A historic property across from Cambridge Common is due this year to become a 16-room “lodging house” – like a boutique hotel – run by Lark, a New England company that operates restaurants and a range of hospitality brands across the United States and Mexico.
The site of the future Cambridge Common House is around the corner from Harvard Square at 2 Garden St., next to Christ Church Cambridge at Zero Garden St. The structure, built in the 1830s as a home, has been many things over the years: Under the ownership of the Episcopal Chaplaincy, it’s hosted nonprofits and student housing, as well as offices for Harvard’s student newspaper, the Crimson. Owned since October 2022 by Garden Lodge, a Kinvarra Capital company, the building has been rental housing and offices for La Vie, a Harvard sorority, according to Lark.
Garden Lodge obtained a permit for lodging house use in 2023, along with approval to build a rear addition to the building that added 1,188 square feet, bringing the total area of the building to 7,183 square feet.
The building and property, valued at around $3.1 million, will continue under the ownership of Kinvarra but be managed and run by Lark, the company said.
Lark bills Cambridge Common House as “a quiet retreat” with “lush garden patios” – but aside from the description and an assurance that the home’s iconic red door will remain, the company said it wasn’t ready to offer many practical details beyond the Aug. 4 announcement of a late 2025 opening.
Denise Jillson, executive director of the Harvard Square Business Association, has seen the property while it’s under construction and described it as being in the homestretch before opening.
“It’s beautiful. They’ve done a beautiful renovation and restoration,” Jillson said of Lark. “We’re looking forward to welcoming them.”
The three-story lodging house with a basement will include a lower-level of lobby and space for guest meals. Interiors are by Elder & Ash, a team that just helped open the speakeasy-style club Lou’s in Harvard Square at 13 Brattle St.
“We have long flirted with the possibility of opening a concept in the Greater Boston area, and I’m thrilled that it’s finally coming to fruition,” said Rob Blood, founder and chair of Lark.
Lark’s properties range from Awol hotels, which intend to immerse visitors in their natural surroundings, to Blind Tiger guest houses, which are meant to make customers “feel like they’re at the home of a friend.” The combined Lark Hospitality entity holds nearly $1 billion in total assets, employing 1,500 employees in peak season across 27 States in American and Mexico.
The home at 2 Garden St. was originally designed by Scottish-American horticulturalist and landscape designer William Saunders under contract from Sarah Lydia Robbins Howe, daughter of Edward Hutchinson Robbins – a prominent local lawyer and the sixth lieutenant governor of Massachusetts, according to History Cambridge and other historical sources.
Sarah Howe’s two daughters continued to live in the house after her death in 1862. Sara Robbins Howe ran a school for young children in the third story of the residence and lived there until her own death in 1916. In the early 1880s Clara Howe – sister to prominent Cambridge resident Lois Lilley Howe, who founded Boston’s first all-female architecture partnership – took over the school. Among her most notable pupils was Robert Walcott, who served as a judge in East Cambridge for 48 years. The house was then bought by a “Dr. and Mrs. Norris,” about which there is little information.
Lois Lilley Howe provided the story of the residence in a 1949 article to the Cambridge Historical Society. Speaking of the garden that once filled the rear of the property, and that Lark touts as a feature of its lodging house, she told of “tale of a student who became engaged to his lady love on his own class day, and the pair sat all day in that garden.”
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I’m glad it is coming to the finish line without ruining the exterior. The original plan was rather incongruous. But the interior design shown feels a bit intense, over the top and dense. I would have sensory overload staying there.
The ongoing concern about this “lodging house” is whether it will be staffed. I believe the original concept was that it would not be staffed on a 24 hour basis.