Quakers sell their offices in North Cambridge, reaping $3 million; political party shares space
The American Friends Service Committee offices in North Cambridge have sold. (Photo: Marc Levy)
The two-story American Friends Service Committee office building in North Cambridge has been sold to The Nelson Group, a Medford-based developer, for $2.9 million, according to the Bldup real estate tracking site Monday and Middlesex Registry of Deeds documents.
The 10,000 square feet of commercial space between Porter and Davis squares had been on the market for well over a year at 2161 Massachusetts Ave. The broker was Hunneman.
The sale will be a funding boon for the Quakers’ Pennsylvania-based corporation, but the local members will need to relocate – as will the World Citizens Party, a political party that wants “a fundamental restructuring of the United Nations and its related institutions” and lists its offices at the same address.
The structure, built in 1939, has been owned by the Quakers since 1976, when the nonprofit group paid $105,000, according to public records. An assessment for 2022 puts the site’s value at $2.5 million.
The Nelson Group, with offices on Salem Street in Medford, has completed several primarily residential projects in Cambridge, including at 277 Broadway, The Port; on Line Street; and on Elm Street – where a building that was one of the first Hebrew schools in Cambridge was turned into a three-bedroom, 3.5-bath home.
Messages were left Monday with the American Friends Service Committee, World Citizens Party and Hunneman.
This post was updated Aug. 4, 2021, with information about the property’s buyer.
I love that building, please don’t let them tear it down and put up hideous condos :(
2161 Mass Ave (the “Wilfred Delaney House”) has been flagged as possibly significant by the Cambridge Historical Commission. The architect was William Lawrence Galvin, who attended Rindge Technical School and Cambridge High & Latin School before graduating from Harvard and Harvard School of Architecture. He’s behind some of the really cool Streamline Moderne/art deco style architecture from the 30s and 40s around Cambridge—and 2161 seems a beautiful example of his work. Folks should write to the Commission and ask them to preserve it before it’s too late.