The Heritage of Homes: A Residential Walking Tour of Cambridge

 

7 Humboldt Street, Peter Quinn Architects, Contemporary Second Empire Victorian. 2014. 

Cambridge is fundamentally underestimated by the general public in relation to its domestic and residential architectural sophistication specifically— although the city is home to Harvard University, I personally find it to be a true shame that there is not more awareness (even amongst the student body) of the historical changes in architecture styles and general philosophical approaches to space and design that are embodied by the centuries-old streets that make up our community. I aimed to establish a preliminary design and plan for a residential walking tour around the Avon Hill neighborhood and beside the Cambridge Common; I titled it The Heritage of Homes: A Residential Walking Tour of Cambridge. The aim of the walking tour would be to encourage visitors and participants to come face to face with some of the finest and most sophisticated examples of residential architectural styles that define American domestic culture, with stylistic variety ranging from late 17th-century Colonial forms to the International Style of European modernism that blossomed in the mid-early 20th century. 

Entryway of 144 Upland Road, a 1960 Modernist reconstruction of a garage, by Paul Rudolph.

144 Upland Road First Floor Plan.

Living Room of 144 Upland Road.

Homes To Be Included on Tour:

• 21 Linnaean Street (Cooper-Frost-Austin House, Colonial, 1681)
• 144 Upland Road (Paul Rudolph House, Modernist, 1960)
• 88 Garden Street (Asa Gray House, Federal, 1810)
• 81 Washington Avenue (Henry Melenday House, Second Empire Victorian, 1871)
• 6 Walnut Avenue (Jacob Niles House, Queen Anne, 1885)
• 37 Lancaster Street (Henry D. Yerxa House, Shingle Style, 1887)
• 6 Garden Terrace (Herbert Longford Warren House, Craftsman, 1904)
• 7 Humboldt Street (Peter Quinn House, Contemporary Victorian, 2014)
• 4 Buckingham Street (Albert C. Koch House, International Style, 1937)

The Heritage of Homes: A Residential Walking Tour of Cambridge.

Above, I have included a model of the layout for the walking tour— pinpointing the different homes I listed using the pink markers. The map is also currently digitally accessible using this link! What is extremely important to take into consideration as you approach this walking tour is the fact that Cambridge's homes tell a living story— this is an active community, we are in active history. An excellent example of this I believe can be found in a closer analysis and discussion of the "Peter Quinn House" found at 7 Humboldt Street, that I named after the head architect that constructed the home in 2014. Despite the fact that the home is in a Second Empire Victorian architectural style, it is absolutely and completely contemporary. The home that previously sat on the lot was a 1950's single-family Ranch style home, and it was demolished (at the petition of Peter Quinn's architecture firm) to make way for the development of this new Contemporary Victorian single family home. What are the implications of having bulldozed a 1950's home seen as "modern" or "too new" by community members (in their words, based on the minutes from city council meetings that met in 2013 and 2014 to discuss the demolition of the home)? How does Peter Quinn's selection of Second Empire Victorian as the go-to style for the development of the single family home speak to the residential environment and attitudes of Cambridge inhabitants, particularly with the consideration of the largely-white and very high-income demographic in the area?