USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Cambridge > History of Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1630-1913 > Part 18
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most American cities. In addition to the public schools Cambridge enjoys the presence of a number of famous private schools. The Browne and Nichols School was started in 1883 and at once attained a very high reputation as a pre- paratory school for Harvard. The Cambridge School for Girls was opened in 1886, and has had a large success and an increasing influence. The Buckingham School for children on Buck- ingham Place and the School of the Misses Smith on Buckingham Street are also well known.
The University naturally attracted to its
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neighborhood not only these preparatory schools, but also independent professional schools. Par- ticularly Cambridge has become the great center for the education of ministers. The Harvard Divinity School has had a long and honorable history. In 1867 the Episcopal Theological School was established at Cambridge on account of the advantages to be had from the academic associations. St. John's Memorial Chapel was built in 1869. Reed Hall, adjoining the library and commemorating the name of the chief founder of the School, was built in 1875, Law- rence Hall in 1880, and Winthrop Hall in 1893. In 1889 the New Church Theological School moved to Cambridge, and for its use there was purchased the residence of President Sparks. Two years later the adjoining Greenough estate was purchased, so that the grounds of the School now extend along Quincy Street from Cambridge to Kirkland. In 1910 the Andover Theological School removed from Andover to Cambridge, and in the following year its beautiful and com- modious building was dedicated.
Radcliffe College was begun in 1879 under the name of the Society for the Collegiate In- struction of Women. This Society was in- corporated in 1882; at which time the Fay House, which is the oldest of the present group of buildings, was purchased, enlarged and im- proved. In 1894 the Society became Radcliffe College and entered in close and official relation- ship with Harvard University. The buildings of the College, opposite the Washington elm, already form a conspicuous and handsome group.
The need for parks and playgrounds did not arise in Cambridge until after the rapid growth of population had brought about undesirable congestion in several sections of the city. It was not until 1892 that the committee was ap- pointed to consider the subject of parks. Since that time the development has been rapid. The embankment along the Charles River has been laid out with a continuous parkway. A tract of twelve acres in East Cambridge has been set aside and improved as the Cambridge Field, and a large tract in North Cambridge as a play- ground known as Rindge Field. The building of a dam across the mouth of the Charles River has turned the entire river into a splendid water park. At Captain's Island on the river bank a park of some thirty-eight acres is being de-
veloped. The new impulse for the purchase of playgrounds is effective, and considerable pur- chases of ground for these purposes have been made in the year in which this book goes to the press.
In 1846 when the City Charter was granted there were fourteen Protestant churches and one Catholic Church in Cambridge. The two branches of the First Church, the First Parish (Unitarian) and the Shepard Congregational Society dated from 1636 and Christ Church from 1761. The Cambridgeport Parish (Uni- tarian) had been organized in 1808. The first Methodist Church was organized in East Cam- bridge in 1813, the first Baptist Church in Cambridgeport (Central Square) in 1817, and the first Universalist Church in Cambridgeport in 1822. The first Roman Catholic Church was founded in East Cambridge in 1842. There are now fifty-three churches in Cambridge, representing all denominations.
In the care of the needy, in the adoption of modern methods of charity and correction, in the application of the best intelligence to the prevention of disease and the amelioration of suffering, Cambridge has been as much a pioneer as in education and religion. The Cambridge Humane Society was one of the earliest organiza- tions in the world for village improvement and community welfare. It was founded in 1814 under the guidance of Dr. Abiel Holmes. It had a long and honorable career and has now ceased to exist, save as it survives in one of its offshoots, the Female Humane Society. There are now a score or more of vigorous philan- thropic agencies at work in Cambridge. The thoroughly organized and efficient Associated Charities date from 1881. The Cambridge Hospital was incorporated in 1871, the Avon Home for Children began in 1874, and the Homes for Aged People a little later. Among the other well-known institutions there should be men- tioned such educational and social centers as the Cambridge Social Union, the Prospect Union and the Young Men's and Young Women's Christian Associations; such social settlements as the East End Christian Union, the Neighbor- hood House, the Margaret Fuller House, the James A. Woolson House and the Riverside House. In recent years there have arisen the Anti-Tuberculosis Association, the Visiting
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Nursing Association, the Home Savings Asso- ciation and other vigorous and useful organiza- tions for the prevention or the cure of poverty and sickness. It would be difficult to discover any physical, moral or spiritual need that is un-
of these was designated simply by the name of the city. The public service corporations are admirably administered. The Boston Elevated Railway Company, whose president General Wm. A. Bancroft is a citizen and former
FREDERICK H. RINDGE.
