Inman Square

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Inman Square Historic District
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Inman Square (Massachusetts)
Inman Square
Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts
Coordinates: 42°22′24.82″N 71°6′4.61″W / 42.3735611, -71.1012806Coordinates: 42°22′24.82″N 71°6′4.61″W / 42.3735611, -71.1012806
Architect: Newhall & Blevins; Atlantic Terra Cotta Company
Added to NRHP: April 13, 1982
NRHP Reference#: 82001951

[1]
MPS: Cambridge MRA
Governing body: Local

Inman Square is a neighborhood in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It lies north of Central Square, at the junction of Cambridge, Hampshire, and Inman Streets near the Cambridge–Somerville border.

Contents

[edit] Location

Like many "squares" in the Boston area, Inman Square refers both to an intersection and to a retail district and neighborhood. Current residents of the area seem to converge on a broad definition of Inman Square as the region centered on the intersection of Cambridge and Hampshire Streets that radiates out around 500 feet (150 m) along Cambridge Street to Prospect and encompasses the business district and outlying houses.

Geologically, the area is part of the larger Boston Basin and attaches to the relative lowland known as the Cambridge plain. Originally, the land was both flat and surrounded by an irregular, swampy region that formed a natural boundary. Situated a short walk east of Harvard Square, north of Central Square, south of Union Square, and west of Lechmere (also known as East Cambridge), Inman Square is fairly centralized within the Mid-Cambridge/Somerville area. Hampshire Street connects it with Porter Square to the northwest and Kendall Square to the southeast.

[edit] History

Inman Square likely owes its name to Ralph Inman (1713-1788), described as a gentleman of fortune and a Boston merchant. The details of his life can be pieced together from articles in the New England and Genealogical Register, vols. 12, 14, 25, 26, 30, 55, 84, 112, and 136, as well as numerous other sources. He had extensive business interests along the Boston wharf and with Thomas Sodden owned 400 acres (1.6 km²) making up "what is now the Port."

Inman also owned a "large, three-story rambling mansion" in a "little genteel Town about 4 Miles off (from Boston) calld Cambridge, where a number of Gentlemen's Families live upon their Estates." This included the Brattles, after whom Brattle Square was named.

During the American Revolutionary War, in 1775, American general Israel Putnam took over Inman's house as his headquarters. Inman was intent on remaining neutral in the war, but his intentions went for naught when his son joined the British Army, causing authorities to begin confiscating his property. He fled, leaving Mrs. Inman to deal with General Putnam. He apparently recovered from this, because he was at home again in Cambridge after the war.

Inman's wife, his second, was a business woman in her own right. She owned the sugar warehouse in Boston that the British troops took over as a barracks when they came to settle the unrest in Boston. It was from there that they marched to the Battles of Lexington and Concord.

An extensive description of the house is given in NE & GR, July 1871, vol. 25, page 232. "On the Inman street side" and "looking toward Boston road" are mentioned. It was "the first object of any interest in approaching the colleges from Boston ..." At the time of the description, six acres were still attached to it. Inman died there in 1788. His wife predeceased him.

Inman Square's origins lie in the growth of East Cambridge, starting at around 1790, when a group of financiers led by Andrew Craigie began buying up land around Lechmere Point, home to present-day CambridgeSide Galleria shopping mall, in an effort to build a toll bridge over the Charles River. After Craigie's bridge was built, he constructed roads from the Lechmere area that had been laid out with a gridwork of streets. One of these roads was the Middlesex Turnpike, the present-day Hampshire Street, which connected Cambridge with Lowell and Boston, bringing regional traffic through the area. Craigie also laid out Cambridge Street, which would intersect with Hampshire, producing Inman Square in 1809.

By the 1860s, horse carts were common in the area and contributed to dwellings popping up along their routes. By 1900, full streetcar service was in the area, led by the Charles River Street Railway, which built its first railway through Inman Square in 1881. By 1874 the region was an urban center called both "Atwood's Corner" and "Inman Square." This ambiguity was fixed a year later in a petition that would make official the Inman Square moniker.

After transportation brought people and commerce to the region, a new era of stability overtook Inman Square. From 1910 up until the early 1950s, streetcar, automobile, and foot traffic shuffled people to and from the square where architectural instead of transportation construction was taking place. During this period commercial dwellings popped up to service the local community: drugstores, taverns, markets, bakeries, delis, and an insurance company were among the many stores that called Inman Square home.

After the streetcars left Cambridge Street around 1950 the square became "just a little bit out of the way" yet remained "around the corner from Harvard, Central, Kendall and Lechmere." Even though there is not direct rapid transit, three MBTA bus lines (69, 83, 91) stop in the square, making it accessible by mass transit. Post-streetcar visitors still regularly frequent the area's restaurant and entertainment attractions.

[edit] Present day

Today, Inman Square is a culturally diverse neighborhood, home to professionals and working people alike. Students and professors from neighboring MIT and Harvard find their home there as well. Inman Square also has strong Brazilian and Portuguese influences, as can be seen in the storefronts lining Cambridge Street, especially to the East of Prospect Street.

Well known regionally, Legal Sea Foods restaurant started in Inman Square in 1950 as a fish market that also did a takeout business. Legal Sea Foods now has over 31 restaurants, including some in Kendall Square and Copley Square (in Boston), as well as in various suburbs and cities throughout the region. After the original Legal Sea Foods burnt in a fire it was rebuilt and became another regional culinary super-star, Rosie's Bakery, which distributes its cakes and pies throughout Boston.

Comedy is part of Inman Square's history. From the 1960s through the late '70's, next to Legal Seafoods one could find the home of the improvisational troupe The Proposition. Alumni of the troupe include actor Josh Mostel and original Saturday Night Live cast member Jane Curtin. Later in the 1980s, the Boston standup comedy boom took off at the Ding Ho restaurant on Springfield Street (now home of Ole Mexican Grill), where nationally known comedians like Steven Wright, Jimmy Tingle, Barry Crimmins and Bobcat Goldthwait got their start. Boston's oldest continuously operating improvisational theater troupe, ImprovBoston, continues to perform weekly in their theater on Cambridge Street next to Christina's Ice Cream. Notable ImprovBoston alumni include Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! panelist Adam Felber.

Until recently, Inman Square was also home to the Center for New Words, originally the New Words Bookstore, one of the oldest and longest-running women's bookstores in the country. While it closed its retail business in the early 2000s the Center for New Words continues to provide programs that support women's voices in the media and publishing. As of April, 2007, the square's only bookstore is Lorem Ipsum Books, on Hampshire Street. During the early 2000s, up until early 2006, the Zeitgeist Gallery resided there, on Cambridge Street, its space now occupied by the Lilypad.

Inman Square also has the distinction of being one of the few major commercial centers in Cambridge that does not sport at least one Starbucks. Home to 1369 Coffeehouse, the S&S restaurant, Stellabella Toys, The East Coast Grill, The Druid Pub, Bukowski Tavern and Ryles (a well-known jazz and blues club), it is considered by some to have avoided the chain commercialization of other significant crossroads in Cambridge such as Harvard Square and Central Square.

[edit] Images

  • [1] 1369 Coffee House in Inman Square.
  • [2] Rosie's Bakery in Inman Square.
  • [3] ImprovBoston in Inman Square.
  • [4] Punjabi Dhaba in Inman Square

[edit] References

  1. ^ National Register Information System. National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service (2007-01-23).

[edit] External links

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U.S. National Register of Historic Places
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