Park House Hotel Landmark Designation Study Preliminary Report
Cedar Square/1-3 McLean Place/39 Cedar Street

Prepared by Sarah L. Burks
Cambridge Historical Commission

June 23, 2000 

Location and Economic Status
Description
History of the Property
Significance of the Property
Relationship to Criteria
Recommendations
Standards and Criteria
Proposed Order

Executive Summary

The Park House hotel (1847) and its later adaptation as an apartment block (1870) demonstrate the building's important associations with the broad cultural, economic, and social history of the City. The Park House hotel is the only surviving structure from the Cambridge Park trotting course, which operated between 1837-1855 in North Cambridge. The Cambridge Park trotting course was an important example of a regional recreation and sporting facility that has been missing from Cambridge since the track closed in 1855. The transformation from a resort hotel to a residential tenement illustrates the broader changes that were occurring in the neighborhood, caused by the economic changes in North Cambridge from an agrarian culture of farmers, cattle markets, and horse racing to an industrialized city of factories and immigrant laborers.

As an historic and architectural artifact, the Park House hotel is a unique example of residential construction in the City. The building is a rare example of mid-nineteenth-century hotel construction in Cambridge, and in its 1870 remodeled state, it is also significant as a unique type of tenement building that is unlike anything else in the city. It is also historically and architecturally significant in terms of its period and style.

I. Location and Economic Status

A. Address, Parcel Number, and Zoning

The Park House hotel building is located on the west side of Cedar Street, from 50' south of Dudley Street to the corner of McLean Place. It is a three-story, wood-frame, multi-family dwelling with a low brick foundation. The structure is sited on a 17,938 square-foot lot (117' x 153.32'). The assessed value for the land and building (Map 192/Parcel 125), according to the FY00 Real Estate Commitment List, was $1,115,000. An additional 5,010 square-foot lot at 64 Dudley Street (Map 192/Parcel 123) is currently used for parking and is assessed at a value of $38,400.

The property is located in a Residence B zone. This is a residential zoning district that allows single-family, two-family and townhouse construction. The zone requires a minimum lot area of 2500 square feet per dwelling unit. The zone permits a floor area ratio (FAR) of 0.5 and limits building height to 35 feet. The existing structure is non-conforming, as it includes twenty-one residential units.

B. Ownership and Occupancy

Both lots (192/125, 123) are owned by the A. A. Flori Realty Trust, of which Antoinette and Arthur Flori are the trustees. The structure is currently occupied by residential tenants. The leasing arrangements are not known, nor is it known if all twenty-one units are currently occupied.

C. Area Description

The existing conditions of the site include a setback of approximately 14 feet from the sidewalk. The curbing is all of granite, and three large granite posts are located along the east edge of the property. The parking lot on Parcel #123 is unpaved. To the north of the apartment building is a large side yard; this is the area referred to as Cedar Square. McLean Place, the street to the south, is a private way shared by two other properties. Across Cedar Street to the east is a playground owned in part by the City and in part by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese. This playground provides a welcome open space to the otherwise densely laid out Cedar Street and Dudley Street.

The neighboring properties on Cedar Street are primarily wood-frame gabled cottages, built during the last quarter of the nineteenth century. The frame building at 31 Cedar Street was built as a greenhouse and was later altered for stores and a movie theater. The residential properties on the odd side of Dudley Street date to the turn of the century. Previously on that block were a furniture factory, tannery, and carriage factory.

Cedar Street is the eastern border of the Race Course Subdivision, a fifty-acre, grid-plan housing development of the mid-nineteenth century that is bounded by Harvey Street, Cedar Street, Rindge Avenue, and Clifton Street. The uses on the edges of the Race Course Subdivision were more varied than the predominantly residential character of the interior blocks. The eastern side of Cedar Street is intersected at an angle by Norris and Rice streets, which extend northeast to Massachusetts Avenue, one block away.

