Title
Archive for the 'Everything Else' Category
Celebrate Somerville Mural – Park Street, Somerville
Celebrate Somerville Mural
I haven’t been able to find out any information about this Celebrate Somerville mural on Park Street but it’s an appropriate choice for Thanksgiving Day. I’m not sure the mural depicts a Thanksgiving meal but it’s certainly a feast. The hills of Somerville are the backdrop to the meal with guests at the table meant to depict the diversity of the city.
The mural is on the side of a building that looks to be part of the Ames Safety Envelope building. Ames has been in business in Somerville for 90 years.
If you know anything about the artist[s] or the history of the mural I’d love to learn more.
Happy Thanksgiving!
The Celebrate Somerville Mural is on Park Street which runs between Somerville Ave and Beacon Street.
Growing Up In North Cambridge
North Cambridge Victorian
Have you seen the magazine Growing Up In North Cambridge? The magazine is a “journal of stories of years gone by” filled with articles, vintage photographs and reminiscences of people who called North Cambridge home over the years.
The magazine is really a treasure and a great way to learn about the neighborhood. I’ve only lived in North Cambridge as an adult but it’s easy to imagine how much fun reading about the places and people of your childhood must be to those who grew up here. The magazine encourages submissions – articles, letters, and comments are welcomed.
An earlier issue had a fascinating article about the estate that occupied the land where the Porter Square Shopping Center was built. In the Fall issue, the ninth to be published, I was interested to read the article about the distinctive Victorian at 2203 Mass Ave pictured above. The Cambridge Historical Society toured the house earlier this year and presented a talk about the development of the neighborhood.
I picked up my copy of Growing Up In North Cambridge at an insurance office on Mass Ave. Local stores sell issues – Pemberton Market, Porter Square Books – look for a notice in the window of stores along Mass Avenue. Back issues can be purchased online at the magazine’s website.
Bye Bye Brigham’s – Restaurants Closing
Belmont Brigham's Still Open
Brigham’s Restaurants Closing The abrupt recent closing of the Brigham’s in Boston’s Financial District didn’t seem to bode well for the the rest of the chain’s restaurants. Sure enough, the Arlington Brigham’s shop on Mill Street has been shuttered and the Globe reported that many of the other locations will be closing.
Bummer! While Brigham’s hasn’t been what it used to be, with local shops offering a limited version of the restaurant, it’s still a decent place for a burger finished off with the tastiest of ice cream – Mocha Almond. And the Financial District restaurant was my old stomping grounds - when I worked in Post Office Square I’d get my lunch there - tuna on white, a lemonade, and vanilla ice cream – an all white meal before we knew that wasn’t necessarily a good thing - but it sure hit the spot.
Brigham’s is a long time local favorite – the company started in Massachusetts over 90 years ago and the ice cream was manufactured in Arlington. HP Hood has owned the ice cream operation since last year and will continue to sell the prepackaged ice cream in supermarkets.
Turns out, according to an employee behind the counter, that the Belmont Brigham’s by the Oakley Country Club is independently owned so will remain open. Hurrah! They make a great burger, there are lots of booths, and the hand scooped ice cream is delicious. And a reader alerted me to the fact that the Arlington Heights Brigham’s has the same owner so that bodes well for our other local hangout. And restaurants that serve Brigham’s ice cream, like Colleen’s in Medford Square, won’t be affected by the chain’s difficulties.
When I stopped by this weekend the Belmont shop was busier than ever – I think people were stopping by for what they thought was their last cone or hamburger. Keep coming back – support your local Brigham’s!
Fading Stories In Stone – New England Cemeteries In Need Of Restoration
Early gravestones in the First Parish Burying Ground, Arlington MA
Fading Stories In Stone – New England Cemeteries In Need Of Restoration. An article in Sunday’s Boston Globe, “A Race Against Time To Save History”, about Robert Carlson’s work documenting and restoring gravestones on the Cape caught my eye. I love early cemeteries and the terrible condition of many of them has been on my mind recently. I was happy to learn about Carlson’s efforts and to see the Globe publicizing the desperate need for conservation of New England cemeteries.
Old cemeteries have always fascinated me. As kids we played regularly in the cemetery near the town center in Medfield, Mass. Some of the gravestones dated from the 1600s and I admired the carvings that changed through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries - from the winged skulls, to the more cherubic faces. to the weeping willows. I loved the inscriptions with the bits of people’s history and the beautiful old names.
Each year on Memorial Day we visited another old cemetery in Shirley to plant geraniums. One year as we poked around nearby plots we found a very early wooden grave marker – still the only one I’ve ever seen.
By third grade I was doing genealogy with my grandfather and visited old graveyards in many New England towns with him and my grandmother. Always the stories told on the old slate gravestones were a source of fascination as we hunted for clues about our ancestors.
Bas-relief carving on an Old Burying Ground gravestone in Arlington
The centuries old gravestones had survived the years well. Most were completely legible – the incised words easy to read, the decorations almost as beautiful as the day they were carved. In the 1970s gravestone rubbing was a popular hobby and the markers in local cemeteries were still crisp enough to make fine rubbings.
Imagine my dismay when I revisited my favorite childhood cemetery some twenty years later and found that in that relatively short time the stones had degraded dramatically. Many inscriptions could no longer be read and the carvings were difficult to discern.
It was shocking. How could these markers last two hundred years and then in just a few years be so damaged?
What does it say about our environment? About how polluted the air and water have become in recent years that centuries old stone carvings can be worn away in short order?
I went back to the Medfield cemetery last week and was once again appalled. Lichen covered many of the stones’ surface. Many stones had been broken. Inscriptions, if they can be discerned at all, can only be read with difficulty. Doesn’t anybody care?
