Bigelow Street Historic District

Bigelow Street in Cambridge is lined with large Mansard-roofed houses built between 1869 and 1874. Albert Vinal laid out the street in 1868 and sold most of the lots to individual housewrights and masons. No two houses are identical, yet the group looks consistent because it was built in a short period. Rooflines and setbacks are uniform and follow the incline of the street, and the houses carry abundant, high quality decorative detail. Each cost about $11,000 when new, a high price for the time. Early occupants included a leather merchant, an iron foundry owner, a government detective, a Clerk of the Courts and the treasurer of a savings bank. One later house, from 1883-84, is Queen Anne in style, and one Mansard house was moved to the street to make way for City Hall. The district covers both sides of the street between Harvard Street and Massachusetts Avenue and remains privately owned, residential and in good condition.