supplied by one or another of these channels of a generous community spirit.
The banking institutions of Cambridge are numerous and sound. The first bank was chartered in 1826, the first savings bank in 1834, and the first trust company in 1890. Each
mayor of Cambridge, furnishes rapid and reliable transportation in and through all parts of the city. The New England Telephone Company provides ample facilities for telephonic communication. The Cambridge Gas Company was organized in 1852 by the same energetic
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group of men that originated the Street Railway, opment and improvement of all the property and has done a large and constantly increasing on the river front between the Harvard and Cambridge bridges. business. The Cambridge Electric Light Com- pany was incorporated in 1886 and provides an excellent system of illumination for the city.
In 1887 Mr. Frederick H. Rindge began a series of gifts to his native city which provide for a noble group of buildings. The first build- ing erected by Mr. Rindge was that for the Public Library, an ample, convenient and beautiful building which houses a large and valuable collection. Mr. Rindge supplemented this gift in the following year by building near the Library a Manual Training School, and later he built on an adjacent lot a large and handsome High School, and then a home for the Latin School. Meanwhile, in 1889, he had further provided for the erection of a beautiful City Hall, a building remarkable for its fine proportions and imposing dignity. Mr. Rindge was a son of Cambridge, but he spent the years of his man- hood in California. His gifts were made during the mayoralty of William E. Russell, the brilliant young leader of public opinion, Cambridge born and educated, who was afterwards for three years Governor of Massachusetts, and who, but for his early death, would surely have risen to still higher places of responsibility and honor in a nation that knows how to secure for its service men of wide vision, integrity of purpose and administrative ability.
In the thirty years between 1880 and 1910 Cambridge again almost exactly doubled in population, a gain chiefly accounted for by an extraordinary increase in the number of families of foreign birth, and even as this book is pub- lished two events which foretoken further changes in the aspect and life of Cambridge are taking place. The completion of the subway from Harvard Square to Park Street in Boston, and the consequent rapid transit, will presum- ably be followed by another rapid increase in population, for Cambridge is the most quickly and easily accessible of all the towns and cities adjacent to Boston; and the purchase by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology of fifty acres of land on the Charles River em- bankment and the removal of that great and famous school to Cambridge will both increase the renown of the place as the chief educational center of the country and insure the rapid devel-
Patriotism was inevitable in a place of such heroic memories as Cambridge. It was not by accident that the first company received into the service of the Union in the war for the Union was a Cambridge company. It was not by accident that it was from Cambridge that the "Bigelow Papers" went out, and, by their mingled humor and reproach, pleaded the cause of freedom and brotherhood. It was not by accident that when the war was done, here was recited the "Commemoration Ode," the noblest lyric utterance that owns an American origin. In the war for the preservation of the Union, Cambridge furnished to the army 4,135 men, and to the navy 453 men, which was about one-sixth of the entire population, and, as at the time of the Revolution, must have taken nearly every able-bodied man of military age in the community. To Cambridge belongs the honor of organizing the first company of United States Volunteers. Soon after the presidential election of 1860 it became apparent to far-secing men that an irrepressible conflict was on foot. With patriotic energy James P. Richardson, great grandson of Moses Richardson, who fell at the battle of Lexington, organized a company of volunteers. When after the fall of Sumter President Lincoln issued his call for 75,000 soldiers, on the very next morning Captain Richardson and ninety-five members of his company marched to the State House and re- ported for duty to Governor Andrew. There were ninety-seven men in the company that enlisted for three months; and at the end of that time ninety-three of them re-enlisted for the war. In the words of one of these men, who expressed the feeling of all, he was "determined to go back to the seat of war and to fight till the war was over, and if need be he would leave his bones to bleach on Southern soil." The name of that man, Edwin T. Richardson, is inscribed upon the soldiers' monument on the Common, one of twenty-one of this first com- pany, more than one in five, who gave their lives for the country's salvation.
