Even as Cambridge’s landscape continues to change, some community members are working to honor the city’s past. With its annual preservation awards, the Cambridge Historical Commission recognizes local restoration projects from the last year, acknowledging the city’s history as an essential part of its future.
This year, the commission honored 14 recipients ranging from homeowners and volunteers to local businesses and other large-scale restoration, rehabilitation and adaptive use projects.
For Samantha Elliott, the assistant director of the historical commission, the city’s buildings are a part of its identity.
“Everywhere is unique, but we think Cambridge has a really great history” and the projects honored are part of preserving “that historic context and that unique identity that Cambridge has,” Elliott said. She said whether expanding its archives, doing research or preserving buildings, “it all really ties back to place-making and really helping to preserve that place.”
The Cambridge Historical Commission, founded in 1963, began awarding community members for preservation efforts in 1997. Every year, projects are nominated at a public hearing and the commission selects around 15 to be recognized with a historic plaque. This year’s celebration was held June 11 at the Pool Theater in Harvard University’s restored Adams House.
The commission’s historical work has to coexist with efforts to support the city’s modern challenges, Elliott acknowledged. “Our goal going forward is to find ways to marry up current needs and do the best we can to preserve the historic [and] unique character of Cambridge to continue to move forward in history as we’ve been here for almost 400 years.”
An array of projects
Among the winners was Douglas Okun, the architect on a project to uncover the facade of the former Porter Square Theater at 2000 Mass. Ave.
“The marquee sticking out from the arch had been covered for 45 years, and so, as part of the restoration of other parts of the building, we took the plywood off and uncovered a beautiful arch,” Okun said.
While he undertook this project on his own, Okun said he is grateful for the historic commission, which he called “a tremendous asset” for the city.
The commission directly supports some projects, such as the one undertaken by Elliott Reinert, manager of the Christian Science reading room at 23 Church Street. Reinert received a grant funded by the Community Preservation Act to restore the building’s historic exterior lighting. The restoration was completed in November.
Reinert said he hopes the restoration will brighten up Cambridge. “This end of the street is pretty dull, dark, so the church is here to serve the community and so we saw this as not only restoration and sort of honoring the architect who had a brilliant idea, Calvin William Galvin . . . but also giving a gift to the town.”
“We just hope everyone will enjoy it,” Reinert added.
Campus renovation restores purpose
Another winner was Lesley University’s South Campus renovation at 99 Brattle St. Formerly the Episcopal Divinity School, Lesley started buying its buildings in 2008 and completed its acquisition in 2018 when the seminary merged with New York’s Union Theological School. Lesley combined Reed Hall, a former library built in 1873, and Burnham Hall, a dormitory constructed in 1879, into a center for several programs, education, counseling, psychology and the visual arts.
Todd Andrews, the principal in charge of the project, said he wanted the restoration of both buildings to meet current needs while respecting their history. He praised Lesley leadership for a strength of vision that “wasn’t just simply to restore the buildings, but it was to restore purpose.”
He also thanked the commission for its help. “We spent so much time working with the commission throughout the process, and listening, evaluating, and refining to ensure that we collectively landed on something that we thought was just an appropriate response to the current needs, while still honoring the past,” Andrews said. “It was a thrill to get honored.”
Sara Burks, the commission’s preservation planner, says the contributions of Cantabrigians will inform Cambridge’s future. “Historic preservation as a field does a good job of documentation of the history and the physical resources of the built environment, and then that information is a tool to use for the community to determine what’s important to them to keep and what is bound to change,” Burks said.
“You can’t stop change from happening,” she added, “but you can think thoughtfully about it and make some priorities for what aspects of the existing environment you would like to retain.”
2026 Cambridge Preservation Award Winners:
Cambridge Housing Authority, Dan’s Place on Norfolk St. (see photos above)
St. Mary’s Convent on Norfolk St.
Lesley University’s Episcopal Divinity School on Brattle St.
26 Trowbridge St.
Lowell Memorial Park
Wadsworth House at Harvard University
Engineering Sciences Lab at Harvard University
85 Brattle St.
29 Maple St.
137-139 Cherry St.
23-25 Ellery St.
9 and 11 Mt. Auburn St.
Former Porter Square Theater at 2000 Massachusetts Avenue
Former Cambridge Electric Light Co. store at 23 Church St.
Chloe Taft is reporting this summer for Cambridge Day as part of a partnership with the Georgetown University journalism program.
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