Growing Up Gen Z in North Cambridge: A Young Person’s Perspective

In “Cambridge Reconsidered,” a 1970s examination of the history and culture of Cambridge, North Cambridge was referred to as the neighborhood where “the real old Cambridge families live.” Forty years later, North Cambridge is still known for its nostalgic and authentic identity: There are Facebook groups dedicated to sharing memories of childhood in “NC” and, for many years, a self-published magazine “Growing Up in North Cambridge” preserved photographs, memories and tidbits of history from residents remembering their 20th century childhoods.

While the pulse of life in older North Cambridge is well preserved, the North Cambridge of today is open for exploration – particularly the question of how 21st-century adolescents experienced the neighborhood as a backdrop to their childhoods. History Cambridge interviewed members of Gen Z living in North Cambridge about their experiences growing up in the neighborhood to begin developing an updated archive of North Cambridge memory.

Today, there are around 15,000 people in North Cambridge, which is recognized by the Cambridge census as the area spanning the tip of Porter Square to just behind Alewife, bounded by the train tracks. Despite this official definition, community identity blurs the boundaries that distinguish North Cambridge from its next-door neighbors.

Historically, North Cambridge has been an area of industrial development: clay pits, brick factories, tanneries. The early populations of North Cambridge were shaped by these industries and the immigrants from Ireland, French Canada and Lithuania, as well as southern Black migrants who sustained them. While North Cambridge is no longer an industrial area of clay pits and factories, it is still home to many of the descendants of these groups. In the past several decades new immigrant groups have settled in North Cambridge. Ethiopian, Eritrean, Somali, Haitian and Bengali communities, among others, are now folded into the fabric of the neighborhood.

Through our conversations with young North Cambridge residents, we learned how they perceive their neighborhood’s identity and history, as well as the changes it has experienced over the past decades. We were told about the issues that plague North Cambridge: gentrification, segregation, the pricing out of longtime residents and a general sense of fading community. They also shared stories of resilience, nostalgia and hope for the future of North Cambridge.

These interviews with community residents are grounded in the physical spaces of North Cambridge, and this article can be used as a guide to explore the neighborhood in your own time.

The Kidder-Sargent-McCrehan House: 156 Rindge Ave.

The Kidder-Sargent house is one of the oldest houses in North Cambridge. It was built in 1792 by Nathaniel Kidder as a farmhouse for his orchard but converted by its second owner, Solomon Sargent, into a boarding house for brickyard workers. The house’s third owner, Jeremiah McCrehan, was an Irish laborer who immigrated to North Cambridge to work in the brickyards and lived in Sargent’s boarding house. Eventually McCrehan bought the house and established a brickyard on Sherman Street, which later became Jerry’s Pit.

We spoke to Sam, whose family moved to the house when he was 5, about his experience growing up in the historic North Cambridge house: “Sometimes people wander up from the sidewalk. We had these people knock on the door. [The Kidder-Sargents] were the families that had it when it was a farm and had a ton of land, way back in the day. So we had some people who said they were Sargents come to the house, and were like, ’Can we get a tour?’”

Beyond the deep history of his home, Sam also feels connected to North Cambridge through its youth sports culture, particularly its soccer teams. The Kidder-Sargent-McCrehan home remained an active part of North Cambridge history, at least for Sam and his friends: “I would have all these people at my house after school. Having the community of just being able to walk to school or walk home together was a thing.”

Walden Square Apartments and Rindge Towers: 21 Walden Square Road and 402 Rindge Ave.

Walden Square Apartments and Rindge Towers are two affordable-housing communities in North Cambridge. We spoke to Kaliab, a college student who grew up in the Walden Square Apartments, about his experience. He and his friends would walk the Purple Line railroad track as a shortcut to travel between Walden Square and the Rindge Towers. Kaliab’s early sense of community was tied to North Cambridge. He learned to swim in the North Cambridge swimming pool and grew up playing basketball with friends on the Peabody courts. His Walden Square neighbors were there if he was locked out, needed a ride from basketball practice or a babysitter. He still notices a shift in the community’s identity.

While older generations might blame changing generational values for the changes to North Cambridge’s culture, Kaliab believes that gentrification, new development and rising home prices are the culprit. To combat this, he works as a community organizer with Voices of Liberation, a Boston-based organization that advocates for Black, Brown and low-income communities. Kaliab helped expand its Anti-Gentrification Task Force into North Cambridge recently to help residents of Rindge Towers and other affordable-housing communities file complaints against their housing authorities.

Kaliab also attributes the declining feeling of community to overpolicing. “Parents don’t want their kids outside as much anymore,” he said. Though he can’t remember a time there wasn’t heavy police surveillance near his home, it seemed different in the 1990s when his cousins were growing up in North Cambridge and community centers such as the Gately were essential for providing safe places for children and adolescents in North Cambridge.

Gately was also important for Ishraq, another college student who grew up in North Cambridge near Porter Square before moving to the Walden Square apartments with his family last year. The center provided community connection and mentorship during his own childhood.

Ishraq feels particularly connected to South Asian and Muslim communities in North Cambridge. “There are a lot of immigrant parents that think a certain type of way, and a lot of people can relate to that,” he said.

In addition, “I spent a lot of time in the towers growing up because there were always Muslim events,” he said, remembering especially the Iftar parties in the Rindge Tower common rooms during Ramadan.

Ishraq notices physical changes to the community more than cultural ones. “The area has changed a lot because of the renovations of public housing. Now they are redoing Jackson Circle, constructing a new tower.”