D. Planning Issues

A comprehensive planning process was conducted by the Community Development Department in 1993-95 for the areas of North Cambridge known as Trolley Square and Sheridan Square. The property at 39 Cedar Street is poised halfway between the two squares and shares similar planning concerns. Among the recommendations made in the planning report were to improve pedestrian safety, maintain open spaces, reveal and utilize rich historic qualities of the neighborhood, reduce traffic, improve parking, and support for neighborhood businesses in the two squares. Cedar Square, though non-conforming in the number of existing dwelling units, does provide a large open yard, landscaped with mature deciduous trees, on the north side of the building.

Any major new development should be sensitive to its surroundings. The historic development pattern has resulted in a residential neighborhood of small workers cottages, with the later addition of some double- and triple-deckers, spaced tightly on small lots. The impacts of a new development on the fabric and scale of the historic neighborhood, as well as neighborhood traffic, parking, and pedestrian safety, should be considered by both the private developer and appropriate city agencies. 

E. Map

City of Cambridge Parcel Map
Map 192/Lots 125 and 123
Cedar Square/1-3 McLean Place/39 Cedar Street and 64 Dudley Street

II. Description

A. Type and Use

The existing structure is used as a multi-family dwelling, with twenty-one rental units. The apartments are configured as flats, with each unit occupying one level. Each of the seven entries and stair halls service three apartments. This configuration of apartments dates to 1870, when the original Park House hotel was enlarged and altered for tenement-style housing.

B. Physical Description

The existing building at 39 Cedar Street is a three-story, eleven-bay (on Cedar Street), dwelling on a low brick foundation. The structure has a flat roof or a very low, hipped roof. The projecting cornice profile is flat. Four pedimented entrances were built ca. 1925. The detailing on these entrances includes transoms, sidelights, and molded cornices. The entire apartment house is sided with grey asbestos shingles that obscure original detail that may still exist beneath the siding or the shadows of which may be discernable. From early site plans, it is clear that additional doorway, stairs and porches existed on the building. Dormers are also likely to be detected beneath the siding at the third-floor level. Most of the existing windows are two-over-two, double-hung wood sash, which is consistent to the 1870 remodeling date.

With the exceptions of the addition and subtraction of porches and small additions in the twentieth century, the current L-shaped configuration has remained the same since the remodeling of the hotel in 1870. The building consists of two primary wings: one situated parallel to Cedar Street, with side entrances at 1 and 3 McLean Place, and another perpendicular to the first, with entrances at 1-5 Cedar Square. A one-story addition extends off the back of the first wing. The foundations of these primary wings are separate and the basement storage areas do not interconnect. The size of the building is somewhat disguised by its L-shape and generous open space at the side yard.

The facades of the building are punctuated by a large number of window openings. The fenestration pattern is very regular on the first and second floors, but varies at the third-floor level. The third floor was altered in the 1940s from the 1870 mansard roof to the present flat-roofed configuration. Additional window openings may have been introduced at that time, explaining the differences seen today in the fenestration of the third floor.

C. Current Photographs

Photographs not yet available. See final report.

III. History of the Property

A. Historic Development Patterns

1. Property Ownership and Development History

The common land of the old Ox Pasture, between Harvey Street and Rindge Avenue and west of Cedar Street, was subdivided in 1703. The property that is now Lot 125 of the Assessor's Map 192 was part of a large assemblage of property owned by John Dixon in the eighteenth century. John Dixon's grandson, (also) John Dixon, sold 10 acres of the property to James Frost in 1778 (Middlesex South Deed Book 81, Page 66). The property sold again in 1821 to Anna Cutter (237-77). Anna Cutter built a house on the property and sold it to Moses Child in 1828 (281-62). [Assessing Department records record a tax for a house on this site as early as 1821-23.] Moses Child sold the property to William Gates in 1831 (302-512), who in turn sold the property to James E. Simmons, a stable keeper (341-186).

