History Cambridge holds its annual holiday party from 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday. This year, in celebration of our Year of North Cambridge, the party will be held at Paddy’s Lunch, 260 Walden St., North Cambridge. We invite the public to join us as we mark the end of 2024 and a 90-year legacy of women-owned business in Cambridge.
Paddy’s Lunch does not serve lunch. The bartender made this clear to my friend and me when we asked naively at 4 p.m. if the lunch menu was still available: “We haven’t served lunch since before you were born.” It’s true, at 20 years old, we constitute hardly a fraction of Paddy’s 90 years in North Cambridge. The pub has been open since 1934 and is a Cambridge institution viewed by many as one of the final relics of the city’s past.
Paddy’s was founded by an Irish couple who immigrated to North Cambridge in the early 20th century and has been owned by women for three generations since its founding. The current owner, Ruth Ryan Allen, offered us insight into Paddy’s history and the challenges behind keeping the pub running. The key to ownership, Allen said: “genetics.” Before Allen owned Paddy’s, her mother was the owner, and before that, her grandmother, Margaret “Maggie” Fennell.
Sexism and anti-Irish discrimination complicated things. Allen’s grandfather had to sign most of the legal documents, and the family was unable to buy the building from the hardware store next door until the 1970s because “at first [the owner] wouldn’t sell to my grandmother because she was Irish,” Allen said. That doesn’t mean Paddy’s was for just the Irish community in North Cambridge. “I mean, we weren’t Irish,” Allen said. “It was like middle, lower middle class that were coming to us.” Paddy’s significance to the community was that it provided, and continues to provide, a space for people to get out of their homes and connect with other members of their community. Allen reflected:
“Our houses were very small, triple deckers – but you still had six and seven kids living in a one-bedroom or a two-bedroom,” Allen said. The only way that a lot of the families could get out of each other’s way “would be to come to a bar and have a beer.”
Paddy’s is a time capsule. Along the walls are old police and fire badges and one MBTA sign, torn down from a station before demolition by a family member. Allen keeps her grandmother’s rosaries on the wall, and her mother’s in the back room. (Her own is kept at her desk.) The tables and chairs were salvaged from Guido’s, another long-standing Cambridge bar that closed in 2010.
Allen reflected on the challenges of keeping a decades-old business afloat: “You know, the world is changing so much. I don’t know if people will keep coming. I can’t keep it open if we don’t have that, too. Doesn’t matter how much I love it, how much I want it, how much it’s needed.”
Despite a changing Cambridge, Paddy’s has remained consistent in a mission of support. Every September it hosts a 5K race in honor of a community member, with the proceeds going to supporting girls’ sports. This year, the race was combined with a celebration of Paddy’s 90th anniversary. Whether you are already a regular or have always been curious but never stepped inside what WCVB called “a dive bar making history,” History Cambridge invites you to join it Wednesday for a celebration of food, festivity and all the friends made during a Year of North Cambridge.
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.
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.
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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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