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Thomas Anninger Collection
Donated to the Cambridge Historical Commission by Thomas Anninger, 2006
10 inches
Finding Aid Prepared by H. Alice Dodds, February, 2007
Cambridge Historical Commission
831 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139
Description
The Thomas Anninger Collection was donated to the Cambridge Historical Commission by Mr. Anninger in 2006. A resident of 26 Healey Street in Cambridge since 1967, and an attorney in Boston for many years, Mr. Anninger gave generously of his time, expertise, and wisdom to the Cambridge community.
While this collection includes background papers dated as early as 1931, it is primarily focused on the years 1984-l989. These years followed Mr. Anninger’s term of service, 1980-1984, as President of the Cambridge Neighborhood Ten Association; as documented in the Neighborhood Ten Association Collection, also donated to the Cambridge Historical Commission by Mr. Anninger.
Taken together, these two collections span Mr. Anninger’s work for the community in two separate contexts: first, in the context of a Cambridge neighborhood group and second, outside the neighborhood group as a member of various other community organizations. Both contexts cover city preservation issues, do not duplicate each other on specific subject matters, and should be reviewed together in order to obtain a full account of Mr. Anninger’s endeavors.
The primary focus of the Thomas Anninger Collection is the community’s felt need to preserve the integrity of the historic Harvard Square area. While a number of organizations are included in the collection as contributing to this goal, the pivotal group with which Mr. Anninger worked closely was the Harvard Square Defense Fund; of which he was a Board Member and for a short time Vice- President.
Materials on the work of the Harvard Square Defense Fund can be found throughout the collection. While there is a separate series, Series IV, devoted solely to this group, its influence and reach can be seen elsewhere in the collection, as for example in the positions the group took on individual development sites, or on the Harvard Square Overlay District Regulations, or in the newspaper articles describing the issues and personalities of the day.
Compared to the unusually momentous preservation issues covered in the Neighborhood Ten Collection, this Collection records important contributions to a range of matters, perhaps of less dramatic impact on but of no less significance to, the welfare of the Harvard Square area. The Thomas Anninger Collection does indeed give valuable insight into dedicated community activism centered on preserving the integrity of a precious historical environment.
Scope and Content
Series I – Cambridge, City
of
The materials in this series touch only briefly on the activities undertaken
by the City of Cambridge in the field of preservation. More complete information
about the City’s work in this area can be found under other series heading,
most notably Series VI – Overlay District, Harvard Square, and Series
VII -- Sites
Series II – Clippings
The clippings found here are of general interest regarding the Harvard Square
area. The few articles regarding individual sites are filed in the respective
site folders.
Series III – Fresh Pond Reservation
This series documents Mr. Anninger’s long-standing interest in and support
of the upkeep and use of the Fresh Pond Reservation. Also recorded here are
Mr. Anninger’s efforts on behalf of the Cambridge Sports Union, and the
group’s desire to make use of the Fresh Pond facilities.
Series IV – Harvard Square
Defense Fund
One of the most significant series in the Anninger Collection, these materials
give detailed information, covering the years 1984-1988, on the workings of
a highly influential group concerned with the preservation of the Harvard Square
area, the Harvard Square Defense Fund. Of particular interest are the minute
of the meeting held during the years 1986, 1987, 1988, which record the group’s
deliberations regarding sites being developed and preservation issues at stake.
The series can be most usefully understood when studied in combination with
Series VI – Overlay District, Harvard Square and Series VII – Sites.
Series V – Organizations and
Institutions
Limited materials on a few of the many organizations and institutions concerned
with the preservation of Harvard Square can be found here. While most of these
groups receive only passing mention, their inclusion here serves to identify
them as possible sources to be pursued further elsewhere. Three of the most
influential groups were the Cambridge Citizens Advisory Committee, The Coalition
for Harvard Square, and the Harvard Square Advisory Committee.
Series VI – Overlay District,
Harvard Square
The longstanding regulations governing the erection and renovation of buildings
in the Harvard Square area, the Overlay, came under criticism in the 1980s.
This series records, to a limited extent, the proposed revisions, the ensuing
debate, and the community activism directed toward the adoption of the reforms.
Series VII – Publications, Neighborhood Profiles
These descriptions, known as profiles, of nine Cambridge neighborhoods were
prepared by the City of Cambridge Community Development Office in 1974 and 1975.
Series VIII – Sites
Except for the three folders on the Brattle Square site, which give a full account
of the issues surrounding its development, the information available on the
ten other development sites included here is sparse and limited. As is true
elsewhere in this collection, the most useful aspect of these materials is the
identification of these locations as being at issue, and so to enable further
pursuit of the subject elsewhere.
Folder List
Series I – Cambridge, City
of
Box I
1. Community Development Department 1986, undated
2. Licensing 1985,1986
3. Planning Board, Signs 1989
Series II – Clippings
4. Clippings
Series III – FreshPond Reservation
5. Fresh Pond 1931-1932
6. Fresh Pond 1960ties
7. Fresh Pond 1971
8. Fresh Pond 1975
9. Fresh Pond 1977
10.Fresh Pond 1978
11.Fresh Pond Task Force 1977
12.Cambridge Sports Union 1978,1980
13.Master Plan 1978
14.Water Supply Publications 1975, 1976
Series IV – Harvard Square
Defense Fund
15.Financial 1986, 1987
16.Meetings 1984, 1986, 1987
17.Membership 1985,1986- 1989
18.Minutes 1986
19.Minutes 1987
20.Minutes 1988
21.Mission Statement undated
22.Newsletter/Annual Fund 1987, 1988
Series V -- Organizations and Institutions
23.Cambridge Citizens Advisory Committee 1986, 1988
24.Cambridge Neighborhoods 1987, 1988, undated
25.Citizens United for Research and Education (CURE) 1988
26.Coalition for Harvard Square 1987,1988
27.Harvard Square Advisory Committee 1986
28.Harvard University 1989, undated
29.Riverside Organization of Cambridge 1987, 1988, undated
Series VI – Overlay, Harvard Square
Box II
30.Overlay District 1985
31.Overlay District 1986
32.Overlay District 1988
33.Overlay District “Development Guidelines” 1986
34.Overlay District Petitions undated, 1987, 1988
35.Overlay District Regulations – drafts 1979, undated
Series VII – Publications,
Neighborhood Profiles
36.Agassiz Neighborhood Profile 1974
37.Cambridgeport Neighborhood Profile 1975
38.East Cambridge Neighborhood Profile 1975
39.Mid-Cambridge Neighborhood Profile 1974
40.Neighborhood 2 Profile 1975
41.Neighborhood 3 Profile 1975
42.Neighborhood 9 Profile 1974
43.North Cambridge Profile 1975
44.Riverside Neighborhood Profile 1975
Series VIII – Sites
45.Brattle Square Development 1987
46.Brattle Square Development 1988
47.Brattle Square Environmental Certificate January 4, 1988
48.Gulf Station/Harvard Hotel 1988
49.Harvard Motor House 1982, 1988, 1989
50.Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority 1986
51.119-123 Mt. Auburn Street 1986
52.St. Paul’s Church 1986, 1987
53.Story Street 1989
54.10 Mt. Auburn Street 1985
55.13-19 Mt. Auburn Street/4-6 Arrow Street 1986
56.12-14 Mifflin Place/40 Brattle Street 1988
57.Winthrop Park 1987