In 1837, Francis D. Kidder, a Boston merchant, acquired the property (386-341). Kidder had amassed the rest of the property bounded by Harvey Street on the north, Rindge Avenue on the south, Clifton Street on the west and Cedar Street on the east. He constructed a race course or "trotting park" on the 50 acres of land in 1837. The course was referred to in the racing industry as Cambridge Park to distinguish it from other racing venues. In municipal and county records, the area is most often referred to as the race course. City Directories refer to the hotel as the Park House, Trotting Park House, Race Course Hotel, and Hotel Flanders.

The flat land and soil of rich clay made an ideal surface for horse racing. The track was one mile long. The shape of the course was depicted on maps as four-sided, a square of sorts. This would seem to be a difficult, if not dangerous, shape for making fast turns with a harness or wagon. Whatever the shape of the actual track, the decision to open a race course was a successful venture. The Cambridge Park was one of the major racing venues on the east coast during the mid 1800s.

In 1839, Kidder entered into partnership with James Oakes, another Boston merchant, to co-manage the race course. Kidder and Oakes financed the business with loans from Samuel K. Bailey, an auctioneer of Boston. The deed and mortgage transactions are all recorded, but the details of the business relationship are not known. Kidder and Oakes both paid off their mortgages by 1846. At that time, Samuel G. Reed, also a Boston merchant, bought Oakes' half of the business.

Not much is known about Francis D. Kidder, though he is almost certainly of the same Kidder family that lived and owned land along Rindge Avenue (formerly Kidder's Lane) since the last quarter of the seventeenth century. The Kidder-Sargent-McCrehan House (ca. 1792) still stands today at 146 Rindge Avenue, near Cedar Street. A seventeenth-century Kidder house was also built in the vicinity, but it does not exist today. Francis D. Kidder recorded his marriage intent to Anna A. Balch, of Boston, in Cambridge on January 18, 1834. His only child and heir was daughter Frances D. Kidder.

Samuel G. Reed bought one-half interest in the race course in 1846. It was at this time that a public house, or hotel, called the Park House hotel was built on the east side of the race track, adjacent to the grandstand. The hotel faced the race course and had porches along the front facade. (Cambridge Chronicle, August 22, 1908). The firm of Kidder & Reed was taxed for one house plus one "unfinished house" in 1847. This unfinished house was the hotel, during its construction. By 1848, Kidder & Reed are taxed for the hotel, one other building and fifty acres of land.

The trotting park and the hotel were managed from 1849 to 1852 by the reknowned horse trainer, Hiram Woodruff. Woodruff was famous as popular sports figure. In addition to managing the course, he won many races as either jockey, owner, or trainer. He trained and rode one special horse who was famous in her own right, Lady Suffolk. Lady Suffolk's impressive career and longevity were eternalized in the popular song about her, "The Old Gray Mare." Woodruff had previous experience operating a race course in Harlem, New York, where he managed the Harlem Park (1830) trotting course and the Red House Tavern. The Harlem course and hotel had been opened by Hiram's father, John Woodruff.

Besides Lady Suffolk, Hiram Woodruff raced several champion horses including Dexter, Flora Temple, Dutchman, and George Wilkes. Hiram Woodruff kept careful records of all the races in which he was involved and published the accounts in his book of 1868, The Trotting Horse of America: How to Train and Drive Him, with Reminiscences of the Trotting Turf. This book reads almost as a journal of the events that he witnessed, with details about the horses, winning times, and race conditions. Woodruff was well respected throughout the industry. He died in 1867 at Jamaica Plains, Long Island, New York. After Woodruff left the Cambridge Park in 1853, E. Goodwin became the new proprietor of the trotting park and hotel.

