Title
Moving Houses
From my collection of vintage house moving photographs
Moving Houses
As much as I dislike overhead wires (you would think it’s still the Wild West! – why on earth do we put up with these ugly wires strung down our streets?) it hadn’t occurred to me that it was the advent of overhead wiring that put an end to the moving of houses.
Moving houses was once a fairly common undertaking. Street widening, changing neighborhoods, economizing – all were reasons to move a house. Sometimes a portion of a house was removed and moved for a family member.
Once you start digging into the history of Cambridge’s buildings you’ll discover many that were moved around town. Nowadays with those dratted wires - not to mention street lights, signs, and overpasses - moving a house or building is a much bigger undertaking. But with deep pockets almost anything is possible.
In 2007 Harvard spent something on the order of $1,000,000 to move three mansard structures down Mass Avenue close to Harvard Square. Two three story-mansard houses and a matching mansard carriage house were moved to facilitate a building project. Here’s a video of the moving houses:
Cambridge Real Estate Market Review – July 2009
Welcome to the Cambridge Home Sales Report
It’s that time of the month again – time for a quick look back at the state of the real estate market in Cambridge MA in July 2009:
On Market Snapshot
On July 31, 2009 there were 359 residential properties on the market in Cambridge MA. That’s a significant drop from a month ago when 410 properties were active on the market.
Asking prices ranged from $185,000 to $4,850,000. Average days on market was 121.
Cambridge Real Estate Sales during July 2009
124 residential property sales closed in Cambridge during July - the second month in a row where closed sales increased more than 25% over the previous month’s closings. The average sales price was $571,333. The median sales price was $442,000. Average days on market was 68.
19 single family homes sold in July priced from $366,700 to $3,746,000. Houses that sold had been on the market for an average of 68 days and sold for an average of 98% of asking price.
101 condos sold in July in Cambridge. Wow! Sales prices ranged from $200,000 to $1,400,000. The median condo sales price in July was $420,000. Condominiums sold for an average of 98% of the asking price and were on the market an average of 70 days.
4 Cambridge multi-family houses sold in July 2009 for sale prices from $676,500 to $1,000,000. The median sales price was $797,500. Average days on market was 27.
Total closed residential real estate sales volume in Cambridge in July was $70,845,340.
Information from MLSpin.
Last month’s numbers:
June 2009 Cambridge Real Estate Market Report
Green Street Cambridge – Real Estate, History and More
Green Street Cambridge – Real Estate, History and More Green Street, in the Riverside neighborhood, is popular with Cambridge real estate buyers. It offers a variety of architectural styles and a convenient location just one block from Mass Avenue between Central Square and Harvard Square offering proximity to the Charles River, MIT, and Harvard University.
Two-family Houses on Green Street in Cambridge MA
Most of the land lining Green beyond Brookline Street, by University Park, is today owned by MIT. A number of multi-unit buildings and commercial establishments line the street on the blocks behind Central Square as you head towards Western Avenue. Beyond Sellers Street Green Street is primarily residential.
History of Green Street in Cambridge
Green Street was laid out in sections starting in 1801 when the first stretch from Pearl Street to Pleasant Street was laid out. It was originally named First Parallel Street. In 1806 the street was extended to Hancock Street and in 1836 it was extended to Putnam Avenue. By 1900 it had reached its current length from Putnam to Landsdowne Street.
Green Street Cambridge Real Estate
Houses on Green Street today include triple deckers built in the late 1800s to early 1900s, brick rowhouses, wood double houses and row houses, and single family homes most built in the mid to late 1800s. Some modern townhouse condos were built in the 1990s.
#516 is one of two unusual round buildings in the Riverside neighborhood – clearly ahead of their time when built in 1963. Originally built as 16 apartments, the units were converted to condos in 2005. A condo in the building sold this year for $350,000.
Real Estate Sales in the last two years included:
- Condos in triple-deckers sold for $319,000 and $519,000
- 1990s townhouse condos sold for $692,500 and $775,000
- A renovated condo in a wood rowhouse sold for $$435,000
- Two units in newly renovated two-unit house sold for $449,000 and $550,000
Here are some more photographs taken on Green Street in Cambridge:
If you’re interested in selling or buying a home on Green Street in Cambridge contact Liz Bolton, a Cambridge real estate agent at the Huron Avenue Office of Coldwell Banker at 617-504-1737.
