Thomas Graves, the first English surveyor to assess the area we now call East Cambridge, offered these thoughts on the landscape in 1629:
“This much I can affirm in general, that I never came in a more goodly country in my life, all things considered: If it hath not at any time been manured and husbanded, yet it is very beautifull in open lands, mixed with goodly woods, and again open plaines, in some places five hundred acres, some places more, some lesse, not much troublesome for to cleere for the plough to goe in, no place barren, but on the tops of the hils; the grasse and weeds grow up to a man’s face, in the lowlands and by fresh rivers aboundance of grasse and large meddowes without any tree or shrubbe to hinder the [scythe].”
Graves’ work as a surveyor led to the area being named Graves Neck, and the site of the house given to him as thanks for his efforts is marked with one of Cambridge’s iconic blue oval signs. He makes no mention of the Massachusett peoples who called this area home, but the Indigenous residents of the region undoubtedly moved through the landscape, gleaning oysters and hay from the salt marshes and using the hills for observation points. As English colonists arrived beginning in the late 1620s, they too took advantage of the lower regions to gather oysters for themselves and salt marsh hay for their livestock, and of the upper regions as grazing land.
History Cambridge will explore these topographical changes at a History Cafe, “Once Almost an Island,” on March 27. Once a “near-island” separated from the rest of Cambridge by rivers and tidal marshes, East Cambridge began to change in earnest in the early 1800s, when Andrew Craigie and the Lechmere Point Corp. bought much of the land, surveyed it and sold it off as individual parcels for homes and industries. The leveling, grading and filling that accompanied this process underpinned the neighborhood’s economic, political and demographic development for the next 200 years.
We will be joined by Conrad Crawford, environmental justice liaison at the Massachusetts Department of Fish and Game; Dennis Carlone, planner, architect, urban design consultant and former Cambridge city councillor; and Laura Jasinski, executive director of the Charles River Conservancy. In this interactive program, we will discuss what East Cambridge looked like before the arrival of English colonists, how its landscape has evolved over the past four centuries and what those changes mean for the East Cambridge of today.
Do you have questions about the East Cambridge landscape? Email your thoughts to History Cambridge and join us on March 27 at First Street Market, 57 First St., to learn more about the rich history of this vibrant neighborhood.
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 2025, we are focusing on the history of East Cambridge. Make history with us at historycambridge.org.
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Beth Folsom is programs manager for History Cambridge.
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