Centers And Squares
Welcome to Centers and Squares
As a Cambridge real estate agent, the city squares of Cambridge, Somerville and Medford and the town centers of Arlington, Watertown and Belmont, Massachusetts are my home turf. And as a lifelong New Englander who’s lived within twenty miles of Boston most of my life, I can introduce you to other nearby towns as we search for your new home. If you’re planning to sell your home in Cambridge, MA or nearby you’ll find plenty of info about the home selling process here too. Questions? Send me an email or call me at 617-504-1737.
Pie In The Sky – Community Servings Fundraiser
Pie In the Sky - Community Servings Benefit
Pie In The Sky – Community Servings Fundraiser It’s that time of year again – time for pie.
Each year the Community Servings fundraiser, Pie In the Sky, sells Thanksgiving pies donated by Greater Boston restaurants, bakers and caterers.
Each pie sold helps to provide a week’s worth of meals delivered to home bound folks struggling with AIDS, cancer or MS.
Many people choose to support Community Servings by buying all of their Thanksgiving pies from Pie In The Sky.
Pies are distributed on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Our Coldwell Banker office at 171 Huron Ave in Cambridge is a pick-up location. It’s a festive day each year as people come by to pick up their apple, pecan, pumpkin or sweet potato pies that are piled in our conference room.
Pies are $25 or you can buy a “raffle pie” for $75 and get a gift wrapped apple pie and an entry in the raffle for special prizes. There are some super raffle prizes including a Boston Sports Package with game tickets; a Harvard Square package with tickets to a show, dinner at the Casablanca and a hotel room; and a Bose sound system.
Pie orders should be placed by November 20th.
Click here to Buy A Pie – or two or three!
Cambridge House With A Tree In The Middle
Cambridge House With A Tree In The Middle I came across this photo from an office tour earlier this year. It was an amazing house at 44 Grozier Road in West Cambridge. Designed in the early 1980s by architect /owner Eduardo Catalano, it was definitely one of the most unusual houses we’ve been lucky enough to tour.
Tree Growing In The Middle Of A Cambridge House
There were many memorable elements but the one that caused the biggest stir was the tree growing up in the middle of the dining area, pictured here.
More about Catalano and his most well known designs can be found here, including additional photos of the house on Grozier Road.
I can remember a couple of us wondering if the house would be too “out there” for Cambridge home buyers or if perhaps some design enthusiasts would be in the market and able to afford it. We needn’t have worried – the house sold immediately – for more than $400,000 over the asking price.
Best Places to Trick or Treat in Cambridge
Best Places to Trick or Treat in Cambridge Halloween is coming up and maybe you’re wondering what are the best neighborhoods for trick or treating in Cambridge – where you’ll find the most fun – and the best candy.
I love getting trick or treaters and each year as I filled my candy bags with multiple treats hoped that my house would become a Halloween destination spot. But I’ve come to terms with the fact that my street can’t begin to compete with some of these top Cambridge neighborhoods on October 31st. Here are some of the Best Places to Trick or Treat in Cambridge
East Cambridge Trick or Treating
East Cambridge is a popular trick or treating neighborhood. The blocks bordered by Fulkerson and First Street and Cambridge Street and Charles Street are thickly settled and make for a really good ratio of candy to blocks walked. A big part of the draw is the haunted house on Charles Street. The Vendettis have been decorating their house for Halloween for more than twenty years. Hundreds of children visit the Halloween house – it’s not to be missed. There’s no admission charged but last year Mrs. Vendetti asked kids and their parents to bring a canned good for donation to the Sacred Heart Food Pantry. Vist this Halloween wonderland on Charles Street between Sciarappa Street and 5th Street.
Halloween on Dudley Street, Cambridge
The homeowners on Dudley Street in North Cambridge do it up for Halloween. Residents spend weeks preparing for the event – choosing a theme and planning decorations. Dudley Street between Cedar and Reed Street is closed to traffic and hundreds of trick or treaters throng the block. The theme last year – you can see some of the Halloween houses in the slideshow below – was Las Vegas. A resident’s video about Halloween on Dudley Street shows the amazing creativity and fun you’ll find here on October 31st. Dudley Street in North Cambridge is hopping on Halloween.