Cambridge Pothole Hotline
City of Cambridge Pothole Hotline I really love Cambridge city government. So often I’m impressed by what the City of Cambridge offers to its residents. And I’m doubly impressed when I see how low the property taxes are in Cambridge for a good portion of the city’s home owners.
One nifty service that Cambridge offers is a variety of hotlines. Simple – but really handy – who doesn’t want an official place to lodge complaints? You would think that the need for the Cambridge Pothole Hotline would have passed since potholes proliferate in spring. Not so however – there are still a lot of potholes out there, perhaps due in part to all the rain we’ve been getting.
If you spot a pothole in Cambridge call the DPW’s Pothole Hotline at 617-349-4854.
I also love youtube and have come to realize you can find just about anything there – like this video on how a pothole is formed (easily as it turns out – no wonder we have so many pot holes):
Julia Child Lived Here – 103 Irving Street Cambridge
As I watched yet another ad for the new movie Julie and Julia I figured it was time to write a quick post about Julia Child, or more specifically about Julia Child’s house at 103 Irving Street in Cambridge.
Julia Child and her husband Paul moved into this large Cambridge Victorian in 1961. Irving Street is lined with substantial turn-of-the-century houses and is just blocks from Harvard Square. It is a neighborhood long popular with Harvard professors among them Child’s friend and neighbor, economist John Kenneth Galbraith, who lived one block over on Francis Avenue, Cambridge’s “Professor’s Row”.
Julia Child's House in Cambridge Massachusetts
If people knew anything about Julia Child’s house it was the kitchen that was most familiar. That well used kitchen, known to so many from the cooking shows that were taped there, was described by Julia as “the most loved and most used room in the house.” Child retired to California for the last few years of her life and the house was sold. First however, the kitchen in its entirety was removed from the house and sent to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in 2001.
The Childs’ home was like many wonderful old houses we see in Cambridge – little changed in decades. And like so many others it was purchased by a developer and transformed. A sleek and stylish kitchen was designed, six new bathrooms installed, central air conditioning, central vac – all the bells and whistles that are popular with buyers today in the price range. The newly renovated house was sold in 2004 for $3,755,000. It has since changed hands again for $3,700,000.
But as a woman commented, riding by on her bike as I snapped a photo of 103 Irving Street, “It will always be Julia Child’s house”.
For more about Julia’s neighborhood, take a virtual walk down the street with a slide show and info about the history, architecture and real estate on Irving Street in Cambridge.
Franklin Street Cambridge – Real Estate Rambles
House on Franklin Street in Cambridge MA
Franklin Street, with its interesting variety of house styles and location between Harvard Square and Central Square, is popular with Cambridge real estate buyers. Franklin Street is a one-way street running from Putnam Avenue to one block past Sidney Street, ending at Landsdowne Street near MIT. A walkable a location as you can find, Franklin Street parallels Mass Ave, just two blocks in towards the Charles River, and crosses through two popular Cambridge neighborhoods, Cambridgeport and Riverside.
History of Franklin Street Cambridge
Franklin Street was one of the first streets laid out in the Cambridgeport neighborhood. Between 1800 and 1801 Judge Francis Dana, who owned a large portion of what is now Cambridgeport, laid out Franklin, Brookline, and Pearl Streets and began to sell lots of land. Originally named Second Parallel Street it was renamed in 1838 in honor of Benjamin Franklin.
Franklin Street Houses
There’s a funky charm to the houses on Franklin Street which are varied in style and more modest in scale than some Cambridge neighborhoods. Most homes sit close to the brick sidewalks and there are a good number of trees lining the street. Homes on the street range from small single family houses to multi-families to mid-sized condominium buildings.
Most houses on Franklin Street were built from the 1830s to the 1890s, with triple deckers filling some lots in the early 1900s. More recent buildings include the round building at 348 Franklin Street, built in 1965 and now condos, a modern apartment building at 345 Franklin, a seven-story condo building at 332 Franklin Street built in the late ’80s, and an 18-unit condominium building at 369 Franklin built in 2003.