The growing suburban population of North Cambridge resulted in the 1855 subdivision of the race course. Cambridge Park's closure was lamented in the Cambridge Chronicle,

This far famed place of resort, the scene of so many victories and defeats, the Mecca to whose shrine such vast numbers of sporting men have for years periodically, like pilgrims, paid their devotions has succumbed! Its glory has departed! . . . The law of modern progress, is clear and sure: upon this arena, where has figured the elk, the bear, the deer, the harnessed dogs, the no-haired and woolly horses, the mazeppas, and the gladiators and runners a la Roman, will now appear the mechanic, the gardener, and the trader. The school house will be reared, and a fourth ward included in the city of Cambridge.

Cambridge Chronicle, May 26, 1855

This description of events at the race course seems fantastical, but it does indicate that more than just horse racing occurred there. In fact, a 1908 article from the Cambridge Chronicle remarks on the foot race of John Stetson and an English runner named Grindel. The article also notes that the hotel was a "favorite resort for athletes" who would come to train there, such as the boxers Tom Hyer and Yankee Sullivan.

Kidder & Reed's "Race Course" development was the last of the brickyard subdivisions in Northwest Cambridge. The flat land of the course was perfectly suited for residential development, and the large parcel was divided into 301 lots (Plan Book 6, Plan 37, Middlesex South Registry of Deeds). The hotel was situated on the undivided Lot 1 of 53,215 square feet. Most of the residential lots measured 6,000 square feet. Five new north-south streets were created between Harvey Street and Rindge Avenue. From east to west, they were Reed, Montgomery, Clay, Jackson, and Clifton streets. The street names were derived from land owners and popular figures of the day.

Francis D. Kidder and Samuel G. Reed, along with two other developers, Daniel Ayer and Nahum Packard, auctioned off lots on the race course subdivision in 1855. They offered substantial monetary incentives to the purchaser if a house was built on the lot within four months of the sale. The auction notice described the land purchase as a smart investment, anticipating that Cambridge would soon be annexed to Boston and suggesting that the land value would quadruple in two or three years time. Over forty-one percent of the house lots sold within the first few months. The house lots were first marketed to middle-class Irish in Boston and Charlestown. Sales picked up when the developers redirected sales toward Cambridge brickyard laborers. The streets closest to the brickyards were the first to be fully developed. The interior streets remained sparsely populated until after the Civil War. Another building boom occurred in the 1890s, when an influx of French Canadians arrived to work in the brickyards and other North Cambridge industries.

Land for a new race course was secured a few miles from Boston after the Cambridge Park closed in 1855. The new park was planned to be accessible by waterway as well as roadway. (Cambridge Chronicle, May 26, 1855). This successor to the Cambridge Park was probably the Mystic Park on the east side of Main Street in South Medford, which was open by 1857 (Medford Daily Mercury, Anniversary Edition, June 1955). The one-mile oval course in Medford operated as a race track until local prohibition around 1896 and finally closed in 1905, when the land was subdivided for residential development.

In North Cambridge, Samuel G. Reed bought the remainder of the race course subdivision's lot #1 from the heirs of Francis D. Kidder in 1868. Samuel G. Reed owned the half of the lots in the old race course, including the hotel lot, in 1873. Most of these lots were yet undeveloped. There was a small concentration of industry near the hotel lot at Cedar and Dudley streets. Reed owned two large stables on McLean Place, three greenhouses at 31 Cedar Street, and he owned the property at 63-75 Dudley Street, on which a furniture and a carriage factory were located. These businesses probably leased the land from Reed, a non-resident property owner.

The hotel may have been leased and operated as a residential hotel by Joseph or Franklin Flanders, because it was referred to in deed records of the 1870s and 1880s as "Hotel Flanders." Joseph and Franklin Flanders were the proprietors of the hotel called Flanders Exchange in East Cambridge. The Flanders Exchange, at the junction of Cambridge and Bridge streets, is last listed in the Cambridge Directory in 1869. The timing coincides with Samuel Reed's renovation of the Park House hotel. The hotel is labeled, "Family Hotel" in an 1875 map of the Race Course subdivision.