The other day I visited the Old Burying Ground in Arlington Center to get photos for this post and was surprised to see gravestones in relatively good condition. Sure – the inscriptions and carvings have been worn down – but the stones were clean and clearly in much better condition than those in Medfield.
Gravestone restoration in Arlington
I was perplexed until I noticed the blue marks on the backs of the gravestones. It seems that someone had restored the markers in the Arlington cemetery. I haven’t been able to find any information about the project – if you have any information it please let me know.
The Old Burying Ground in Arlington is absolutely worth a visit. There’s a wonderful collection of markers and it seems many were done by the same carver. Many of the carvings – particularly those with a child’s head in bas-relief – are very distinctive. The cemetery dates to 1736 and the colonists killed in Arlington on the first day of the American Revolution are buried here.
It’s time to take a page out of Robert Carlson’s book and start an Adopt-A-Cemetery movement. What’s your city or town doing to preserve its cemetery heritage?
Boston Globe Features City Squares
Mullen Square in North Cambridge
Here at Centers and Squares we were delighted to see the Boston Globe article about city squares in today’s paper.
The Boston Globe article included many city squares you won’t find on any map. These are the corners that are named to commemorate neighborhood residents. In Cambridge the signs are black and white like the one at right.
Mullen Square is named in honor of the family that lived in my house for over 80 years. The father of the family was a doctor, one son worked for Tip O’Neill, his childhood friend, and a daughter worked as an elementary school teacher for many years. She was the last member of the family to live in the house until I bought it a few years ago.
Many of Cambridge’s squares were named to honor people or families like the Mullens – people who lived in the neighborhood for many years and made a contribution to the community.
But this is Cambridge after all and the Globe found some stories that might surprise you behind those ubiquitous black and white signs.
Reverend Larry Love Square honors
“… a Cambridge-born musician [and] roller skating street person… who would change clothes five times a day, and wore the most wild costumes – feather boas and boots laced up to his knees…”
Mark Sandman Square is named for the
“musician and songwriter best known as the bassist and lead singer of the indie rock band Morphine”.
I won’t look at the signs the same way after reading this article. You won’t either after reading more of the Globe’s article about city squares.
The American House – Class at Brookline Adult Ed
That's me in front of my family's first house. Even then I was a house enthusiast.
I’ve always loved course catalogs and typically find all sorts of classes that sound appealing. Seldom though has a class seemed so much up my alley as The American House offered in the Winter term at Brookline Adult and Community Education.
The American House is a three session class taught in January by Stephen Jerome. Jerome is a specialist in historic preservation and design and a trustee of the Brookline Historical Society.
“In Building the Dream: A Social History of Housing in America, author Gwendolyn Wright states: ‘From the first frame house in New England to the latest condominium in the Sunbelt, our houses have been filled with our images of ourselves, our myths, and often the images our neighbors, our government, or our employers have projected for us.’
In this course, we will unravel the myths and meanings of the American house, using the houses themselves as our text.
-
How has the builder-client relationship evolved over time?
- Who were the first American architects?
- What are the myths and realities of such legendary houses as The House of Seven Gables and Scarlet O’Hara’s Tara?
These questions will be explored in this overview of Classic, Romantic, high-style, and vernacular house forms that have shaped and continue to transform the architectural environment.
By the end of the course you will be familiar not only with the names of architects and styles of houses, but also with the issues of cultural continuity that have shaped the American house for over three centuries.”
As someone who’s been obsessed with houses since a very young age, I was quick to sign up for the class. Classes fill up quickly – you can sign up by phone at 617-730-2700 or on the web at www.brooklineadulted.org.
The American House will be offered by Brookline Adult Ed at the Brookline High School in January 2010. The class begins on January 14th, 7 – 9 pm and costs $85 for three sessions.
Charlie Allen Of Cambridge Featured In Old House Journal
Cambridgeport Mansard Restored by Charlie Allen
Charlie Allen of Cambridge Featured in Old House Journal. The December 2009 issue of Old House Journal is filled with features with a local spin. After I finished with my favorite Remuddling page here’s what I found:
Cambridge contractor, Charlie Allen, writes about a 10-year renovation and restoration of a Second Empire mansard on Kelly Road pictured at right. Charlie Allen Restorations has brought back many houses around Cambridge to their former glory and it’s a real treat to read about the metamorphosis of this house.
An article about a Winchester Queen Anne Victorian details its transformation from a two-family into a single. The house had been covered in aluminum siding and stripped of architectural detail. Not any longer!
Fans of Modernism will enjoy the article by a Lincoln homeowner about the restoration of a Modernist house after a fire.
As always OHJ is packed with useful articles for old house enthusiasts. Others include:
- How to research your house’s history
- Protecting your house from fire
- Repairing plaster walls
- Repairing leaded glass
- The Beaux Arts Style
Want to learn more about your neighbors’ old house experiences? Old House Journal is not to be missed.
Glassed In Vestibules – House Parts We Love
Glassed-In Entry on a Cambridge House
The magic of house parts we love is that they can make us fall in love with a house. Glassed-in vestibules do it for me – I bought my house in large part because of the charming glassed-in entry out front.
On my house the glassed-in entry replaced the two original porches on the front, similar to the porches on the other houses on the street. Now the glass paned entry with a round top gives the house a special charm. My theory is that the original owners of my house admired the rounded top entry on the house around the corner and made the change to their house.
My house’s vestibule is in the slide show below. It’s not the best picture of the entry – you can’t see the curved top – but it’s a great picture of my parents standing out in front of the house.
These glassed in vestibules provide shelter from the elements and add a great deal of charm to the facade. Here are a few of my favorites:
Copyright © 2008 Centers And Squares Log in Design by Real Estate Tomato Powered by Tomato Blogs