Cambridge people are very loyal to their city. They are apt to share Mr. Lowell's opinion of his birthplace, "There is no place
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like it," he said, "no, not even for taxes." When he was ambassador in London, Mr. Lowell was asked if he did not long to visit Egypt and see the works of Ramses. "No." he answered, "but I should like to see Ramsays in Harvard Square." Next to Lowell the most ardent lover of Cambridge was his particular crony, John Holmes, the brother of the "Autocrat," who "held his native town," said Mr. Howells, "in an idolatry which was not blind but which was none the less devoted because he was aware of her droll points and her weak points. He always celebrated these as so many virtues." His wit was as sparkling as that of his more famous brother, and he had equal kindliness with more of modesty. His fame is local, but he was the cherished companion of those who occupied a greater place in the public eye, and they acknowledged him their peer.
Richard Henry Dana was another scion of the best Cambridge stock, a blend of aristo- cratic inheritances with democratic principles, which is highly characteristic of the place. He was a lawyer in active practice in Boston and fulfilled the just expectations of his fellow citi- zens by the way in which he measured up to every public duty. He was part of the history of the anti-slavery movement and his rare gifts were always and everywhere at the service of the oppressed. The book of his sea-faring experiences, "Two Years Before the Mast," is a classic, and it probably has had a wider circu- lation than any American book, unless it be "Uncle Tom's Cabin." The well-deserved fame of that book has eclipsed the later reputation of its author as a noble-minded citizen and leader of public opinion, but Cambridge cherishes his renown, and in no small measure bears today the stamp of his public-spirited and progressive influence.
Charles Eliot Norton was another Cambridge- born author of the same generation. He in- herited the beautiful estate of his father, Pro- fessor Andrews Norton, at Shady Hill, and there lived a life that came as near to the ideal as the conditions of the nineteenth century per- mitted. He was for many years Professor of Art in the University and kindled high ideals in the minds and hearts of two generations. He was the mediator between the best culture of the past and the active life of the present, inter-
preting the Greek ideals to our hurrying gen- eration, rebuking our materialism while he encouraged our better hopes. Ruskin and Carlyle were his European correspondents; Lowell and George William Curtis were his intimates. His contributions to literature only partially represent what he did for the humani- ties in America, for it was his creative sympathy that set the standards of our literary and artistic life and inspired the endeavors of artists and poets. He edited the letters of Ruskin and of Lowell, collected the orations of Curtis, wrote the biographical sketch of Longfellow, trans- lated Dante's "Divine Comedy," conducted the North American Review, and was the friend and helper of the leading men of letters in Eng- land and America.
But Cambridge drew to itself many distin- guished men of letters who were not native born. It would be sufficient honor to be known as the birthplace of Lowell, Holmes, Higginson and their comrades, but there are names of equal distinction that are associated with the place. "We are potted plants here in Cambridge," said the witty Frances Wharton, explaining to an English visitor that the men of whom he inquired were not natives of Cambridge, but were drawn thither by its University and its kindred spirits. Hither in the fifties came from his Oxford fellowship and his principalship of University Hall in London, Arthur Hugh Clough. His stay was short, but it is good to remember the contact with the life of the community of a poet whose word, as Mr. Lowell said, "will be thought a hundreds year hence to have been the truest expression in verse of the moral and intellectual tendencies, the doubt and struggle toward settled convictions, of the period in which he lived." Hither came later Elisha Mulford, who brought with him the reputation built upon "The Nation," a book that sets forth his mas- terly interpretation of our federal union, and here he wrought upon his great conception of "The Republic of God," making in these books "two pillars for sustaining the great arch of our social philosophy." Christopher P. Cranch, a man with the soul of an artist and a gift of poesy, lived on Dana Hill, and joined a tuneful voice to the chorus of minor singers who met at Longfellow's table. He wrote good poetry, painted pictures that are not so good, and lived
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a life of genial simplicity and patient endurance under trouble.