The hotel lot was purchased by John F. O'Brien, a local florist (P. O'Brien & Son) and gardener at Mount Auburn Cemetery, in 1883. The three greenhouses that Samuel Reed had built on the lot were probably what had attracted O'Brien to the lot. Mary E. O'Brien inherited the property and other twentieth-century owners have included grocer Morris Kramer in the 1920s and 1930s and the Porter Square Trust in the 1940s. The property is currently owned by the A. A. Flori Realty Trust.

2. Architectural Alterations

The multi-family dwelling at 39 Cedar Street is a remodeled version of the Park House hotel. According to the Tax Assessors' records, Samuel G. Reed enlarged and remodeled the hotel into flats or apartments in 1869-70. The assessed value for Reed's land and buildings increased from $5,000 in 1869 to $15,000 in 1870 ("hotel and stable enlarged on lot 1").

The 1854 Walling map (see Fig. 1) and a newspaper description describe the pre-1870 configuration as the grandstand, the hotel set back and to the south of the grandstand, and another detached building to the north of the grandstand. This third building may have been a house or stable. The grandstand may have had carriage bays beneath the bleachers, as depicted in an 1861 lithograph, "The Shed," of Hiram Woodruff's property (see Fig. 2). The grandstand was removed by 1870 when the long wing along Cedar Square was constructed perpendicular to the hotel wing on Cedar Street. The porch of the hotel had originally faced the race course, but had been moved to front on Cedar Street. The hotel wing had been divided into two flats and the Cedar Square addition was made up of four flats.

A detached building parallel to McLean Place was constructed behind the hotel by 1870. This may have been a barn, but by 1873, it appears that infill construction has attached this building to the two wings of the hotel. The height of these additions is not indicated on the map. A full porch was built onto the front of the Cedar Square wing by 1873. The 1873 engineer's plan of the property depicts three entries on the front of the hotel wing and two on the front of the Cedar Square addition. Six additional entries were located on the rear of the two wings. This process of addition and subtraction continued over the years, ending in 1942 when a 25' x 32' one-story addition was demolished from the rear of #4 and #5 Cedar Square. This was the last major change to the building footprint and resulted in the L-shaped configuration of the building that we see today.

A building permit (#30370) was issued to Morris Kramer in 1928 for repair of piazza (porch) and windows. The mansard roof on the third floor was boxed in, flush with the walls of the building in 1942 when asbestos siding was installed on the whole of the exterior. Other twentieth-century alterations included carpentry repairs and the reconstruction of the rear porches by the Porter Square Trust in 1942 (b.p. #41660). Other than general maintenance and repairs, very little has been altered on the exterior of the building since 1942.

B. Historic Plans

Unfortunately, no historic photographs of the hotel or subsequent apartment house have been located. Several plans have been recorded with the city and county, illustrating the physical changes to the footprint of the building over the years. These plans include the 1854 Walling Map, 1855 subdivision plan for the Race Course neighborhood, 1870 engineer's sewer plan, 1873 engineer's plan, 1873 atlas, 1875 plan of the race course subdivision (see Fig. 3), 1886 atlas, 1894 atlas, 1909 engineer's plan, the 1919 subdivision plan for the Hotel Lot, and Sanborn Atlases. Selected plans are attached below.

C. Bibliography

Cambridge Historical Commission, city maps and atlases by Walling, Hopkins, Bromley, and Sanborn Map Company.

Cambridge Historical Commission, city directories, Cambridge, Massachusetts, entries for Cedar Street, hotels, and individuals.

Cambridge Historical Commission, research files for North Cambridge history markers

Cambridge Historical Commission, survey files for Cedar Street, Dudley Street

City of Cambridge, Assessing Department, records for 39 Cedar Street and 64 Dudley Street.

City of Cambridge, Engineering Department, House Books, Sewer Plan Books, Street Plan Books and related indexes.

