Centers And Squares
Cambridge Neighborhoods – Central Square Real Estate and More
Central Square in Cambridge Massachusetts
The Central Square neighborhood has become very popular with Cambridge real estate buyers.
With a Red Line stop at its center and a location midway between Boston and Harvard Square, and with MIT and the Charles River just down the street, Central Square is number one on the list for many people moving to Cambridge.
I’ve often noticed that when people move to Cambridge from Manhattan or other large cities, Central Square is the Cambridge neighborhood that feels most like a city neighborhood to them. Mass Ave in Central Square is lined with older, taller commercial buildings, there are plenty of small shops, restaurants, and clubs, and lots of pedestrian traffic.
While many lament that Central Square is becoming gentrified, it remains a grittier, funkier square than Harvard or Porter Square. There’s a critical mass of bars, clubs with live music, and funky stores that have held on in the neighborhood for years. There’s a great mix of ethnic restaurants with a few national chains mixed in. A number of the restaurants have outdoor seating along Mass Ave.
Central Square Real Estate Options
Cambridge real estate buyers who want walk-to access to Central Square have several neighborhoods to choose from. Mid-Cambridge, Inman Square, Cambridgeport, Riverside, and the blocks with the streets named after Massachusetts counties (Suffolk, Norfolk, Essex, etc) all offer easy access to Central Square.
Looking only at the Cambridge real estate listings identified in MLS as in Central Square – keep in mind that many listings don’t include neighborhood and many properties may be listed in one of the other neighborhoods listed above – here are the average sales prices in Central Square in MLSpin over the last two years:
Single family homes in Central Square:
- Sold between $305,000 and $780,000
- Average sales price $608,310
Central Square condos:
- Sold between $169,000 and $600,000
- Average sales price $352,527
- Average cost per square foot $412
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Here are some more photos of Central Square Cambridge MA:
The Larchwood Neighborhood – Cambridge Real Estate, History and Architecture
The Larchwood Neighborhood – Cambridge Real Estate, History and Architecture Larchwood is one of Cambridge’s prettiest neighborhoods. Designed as a residential subdivision in 1915, its winding streets, lined with handsome houses and lush landscaping, are tucked between Brattle Street, Huron Avenue, and Fresh Pond Parkway.
Larchwood Neighborhood History
House in the Larchwood neighborhood of Cambridge MA
The Larchwood neighborhood was carved out of the former summer estate of William Gray, a wealthy Salem merchant. His 38 acre property, The Larches, remained in the Gray family for over 100 years before it was subdivided in 1915. The original house, which had been surrounded by ornamental gardens, was relocated to Larch Road. Attempts were made to preserve elements of Gray’s garden when the streets in the Larchwood neighborhood were laid out.
The Larchwood subdivision was designed in 1915 by noted landscape architect Henry Hubbard. Hubbard had studied at Harvard under Frederick Law Olmsted, whose firm he later joined, and was the first person to earn a degree in landscape architecture. He later taught at Harvard for more than thirty years focusing on landscape architecture and city planning, and in 1917 wrote with his wife, Theodora Kimball, An Introduction to the Study of Landscape Design, the standard textbook in the field for decades.
Houses in the Larchwood Neighborhood in Cambridge
The predominant architectural style in the Larchwood neighborhood is Georgian Revival. Here and there another architectural style can be spotted – there’s a large Mansard Victorian on Larchwood Drive and a Modernist house by the Architects Collaborative on Old Dee Road. There are Capes, Gambrels, and Tudor Revivals in the neighborhood.
Larchwood Home Sales – Cambridge Real Estate
Larchwood is a popular neighborhood for Cambridge real estate buyers. Houses in the neighborhood are often extensively renovated after passing hands. The streets in the Larchwood neighborhood are:
- Fresh Pond Lane
- Old Dee Road
- Meadow Way
- Larchwood Road
Here are some recent real estate sales in the neighborhood:
Single Family Home Sales in the Larchwood Neighborhood of Cambridge
Interested in Cambridge real estate in Larchwood or other Cambridge neighborhoods?
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And enjoy the slide show of photographs of many of the Cambridge houses in Larchwood:
And here are some other Cambridge streets and neighborhoods to check out:
The Agassiz Neighborhood of Cambridge
Follen Street Cambridge
Garfield Street Cambridge
Orchard Street Cambridge
Pemberton Street Cambridge
Agassiz Neighborhood-Cambridge-Real Estate, Resources and History
Houses in the Agassiz neighborhood of Cambridge MA
The Agassiz neighborhood is very popular with Cambridge real estate buyers and one of my favorite areas of Cambridge. The Agassiz neighborhood stretches from Porter Square to Harvard Square between Mass Avenue and the Somerville line. Oxford Street is the main thoroughfare, paralleling Mass Ave from Beacon Street to the back of Harvard Yard.
A marvelously walkable neighborhood, the tree-lined side streets of the Agassiz neighborhood spill out onto a stretch of Mass Ave that is lined with restaurants, boutiques, stores, and a variety of shops selling books, housewares, clothes, records, furniture and more. The many public transportation options make this an easy neighborhood to live car-free. Red Line subway stops can be found in Harvard Square and Porter Square, the commuter rail stops in Porter Square and buses run up and down Mass Ave.
History of the Agassiz Neighborhood
In the late 1700s the area now known as the Agassiz neighborhood consisted of three large parcels of land owned by Nathaniel Jarvis, Jonathan Hastings, and the Frost family. Development did not take off until transportation options increased in the mid-1800s when the railroad stop at Porter Square was opened in the 1840s and horsecars began to run along Massachusetts Avenue in the 1850s. Much of the neighborhood development took place from the 1850s to 1900 resulting in a rich collection of Victorian architecture on the streets of the Agassiz neighborhood. As available land was built up in the early 1900s a number of apartment buildings were constructed in the neighborhood ranging from three-families to larger brick buildings.
Agassiz Neighborhood Resources
- Agassiz Neighborhood Council, 20 Sacramento Street, offers an art gallery and a variety of programs and services focused on children and the arts
- Lesley University‘s campus is in the Agassiz neighborhood
- The Mary Prentiss Inn, a lovely bed and breakfast, is located at 6 Prentiss Street
- Sacramento Field is a marvelous hidden park of just over an acre. There is a field for soccer and softball and a basketball court
- The Sacramento Street Community Garden is adjacent to the field
- The Harvard Museum of Natural History at 26 Oxford Street is not to be missed. There’s loads to see – the vintage mounted animals of every sort are my personal favorite and the glass flower collection is known around the world.
- Alden Park -a well used playground across from the Baldwin School
- The Baldwin School, formerly the Agassiz School, is a Cambridge public K-8 school. The school was renamed in 2004 to honor its former principal, Maria Baldwin, the first African American school principal in Massachusetts, a position she held for some 40 years. Poet ee cummings was a student at the school during Baldwin’s tenure.
Real Estate in the Agassiz Neighborhood
Single family houses in the Agassiz neighborhood have sold in the last few years for prices ranging from $500,000 (for a total fixer-upper) to $1,323,000. Most Agassiz single families sell for over $1,000,000.
There are a variety of condominium styles in the Aggassiz neighborhood – condos in classic brick buildings, condos in multi-unit wood buildings, condominiums in converted two and three-family houses, and recently built townhouses. The average sales price for a Cambridge condo in the Agassiz neighborhood sold in the last three years was $424,183 with an average per square foot price of $435.
The five multi-families that sold recently in the Agassiz neighborhood sold for prices ranging from $845,000 to $1,104,300.
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Here are some more photographs of the Agassiz neighborhood in Cambridge:
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