It was in December of 1836 that Mr. Long- fellow established himself in Cambridge, and entered upon the duties of the Smith professor- ship. He first roomed in the house of Dr. Stearns, on Kirkland Street-then called Pro- fessors' Row, where Cornelius Conway Felton, Professor of Greek and afterwards President of the College, was already established. Their acquaintance soon ripened into a warm friend- ship, which continued through life. Charles Sumner was then lecturing in the Law School, and with him sprang up an equally close and lifelong intimacy. George Stillman Hilliard, his law partner, and Henry R. Cleveland, then living at Jamaica Plain-both men of literary tastes-completed the friendly circle. These five young men formed themselves into what they came to call "The Five of Clubs." Some- what later on, when they began to write favor- able comments on each other's books in the Reviews, the newspapers gave them the name of "the Mutual Admiration Society."
In Cambridge and Boston Mr. Longfellow was everywhere welcomed. His sunny presence, his native refinement, his cultivated mind and his growing reputation united to make a favorite. He was not exempt from some social criticism, particularly in the matter of dress, for he was fond of using bright colors in his waistcoats, and neck-ties. In 1837 he first occupied rooms at the Craigie house, where Mrs. Craigie took lodgers. Established in these comfortable quarters he pursued with diligence his various occupations, academic, poetic and social. At the early dinner or the evening supper one or more of his friends were usually his companions. Felton was coming and going at all hours of the day, with some new book or criticism, or for friendly talk, prolonged into the night. Sumner and Hilliard came frequently from Boston, and often Allston and Palfrey were guests at the round table. In 1842 when Charles Dickens came over from London, there was a bright little breakfast, at which Felton's mirthfulness helped, and Andrews Norton's gravity did not in the least hinder, the exuberant liveliness of the author of "Pickwick." In 1843 Mr. Long- fellow married his second wife, and his father-in- law, Mr. Nathan Appleton, bought the Craigie
house for their occupancy. It became the social and literary center of the community. Haw- thorne, Emerson, Lowell, Holmes, Agassiz, James T. Fields, Charles Eliot Norton were frequent visitors. What Emerson did for Con- cord that Longfellow did for Cambridge. He made it the port at which every ship that sailed the sea of literature was sure to put in. There is no house so much the object of pilgrimage as the beautiful mansion which so unites the memories of patriot and poet as to make each contribute to the other's fame.
The pages of Longfellow's diary are set thick with the names of the people, great and small, who lifted the knocker at his hospitable door. In the journals we find the names, among others, of Thomas Hughes, James Anthony Froude, Anthony Trollope, Wilkie Collins, William Black, Charles Kingsley and his daughter, Professor Bonamy Price, Dr. Plumtre, the admirable translator of Greek tragedies; Dean Stanley, Athanase Coquerel, Lord Houghton, Lord and Lady Dufferin, the Duke of Argyll, Salvini, who read to him scenes from Alfieri to his great delight; Madame Titjens, Christine Nilson, the Governor of Victoria; Admiral Coffin, of the British Navy; and Lord Ronald Gower, who has given the story of his visit in company with Mr. Sam. Ward. When the Emperor Dom Pedro, of Brazil, was traveling half-incognito through the United States, he came to a dinner, having named the guests he would like to meet- Agassiz, Holmes, Emerson and Lowell. At the close of 1879, Ole Bull appeared from Norway, to spend the winter at Elmwood, reviving its relations with Craigie house, and delighting Mr. Longfellow alike with his music and his own charmingly simple and sincere nature.
