A steam shovel clearing the foundation for a new meat-packing plant in East Cambridge uncovered timbers in April 1929 that were far older: They turned out to be the causeway over which the British troops had marched on the way to Lexington and Concord on April 18-19, 1775, the Cambridge Chronicle reported.
“When this land was filled in to make a site for dwellings and factory buildings the causeway was covered up,” the reporter noted. “None of the local historians had ever mentioned the possibility that it still existed ten feet below the surface.”
City schools decided all Cambridge high school students should take a field trip to inspect the site, calling it “a worthwhile innovation” that would “help to show the changes which have taken place since Miller’s river covered a large part of East Cambridge.” The discovery of the causeway, which an editorial noted would soon be covered up again by the new foundation, proved especially significant at this point in the history of the city – and the neighborhood – and symbolizes the melding of past, present and future.
In 1926, just a few years before the causeway’s discovery, Cambridge had joined the rest of the country in celebrating the nation’s 150th anniversary of independence. In the first decades of the 20th century, changing immigration demographics and America’s participation in World War I caused many in Cambridge and beyond to fear that what they perceived as the national character was being changed or diluted by immigrants, particularly from Southern and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, China and the Caribbean.
In response to these fears, many local historical societies (including the Cambridge Historical Society, which was founded in 1905) formed as a way for wealthy white residents to preserve what they saw as the “true history” of their communities. The 300th anniversary of Cambridge’s founding, in 1930, also led to a rise in interest in the city’s early history, including the Revolutionary era.
School Committee member Charles Hurley spoke in support of Cambridge students viewing the causeway, arguing that “there has not been an era since just before the Civil War, when a return to first principles is more needed than now,” and that “every move that aims to revive the spirit of Concord and Lexington is good seed that, with a little cherishing, will bear good fruit.” Visiting the causeway and remembering the Revolution – and Cambridge’s role in it – would help to remind Cantabrigians of the guiding principles of the republic, which Hurley and others felt was sorely lacking in the Cambridge of 1929.
Such a discovery would have been newsworthy in any part of the city, but its location in East Cambridge was especially significant given the area’s role in industrial production. The causeway served as an early example of engineering ingenuity that foreshadowed the developments to come. Long sidelined as the place where important-but-unsightly functions such as meat-packing, coal production and other necessary industries were housed, along with their accompanying odors, smog and pollution, East Cambridge had an opportunity in 1929 to reclaim its history and place itself at the center of the city’s story.
The causeway was once again hidden by January 1930, buried deep beneath the new foundation for the John Merrell & Co. meat-packing plant. But for several months in 1929, the people of East Cambridge reveled in the chance to showcase their neighborhood’s role in the founding of the nation and its place in the present and future state of Cambridge’s economic, political and social development.
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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How was the discovery of the causeway a cause for pride at the nation’s 150th anniversary, when the former occurred in 1929, and the latter in 1926?
Did the Cambridge Historical Society preserve something other than the real history (without sarcasti-quotes) of Cambridge ? What historical evidence do you have that the history that the early society preserved wasn’t true history?
I do not agree with the origins of the Historical Society stated. History was important to everyone.
Since the demolition of the Hancock House on Beacon Hill in 1863 for the Mass State House, outrage sparked the preservation movement as Americans were looking for an independent identity from England. It was pride in the Revolutionary War that created historic preservation.
The Paul Revere House was saved from the wrecking ball in 1907, the same year prominent settlement houses in North End, supported by wealthy, were established educating immigrant women. The Saturday Evening Girls social club for example, introduced immigrant children to literature, arts and skills (via a pottery). Many found employment as domestic servants, in factories and building trades (many in Cambridge across the river). Cambridge schools were fully integrated unlike Boston. Workers in Cambridge made the city one of the most industrious in the country. History matters.