HISTORICAL COMMISSION PRESERVATION RECOGNITION PROGRAM

The Cambridge Historical Commission celebrated ten outstanding historic preservation projects completed in 2006 at its annual Preservation Awards reception on May 23rd, at the Longy School of Music at 33 Garden Street. Now in its eleventh year, the Preservation Recognition Program honors property owners and other project participants who conserve and protect the city’s architecture and historic resources. All of the projects represent substantial private and public investment in the historic resources of Cambridge and improvements in our quality of life.

A wide range of properties were recognized, including private homes, university buildings, a historic garden, and a commercial sign. Also honored were four outstanding commercial properties supported by the Community Development Department’s Façade, Signage & Lighting Improvement Program.

Preservation Awards for outstanding restoration and preservation projects were given to the following projects: the Longfellow Garden at 105 Brattle Street; 11 Kennedy Road; 84 Magazine Street; the commercial sign at 910 Massachusetts Avenue; 2536-2538 Massachusetts Avenue; Harvard University’s Dana-Palmer House at 16 Quincy Street; 79 Thorndike Street; 135 Western Avenue; and the Radcliffe Gymnasium.

The Anthony C. Platt award is presented each year to an exceptional preservation project in a neighborhood conservation district. The award is named in memory of former Historical Commission and Mid Cambridge Neighborhood Conservation District member Anthony C. Platt. The winner of this year's Platt award was 31 Bates Street in the Avon Hill Neighborhood Conservation District, a renovation of a Tudor Revival style home that included a sensitively designed addition.

Four storefront renovations were awarded Certificates of Merit in recognition of their positive contribution to the streetscape and respectful treatment of historic aspects of their buildings: Luigi’s Variety (520 Cambridge Street); Carriage House Salon/Lizzy’s Ice Cream Parlor (31-33 Church Street); Didriks and Nelson & Hertzberg Orthodontics of Cambridge (186-190 Concord Avenue); and Pandemonium Books (4 Pleasant Street).

The Longy School of Music’s renovation of its building at 33 Garden Street received a Preservation Award in 2006. The Italianate house was built in 1903 for the engineer Erasmus Darwin Leavitt, Jr., one of the country’s foremost designers of heavy pumps, engines, and mining machinery. The school purchased the house in 1998 and completed renovations in 2005, transforming the building into a space suitable for the teaching and practice of music. Particularly innovative was the transformation of the basement, a cramped area used for general storage, into an exciting, functional, and modern space, with lounge areas and reconfigurable practice rooms.

The Historical Commission is pleased to honor and celebrate the commitment of all the individuals who work together on these projects to make Cambridge a more attractive and desirable place in which to live and work.