Crescent Street Cambridge Halloween
Another Cambridge hotspot on Halloween is Crescent Street in the Agassiz neighborhood between Porter Square and Harvard Square. Crescent Street is one block long and runs from Sacramento Street to Oxford Street. Residents move their cars and the street is blocked to traffic and lined with jack-o-lanterns carved during a neighborhood party the day before. Like Dudley Street, there’s a theme each year – this year it’s “Monsters.” All are welcome and one homeowner estimated that more than 600 children trick or treated on Crescent Street last year. The Halloween party on Crescent Street is the place to be for trick or treaters from 5 to 8 pm.
Halloween Open Houses at Cambridge Fire Stations
Cambridge Fire Stations will be hosting Halloween Open Houses from 2 to 4 pm on October 31, 2010. Kids and parents can visit their neighborhood fire station to view the fire trucks and get free glow sticks and trick or treat bags compliments of the Cambridge Fire Department. Candy has been donated by Cambridge Brands.
Do you know any other best places to trick or treat in Cambridge? Let us know!
Here’s a slide show of Halloween decorations on Dudley Street last year:
The Old Manse – Concord MA – House Museum Monday
The Old Manse in Concord MA
The Old Manse – Concord MA – House Musuem Monday The Old Manse has always been one of my favorite house museums.
History of the Old Manse
Built in 1770 by the Reverend William Emerson, Ralph Waldo Emerson’s grandfather, the Emerson family watched the battle at the North Bridge on April 19, 1775.
After Reverend Emerson died later that year, his widow married the Reverend Ezra Ripley and the family remained at the Old Manse.
Ralph Waldo Emerson lived at the house for a time and wrote his Transcendentalist work “Nature” here.
Nathaniel Hawthorne and his family rented the house from the Ripleys for three years, moving in shortly after their marriage in 1842. I had always remembered the writings they carved into the glass window panes with Sophia Hawthorne’s diamond ring. But I was really struck during the tour by the liberties they took with the house as tenants who failed to pay rent for much of their stay. Not your model tenants for sure! But how amazing is it that the inscriptions are still there?
That’s one of the real treats when you visit the house – it is largely intact with the furnishings and possessions that were in the house in 1800s. You’re able to see the house very much as it looked when Bronson Alcott, Margaret Fuller and Henry David Thoreau visited. Fortunately the house had remained in the Ripley family until 1939 when it was bought by the Trustees of Reservations who today maintain it as a house museum open to the public.
Visiting The Old Manse – Concord MA
The Old Manse is open year round. From mid-April through October the Old Manse is open daily. Weather permitting, the house is open Thursday through Sunday the rest of the year. Check the Trustees of Reservations website for more information.
The Old Manse is located at 269 Monument St, Concord, MA 01742. The phone number is 978-369-3909.
More House Museum Mondays
Belmont Hen House Tour
Belmont Hen House Tour I’m a huge fan of house tours but this is a new one on me!
This Saturday afternoon, October 30th, there’s a Hen House Tour in Belmont MA. You’ll be able to tour eight backyard chicken coops in Belmont. The owners will be on hand to talk about raising poultry.
Raising chickens in the suburbs and city is more and more popular nowadays. If you’re thinking about getting some backyard chickens of your own this tour should give you some great ideas.
The Belmont Hen House Tour is a benefit for the new Belmont Public Library.
Tickets are for sale at:
- Belmont Library, 336 Concord Ave, Belmont, MA 02478
- Champions Sporting Goods, 53 Leonard St, Belmont, MA
- Vicki Lee’s in Cushing Square, 105 Trapelo Rd, Belmont, MA 02478
Tickets are $20 for a Family – $10 for an Adult – $5 for a Student – Children under five are free
Maps of the chicken coop locations can be picked up on the day of the tour until 3:00 pm behind the Library at 336 Concord Ave at the “drive-by chicken coop”
The Belmont Hen House Tour is scheduled for Saturday, October 30, 2010 from 1 to 5 pm
Arlington Historical Society Triple Decker Lecture
Triple decker lecture at the Arlington Historical Society
Arlington Historical Society Triple Decker Lecture This Tuesday, Stuart Brorson of the Arlington Historical Society will give a talk on “The ‘Menace” of the Triple Decker” that will answer the question – if you ever thought to wonder – why there are so many triple deckers in Cambridge and Somerville but relatively few in Arlington and other nearby towns.