Foster, Charles J. "Biographical Sketch of the Author," in The Trotting Horse of America by Hiram Woodruff, H. A. Brown and Company, Boston, 1868.

Krim, Arthur J. with the staff and consultants of the Cambridge Historical Commission. Survey of Architectural History in Cambridge: Report Five, Northwest Cambridge & Survey Index. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Cambridge Historical Commission, 1977.

Longrigg, Roger. The History of Horse Racing. New York: Stein & Day, 1972.

Medford Daily Mercury, "City Was A Noted Horse Racing Center," Anniversary Edition, June 1955, section IV, p. 7.

Middlesex South Registry of Deeds, records for 39 Cedar Street property.

O'Malley, Thomas F. "Old North Cambridge," Proceedings of the Cambridge Historical Society, v. 20, pp. 125-135.

Pines, Phillip A. The Complete Book of Harness Racing. New York: Arco Publishing Company, Inc., 1978.

Welsh, Peter C. Track and Road: The American Trotting Horse. Washington, D. C.: The Smithsonian Institution Press, 1967.

IV. Significance of the Property

A. Historical Significance

The Park House hotel was an important part of the Cambridge Park trotting course. Every major trotting park of the period seems to have had a hotel on site to accommodate the jockeys, trainers, owners, and patrons. It is remarkable that the course was open for ten years before a hotel was built on the site. The Porter Hotel probably served as the place of lodging for the people related to the trotting park before the construction of the Park House in 1847.

The hotel remained an important feature of the neighborhood, even after the track closed and the land was subdivided in 1855. The hotel lot (#1) remained undivided until 1919. If the hotel had been of little importance, it might have been torn down at the time of Kidder & Reed's subdivision and auction in 1855. Instead, the hotel may have served as the residence for brick yard laborers and their families who were moving to Northwest Cambridge to work in the area's many clay pits and brick yards. The hotel and its later adaptation as an apartment block demonstrate the structure's important associations with the broad cultural, economic, and social history of the City. The transformation from a resort hotel to a residential tenement illustrates the broader changes that were occurring in the whole neighborhood, and the economic changes of North Cambridge from an agrarian culture of farmers, cattle yards, and horse racing to an industrialized city of factories and immigrant laborers.

The building is also significant for its associations with important historical figures. Although Francis D. Kidder was not a resident of Cambridge, his family was connected to this area of North Cambridge since the mid-seventeenth century. Rindge Avenue was originally named for the Kidder family. Samuel G. Reed was also a non-resident property owner, but he influenced the race course operation and the subsequent subdivision of the property, which was the largest residential subdivision of land in the history of Cambridge. Probably the most important association comes from the period in which Hiram Woodruff was the proprietor of the race course and the hotel. His fame and good reputation in the racing industry brought more people and champion race horses to Cambridge and made it one of the most important early racing venues on the East coast. There are still harness racing events today that are named in honor of Hiram Woodruff and one of his most successful horses, Lady Suffolk. Their careers are remembered today by enthusiasts of the sport.

B. Architectural Significance

There were very few resort hotels of this type in Cambridge. The other examples were the Fresh Pond Hotel and the Porter Hotel. The Fresh Pond Hotel was constructed in 1796, but was remodeled in the Greek Revival style in about 1838. The Porter Hotel, at Massachusetts Avenue opposite Beech Street, was built in 1831. The two hotels were very similar in their form: large gabled buildings, with the side of the gable facing front, closed pediments (Greek Revival feature) on the gable ends, triangular windows in the peak of the gable end, balanced fenestration, and small gabled dormers. The Porter Hotel had a one-story porch along the full front, with an open deck on the second floor. The massing of the side wing (facing Cedar Square) of the existing building at 39 Cedar Street is very similar to that of the Porter Hotel.

