ADUs and Additions
You'll also find tons home that have been added onto over the years. Some look like completely separate ADUs in the backyard, now bigger than the historic home itself.
1717181414245.jpeg


Porches and Yards
And some of this housing still has outdoor space. There are plenty of porches and balconies around. Most empty space has turned into driveways and car storage, but there are still homes with yards.
1717181680999.jpeg
 
(continued)
And last, I'll say again, this is just scratching the surface of all the types of housing packed in this small neighborhood. There's more than can be reasonably documented here, but it's a really nice neighborhood to wander through while contemplating the housing crisis.

And I'll end here with these four pictures of total miscellany. First is maybe the oldest building -- a cottage for soap factory workers in the 1830s. Then some squat, spartan-looking apartment building. Then the only brick SFH I could find. No idea what style that is, but it's lovely. And last, a church that's recently been renovated into condos.
1717182254721.jpeg


(the end)
 
ritchiew said:
(continued)

There are more Row Homes
Wooden row homes. Brick row homes. Row homes that got that weird asphalt shingle siding slapped on decades ago.
View attachment 51008

Occasional duplicated buildings
Walking down these streets, almost no two buildings are the same. But sometimes you see little stretches of the same building, from the same blueprints.
View attachment 51009

Ground floor businesses
There are houses and apartments where ground floor businesses were wedged in after the fact (which, again, used to be legal).
View attachment 51010

More ground floor businesses
But for these businesses, it looks like the building was always designed to have a ground floor corner store. Hard to say for sure. In one case, it is still a little market, and in the other, it's now an art gallery.
View attachment 51011

Massive housing complex
Magazine Street has Woodrow Wilson Court, which is a multibuilding housing complex. There's no way to photograph the whole thing, so here's the pleasant front gate and a diagram of property.
View attachment 51012

Newer Buildings
There's not a lot built after the 1930's-ish, but there's some. The top two here are very recent. The bottom on looks very 70's, but I don't know.
View attachment 51013

ADUs and Additions
You'll also find tons home that have been added onto over the years. Some look like completely separate ADUs in the backyard, now bigger than the historic home itself.
View attachment 51014

Porches and Yards
And some of this housing still has outdoor space. There are plenty of porches and balconies around. Most empty space has turned into driveways and car storage, but there are still homes with yards.
View attachment 51015
Click to expand...
Thank you for the great photos. My mother lived in Woodrow Wilson Court in the late 1970s/early 1980s. I had to buy some cork board from a building supply store and put it up on her living room wall to reduce the music noise from the adjacent apartment. But aside from that, she liked living there.
 
Blackbird said:
If only we could copy/paste Cambridgeport throughout the metro area.
Click to expand...
It is indeed the model for urban and suburban areas. It is totally walkable, a diversity of housing types, tree-lined pleasant streets, rail transit, corner stores, restaurants; the Charles River nearby, all just a short walk away; who could ask for more, Thankfully the Inner Belt Expressway behemoth was not pushed through there in the 1960s.
 
It's the part of Cambridge/Greater Boston that I always get the feeling that it's the most proper urban neighborhood. I'll gladly accept it as a copy + paste for the rest of the region (though, nit-picking, the strip-malls and surface parking at and around Memorial Drive, and Memorial Dr itself, are some drawbacks).

Unsurprisingly, you just have to listen to Jane Jacobs:
  • Mixed land uses
  • Small blocks
  • Buildings from different eras
  • Good density
 
Charlie_mta said:
Thankfully the Inner Belt Expressway behemoth was not pushed through there in the 1960s.
Click to expand...
My god yes! I guess I could have equally done this little photo project one block over on Brookline Street, which was the originally planned path of the Expressway. This neighborhood really could have been destroyed.

Also, in this neighborhood is a great mural commemorating the highway revolts of the 1960's. It's visible from Magazine Street, on the back of the Microcenter.
1717454046588.jpeg
 
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