Brorson’s lecture will touch on architectural features of the triple-decker, public perceptions of this new style of building, and what the triple-decker can tell us about the period in which it was popular.
There’s relatively little information readily available about triple deckers so this is a not to be missed event for architecture enthusiasts or for anybody who’s ever called a triple decker home.
“The ‘Menace’ of the Triple Decker” lecture is scheduled for 7:30 pm on Tuesday, October 26, 2010 at the Arlington Heights Nursery School, 10 Acton St, Arlington, MA 02476.
Open to the public. Admission is free for Arlington Historical Society members or $3 for non-members.
Hamilton Place Condos – 32 Whites Ave Watertown MA
32 Whites Ave Watertown MA - Hamilton Place Condos
Hamilton Place Condos – 32 Whites Ave Watertown MA The six buildings that comprise the Hamilton Place Condos in Watertown Square were originally built in the 1960s. Converted to condominiums in 2005, there are now 137 condos in the complex.
Located on Whites Avenue just off Main Street, Hamilton Place offers easy access to transportation and the shops and restaurants in Watertown Square. Saltonstall Park is across the street, the Charles River with its walking path is close by, and the Watertown Public Library is just down the block. It’s easy to catch the bus to Harvard Square or the express bus to Boston or to hop on the Mass Pike or Storrow Drive.
32 Whites Ave Watertown MA – Hamilton Place Condo Features
- Studios, one-bedroom and two-bedroom condos
- Sliders to a balcony
- Walk-in closet
- Parking space
- Additional parking space may be available for rent
- Heat and hot water included in the condo fee
- Exercise and rec room
- On-site management
- Elevator building
- Extra storage
- Coin-op laundry
- Pet friendly with restrictions
Recent Sales of Hamilton Place Condos at 32 Whites Ave Watertown MA
In 2010:
- A first-floor, 770 sq.ft, one-bedroom sold for $214,000
- A 935 sq.ft. two-bedroom, one-bath condo on the 3rd floor sold for $280,000
- A 1055 sq.ft two-bedroom with two baths on the 4th floor sold for $297,000
If condos are available at Hamilton Place they’ll appear below. Click on the small photo for more info and additional photographs. And if I can help you with your Watertown condo search send me an email or call me at 617-504-1737.
Hamilton Place condos are located at 245 Main Street, 16 Whites Ave, 24 Whites Ave, and 32 Whites Ave, Watertown MA 02472
Harvest Your Energy Festival In Medford
Harvest Your Energy Fair In Medford
Harvest Your Energy Festival In Medford Bundle up this Saturday and head on over to the McGlynn Elementary and Middle Schools in Medford for the 2010 Harvest Your Energy Festival.
The fair will take place at the base of the wind turbine allowing for a close-up view of Medford’s wind turbine. In case of rain, the energy fair will be moved into the McGlynn School cafeteria.
Stop by on Saturday, October 23, 2010 from 1 – 4 pm
Harvest Your Energy Festival Activities:
- Learn how to conserve energy and save money with home energy assessments
- Check out an all-electric car
- Talk to reps from Mass Energy about free home energy assessements and energy upgrade rebates
- Meet Wally the Green Monster from 1 to 2 pm
- Face painting, food and music
Medford Energy Fair Participants Include:
- Big Belly
- Diaper Lab
- MassSave
- Sun Bug Solar
- Roots & Shoots
- Pietzo Electric Bikes
- Medford Recycling Committee
- MassEnergy Consumers Alliance
- Zipcar
- Tufts Institute of the Environment
- Eastern Massachusetts Solar Store
Harvest Your Energy Festival in Medford will be held at the McGlynn Elementary and Middle School, 3002 Mystic Valley Parkway, Medford, MA 02155 from 1 – 4 pm on October 23, 2010
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