The Park House hotel probably resembled these two buildings from its construction in 1847 (Greek Revival period) until it was remodeled in 1870 in the Mansard style. Another example of a hotel constructed during this period in Cambridge was the Lechmere House Hotel/Flanders Exchange (ca. 1843) in East Cambridge. This hotel was more urban in style, with its masonry construction, but the massing, symmetry, and detail are similar to the previous examples. A possible connection between the Flanders who operated Flanders Exchange and the Park House hotel (called Hotel Flanders in the 1870s and 1880s) has already been mentioned.

The structure at 39 Cedar Street is significant for its architecture as a rare example of mid-nineteenth-century hotel construction in Cambridge. The 1870 remodeling of the building is also significant, as it created a unique type of tenement building that is unlike anything else built in the city. The building is unlike any other in the North Cambridge neighborhood, which is consists primarily of workers cottages and other forms of small residential properties. Remarkably little alteration has occurred to the interior of the building. It does not appear to have been fully renovated since 1870. The exterior has been altered by the removal of porches, changes to the roof, and addition of asbestos siding, but if the siding were removed, the existing details and shadows could be studied.

V. Relationship to Criteria

A. Article III, Section 2.78.180

The enabling ordinance for landmarks states:

The Historical Commission by majority vote may recommend for designation as a landmark any property within the City being or containing a place, structure, feature or object which it determines to be either (1) importantly associated with one or more historic persons or events, or with the broad architectural, aesthetic, cultural, political, economic or social history of the City or the Commonwealth or (2) historically or architecturally significant (in terms of its period, style, method of construction or association with a famous architect or builder) either by itself or in the context of a group of structures…

B. Relationship of Property to Criteria

The Park House hotel is a structure that appears to meet criterion (1) of the enabling ordinance for its important associations with the broad cultural, economic, and social history of the City and the Commonwealth. As a converted hotel to tenement block, it also appears to meet criterion (2) for its historical and architectural significance in terms of its period and style.

The hotel and its later adaptation as an apartment block demonstrate the structure's important associations with the broad cultural, economic, and social history of the City. The race track was an important example of social recreation and sport in the city that has never been replaced since the track's closure in 1855. The transformation from a resort hotel to a residential tenement illustrates the broader changes that were occurring in the whole neighborhood, and the economic changes in North Cambridge from an agrarian culture of farmers, cattle markets, and horse racing to an industrialized city of factories and immigrant laborers.

As an historic and architectural artifact, the Park House hotel is a unique example of residential construction in the City. The building is a rare example of mid-nineteenth-century hotel construction in Cambridge, and in its 1870 remodeled state, it is also significant, as a unique type of tenement building that is unlike anything else built in the city. It is historically and architecturally significant in terms of its period and style.

VI. Recommendations

A. Article III, Section 2.78.140

The purpose of landmark designation is contained in the enabling ordinance, which is to:

…preserve, conserve and protect the beauty and heritage of the City and to improve the quality of its environment through identification, conservation and maintenance of…site and structures which constitute or reflect distinctive features of the architectural, cultural, political, economic or social history of the City; to resist and restrain environmental influences adverse to this purpose; [and] to foster appropriate use and wider public knowledge and appreciation of such…structures…

B. Preservation Options

The unique form and features of the Park House hotel can be preserved through landmark designation under Chapter 2.78. Designation of the building would protect the structure and its mature landscaped setting by requiring the issuance of a Certificate of Appropriateness or Hardship by the Historical Commission at a public hearing for any alteration needing a building permit and visible from the public way. Landmarking would have the effect of preserving the character and architectural features of the Park House hotel. Landmark designation would not dictate that an architectural restoration be undertaken by the owner, but would provide a public process for reviewing any exterior changes that the owner does want to initiate in the future, in order to protect the existing historic fabric of the building.

C. Staff Recommendation

It is the staff recommendation that the Historical Commission forward a recommendation to the City Council that the building and property be designated as a landmark.