Franklin Street, Cambridge Real Estate Sales
Single family home sales in the last five years ranged from $426,550 to $1,125,000. The average sale price was $713,694.
18 condos sold in the last two years for prices that ranged from $300,000 to $547,000. The median sales price was $452,000. The average price per square foot was $441
There have been just two sales of multi-family properties in the last few years on Franklin Street. A triple-decker sold in 2007 for $1,065,000. In 2008 a triple decker and two two-families sold as a package for $1,450,000 which strikes me as a good deal.
Click on the triangle below to see some more photographs:
SEARCH FOR HOMES ON FRANKLIN STREET
SEARCH FOR CAMBRIDGE REAL ESTATE
Calling all Cambridge Photographers – Your Photo Could be Next Year’s Parking Sticker
Submit your Cambridge photos now
Would you like your photograph to appear on cars all over Cambridge? Here’s your chance!
There are just a few more weeks to submit photographs of Cambridge to the City for next year’s Cambridge Resident Parking Permit photo.
Each year the City of Cambridge invites people to submit photos of Cambridge scenery. The winning photograph will be the image on the next year’s resident parking sticker.
To enter the photo contest, JPEGs of Cambridge scenery can be submitted via email to [email protected]
Deadline for entries is July 31, 2009. Check the City of Cambridge website for contest rules.
More than 100 photos were entered in the contest in 2008. You can see the beautiful photographs of Cambridge that were submitted to last year’s Cambridge Resident Parking Permit photo contest here.
Architect Royal Barry Wills in Cambridge
Houses for Good Living by Royal Barry Wills
Royal Barry Wills has been one of my favorite architects since I was a child. His historically accurate reproduction Capes, Saltboxes and Colonials warm my heart.
Growing up, my parents had a couple of his books – Houses for Good Living and More Houses for Good Living. I would pore over these books – the classic New England houses pictured inside were my favorite house styles.
One day when I was about 10 or 11 we went for a family drive. I’m not sure where we were – maybe Weston, or Wellesley or some nearby town – when I yelled “Stop the car!” Down a long driveway I had spotted a Royal Barry Wills house I recognized from one of the books. Sure enough – when we arrived back home I leafed through the book and there it was.
Royal Barry Wills Architecture
Royal Barry Wills understood that it was the details that made the difference – that made a newly built Cape look like it was built in 1760, not 1960. Some of those details he got right included:
- Large central chimney
- Correct pitch of the roof
- Graduated clapboards
- Windows with 24 to 36 individual lights (panes)
- Clapboards set close to the ground
We are fortunate in Massachusetts that Royal Barry Wills is a native son. Wills grew up in Melrose, attended MIT in Cambridge, and established his practice in Boston where he worked until his death in 1962. There are houses designed by Royal Barry Wills in many Massachusetts towns.
Royal Barry Wills in Cambridge
There are two Royal Barry Wills houses in Cambridge that I know of but I was disappointed when I set out in search of them.
20 Coolidge Avenue is undoubtedly a beautiful house but it’s almost impossible to see from the street with a high fence and a garage blocking the view. There are lovely interior photographs and a floor plan of the house in More Houses for Good Living.
Royal Barry Wills House in Cambridge MA
I was really sad when I walked by 19 Old Dee Road, a handsome Garrison Colonial that Wills designed in 1940. It’s a classic house with its massive corbeled chimney and large decorative pendants at the overhang ends. The house is undergoing renovation however- the windows have been replaced (ugh!) and French doors installed to the right of the front door (double ugh!). While I’m sure the refurbished interior will make somebody very happy for a traditionalist the house’s current state was a disappointment.
In Search of Royal Barry Wills
It’s not easy to locate Royal Barry Wills houses from his books (despite my luck as a ten year old!) since houses are often identified only by owners’ names. Houses by Wills are regularly noted in real estate listings though sometimes I think agents use his name almost as a generic term when describing a classic New England style house.
I’m always interested in seeing more of these picture perfect houses. Do you have any Royal Barry Wills favorites in your town? Let me know!
SEARCH FOR ROYAL BARRY WILLS HOUSES FOR SALE
Copyright © 2008 - 2009 Centers And Squares Agent Login Design by Real Estate Tomato Powered by Tomato Real Estate Blogs