On one day the journal records "fourteen visits, thirteen of them Englishmen." All who came were received with unfailing kindness and courtesy, and a quick, instinctive adaptation of his conversation as to their measure. If, as was usual, they turned the conversation to his writings, he thanked them for the sympathy, which gratified him, but very quickly and easily turned the talk to some other topic. Doubtless his courtesy and his kindness were often sub- jected to a heavy strain, by some who forgot the law of limits in the duration or frequency of their visits and their claims. Mr. Norton
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relates that he once gently remonstrated with his friend for suffering an unworthy protege to impose himself so long upon him; when he replied, with a humorous look, "Charles, who will be kind to him if I am not?"
"The key to Mr. Longfellow's character," said his biographer, "was sympathy. This made him the gentle and courteous receiver of every visitor, however obscure, however tedious; the ready responder to every appeal to his pity and his purse; the kindly encourager of literary aspirants, however unpromising; the charitable judge of motives, and excuser of mistakes and offences; the delicate yet large liker; the lenient critic, quick to see every merit beyond every defect. This gave to his poetry the human ele- ment, which made thousands feel as if this poem or that verse was written for each of them espe- cially, and made in thousands of hearts in many lands a shrine of reverence and affection for his name."
William Dean Howells came to live in Cam- bridge in 1866, first taking a "box of a house" on Sacramento Street, thence moving to Berke- ley Street, and finally building a house on Con- cord Avenue. His account of his Cambridge neighbors, printed in 1900, adds another charm- ing description of the characteristic life of the place. "Cambridge society," he wrote, "kept what was best of its village traditions, and chose to keep them in the full knowledge of different things. Nearly every one had been abroad; and nearly everyone had acquired the taste for olives without losing a relish for native sauces; through the intellectual life there was an entire democracy, and I do not believe that since the capitalistic era began there was ever a community in which money counted for less. There was little show of what money could buy; I remember but one private carriage (naturally, a publisher's); and there was not one livery except a livery in the larger sense kept by the stableman Pike, who made us pay now a quarter and now a half dollar for a seat in his carriages, according as he lost or gathered courage for the charge. We thought him extortionate, and we mostly walked through snow and mud of amaz- ing depth and thickness.
"The reader will imagine how acceptable this circumstance was to a young literary man be- ginning life with a fully mortgaged house and a
salary of untried elasticity. If there were dis- tinctions made in Cambridge they were not against literature, and we found ourselves in the midst of a charming society, indifferent, apparently, to all questions but those of the higher education which comes so largely by nature. That is to say, in the Cambridge of that day (and, I dare say, of this) a mind culti- vated in some sort was essential, and after that came civil manners, and the willingness and ability to be agreeable and interesting; but the question of riches or poverty did not enter. Even the question of family, which is of so great concern in New England, was in abeyance. Perhaps it was taken for granted that every one in Old Cambridge society must be of good family, or he could not be there; perhaps his mere resi- dence tacitly ennobled him; certainly his ac- ceptance was an informal patent of gentility. To my mind, the structure of society was almost ideal, and until we have a perfectly socialized condition of things I do not believe we shall ever have a more perfect society. The instincts which governed it were not such as can arise from the sordid competition of interests; they flowed from a devotion to letters, and from a self-sacrifice in material things which I can give no better notion of than by saying that the out- lay of the richest college magnate seemed to be graduated to the income of the poorest.
"In those days the men whose names have given splendor to Cambridge were still living there. I shall forget some of them in the alpha- betical enumeration of Louis Agassiz, Francis C. Child, Richard Henry Dana, Jun., John Fiske, Dr. Asa Gray, the family of the Jameses, father and sons, Lowell, Longfellow, Charles Eliot Norton, Dr. John G. Palfrey, James Pierce, Dr. Peabody, Professor Parsons, Professor Sophocles. The variety of talents and of achievements was indeed so great that Mr. Bret Harte, when fresh from his Pacific slope, justly said, after listening to a partial rehearsal of them, 'Why, you couldn't fire a revolver from your front porch anywhere without bring- ing down a two-volumner" Everybody had written a book, or an article, or a poem; or was in the process or expectation of doing it, and doubtless those whose names escape me will have greater difficulty in eluding fame. These kindly, these gifted folk each came to see us
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