VII. Standards and Criteria

A. Introduction

Under Chapter 2.78, Article III, the Historical Commission is charged with reviewing any construction, demolition or alteration that affects the exterior architectural features (other than color) of landmarks. This report describes the architecture and character-defining features of the Park House hotel. Except as the order designating or amending the landmark may otherwise provide, the exterior architectural features described in this report should be preserved and/or enhanced in any proposed alteration or construction that affects those features of the landmark. The standards following in paragraphs B and C of this section provide specific guidelines for the treatment of the landmark described in this report.

B. General Standards and Criteria

Subject to review and approval of exterior architectural features under the terms of this report, the following standards shall apply:

1. Significant historic and architectural features of the landmark shall be preserved.
2. Changes and additions to the landmark, which have taken place over time, are evidence of the history of the property and the neighborhood. These changes to the property may have acquired significance in their own right and, if so, that significance should be recognized and respected.
3. Deteriorated architectural features should be repaired rather than replaced.
4. When replacement of architectural features is necessary, it should be based on physical or documentary evidence.
5. New materials should, whenever possible, match the material being replaced in physical properties, design, color, texture, and appearance. The use of imitation replacement materials is discouraged.
6. The surface cleaning of a landmark shall be done by the gentlest possible means. Sandblasting and other cleaning methods that damage exterior architectural features shall not be used.
7. New additions shall not destroy significant exterior architectural features and shall not be incongruous to the historic aspects, architectural significance, or distinct character of the landmark, neighborhood, and environment.
8. New additions should be done in a way that if they were to be removed in the future, the essential form and integrity of the landmark should be unimpaired.

C. Suggested Review Guidelines

1. Site

The landscaped side yard known as Cedar Square, with its mature trees and plantings should be preserved. This is an important visual amenity to the neighborhood and physical amenity to any residents of the building. The granite posts on the property should be preserved in place.

2. Structure

Further investigation and engineering analysis of the foundation and framing would determine the potential of this structure for thorough renovations. Removal of the asbestos-shingle siding would reveal the original mansard roof profile and may also reveal details, such as corner boards, porches, doors, windows, trim, dormers, or window hoods. The condition of existing architectural features such as those named above could be assessed and a plan could be developed for the preservation or restoration of those features.

Research has revealed that the building was larger than its present form during different points in its history. The construction of an addition could be determined to be appropriate if it were located behind the existing building and did not encroach on the side yard.

VIII.    Proposed Order

ORDERED:

That the Park House hotel, at 39 Cedar Street/Cedar Square/1-3 McLean Place, be designated as a protected landmark pursuant to Chapter 2.78, Article III, Section 2.78.180 of the Code of the City of Cambridge, as recommended by vote of the Cambridge Historical Commission on June 29, 2000. The premises so designated are defined as parcels 125 and 123 of Cambridge assessor's map 192, and recorded in the Middlesex South Registry of Deeds Book 27,735, Page 199.

This designation is justified by the significant associations of the Park House hotel with the cultural, economic, and social history of the City and the Commonwealth as the only surviving structure from the Cambridge Park trotting course, which operated between 1837-1855 in North Cambridge. The building illustrates the broad changes from an agricultural to an industrial economy that occurred in North Cambridge during the second half of the nineteenth century. The building is a rare example of mid-nineteenth-century hotel construction in Cambridge, and in its 1870 remodeled state, it is also significant as a unique residential hotel and apartment building.

The effect of this designation shall be that no construction activity can take place within the designated area, and no action can be taken affecting the appearance of the property, its buildings, or its landscape, that would in either case be visible from a public way, without review by the Cambridge Historical Commission and the issuance of a Certificate of Appropriateness, Hardship, or Non-Applicability, as the case may be. In making determination, the Commission shall be guided by the terms of Section VII, Standards and Criteria, and other applicable provisions of the Park House Hotel Landmark Designation Study Report, dated June 23, 2000.