Recreation: Danehy Park, Russell Field, St. Peter’s Field and Peabody Courts

The most common strands connecting the interviews we conducted were North Cambridge’s centers for recreation: Danehy Park, Russell Field and St. Peter’s Field – clay pits revitalized by the city into community spaces following the decline of the clay industry.

Sam remembered: “Going to Danehy or Russell was the way to interact with other Cambridge kids. And Soccer Nights at Russell field, that was really big for me. It felt very much like it was a moment where you saw [North Cambridge] being one community.”

Henry, who has lived in North Cambridge for 15 years, remembers fondly the secret shortcut his dad showed him from their home to Russell Field: “It was like an ’it’s a small world’ moment.”

Bryce, who lived in North Cambridge for most of his childhood, spoke about the baseball community at St. Peter’s Field: “I sometimes go to the games still, and all my old coaches I knew growing up are there; it’s nice knowing who’s who and that those people are still there to this day. So whenever I go down, they always ask me, ’Oh, do you wanna coach, do you wanna do this, do you wanna do that?’” Laughing, Bryce said, “I just go to watch.”

While the parks generate fond memories of childhoods spent playing basketball, soccer and baseball with friends, they could also be sites of tragedy. Ishraq told us of his friend’s parents who wouldn’t let their children out late after the killing of Paul Wilson in Danehy Park on Jan. 2, 2019. Ishraq and Kaliab mourned the death of Xavier Louis-Jacques, 19, an older schoolmate who was shot by the Peabody courts March 27, 2021. “I played basketball at the courts a lot and I sometimes go at night. He was shot a few days after I was there one night, and I was like, ’Oh, man, this is something that happened here, where I’m at, at a home of mine,” Ishraq said.

Kaliab, who grew up spending his summers at the Peabody basketball courts, says he hasn’t been there as much recently due to increased police surveillance after the shooting.

Jerry’s Pond: Alewife Brook Parkway and Rindge Avenue

Once known as Jerry’s Pit, Jerry’s Pond is a former clay pit that was filled with water in 1870 and turned into an artificial pond. Dig in the archives of North Cambridge history and you can find stories of summers spent swimming in the pit. For younger people, Jerry’s Pond is merely a relic of another era: It was closed to the public in 1961 due to fears over pollutants and chemical waste from nearby factories, as well as several drowning deaths of residents. Access to Jerry’s Pond is blocked by a tall chain-link fence, but a recent movement of North Cambridge residents and local environmental justice activists have called for its restoration into a park and green space for residents – particularly those at Rindge Towers and the Jefferson Park Apartments who are right across the street. Plans with the company IQHQ include depaving the surrounding parking lots (which have already been cracked by the expanding flora and fauna) and replacing them with wetlands, as well creating an accessible crosswalk and walking paths to access the pond.

Jerry’s Pond represents North Cambridge’s past, present and future. It’s a relic of industry, once repurposed to serve as community space for the neighborhood and now being readapted to fit the current needs of the neighborhood. Similarly to nearby Danehy Park, the pond is a byproduct of the industry that once shaped North Cambridge’s landscape. Unlike Danehy, Jerry’s Pond is still in an in-between state – a historic landmark with memory and history littered alongside the trash and asphalt, not completely neglected but still awaiting restoration needed to return it to glory.

Peabody School: 70 Rindge Ave.

The Peabody School was founded in 1889 and named after the Rev. Andrew Peabody, a local pastor and advocate for education and social justice. As a public school, it has served the children and families of the neighborhood for generations. We spoke with Bryce, a former Peabody student and recent Cambridge Rindge and Latin high school graduate, about his experience as a substitute teacher there. For Bryce, the value of teaching is in being a role model to younger generations of North Cambridge students and showing them how to create community: “Even in my work to this day, a lot of my old friends have younger siblings that I teach here. It’s less about the money. It’s more just about giving back because I had a lot of fun over here myself … I know a thing or two, so I love to guide somebody in the right direction.”

Bryce lamented the loss of lifelong North Cambridge residents to gentrification and rising home prices. “My grandma had the same fate, you know, she got pushed out, and she gets no credit for being in Cambridge her whole life,” he said. Many of the North Cambridge residents spoke of friends, neighbors and family who were priced out and forced to leave. It’s what Bryce would change: “Make more opportunities for the people in Cambridge, because one day I want to have a place … Everybody leaving is just really upsetting. We just need more safe spots.”

Bryce uses his position as an educator at the Peabody School to instill in students the community values he understands to be an essential part of North Cambridge. He believes that a return to the community he grew up with is possible, it just requires effort and intention to transform the neighborhood into a place where people feel known and connected to one another: “People just have to be more hands-on. Of course things have changed, but don’t let that take away from the present – we’re still human. I run into my kids all the time, and I shout their names,“ he said, referring to his students. “I show them that you should appreciate the people around you.

“When I’m in here,” he said, gesturing to the school building, “it feels like we’re all family. You know what I’m saying. I see the kids everywhere, and whenever I see them it’s always just really happy.”

About History Cambridge

History Cambridge started in 1905 as the Cambridge Historical Society. Today we have a new name and a new mission. We engage with our city to explore how the past influences the present to shape a better future. We recognize that every person in our city knows something about Cambridge’s history, and their knowledge matters. We listen to our community and we live by the ideal that history belongs to everyone. Throughout 2024, we are focusing on the history of North Cambridge. Make history with us at historycambridge.org.

History Cambridge is a nonprofit organization. Our activities rely on your financial support. If you value articles like this one, give today.

Isabel Macedo is a junior at Cornell University. This article is based on interviews conducted by Macedo and Miranda Santiago, a junior at New York University. Both grew up in Cambridge, and worked on this project as History Cambridge interns.Ú

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