Garfield Street Historic District

Garfield Street in Cambridge is a short residential street lined with Queen Anne houses, laid out in 1883 and built up between 1885 and 1891. All but three of the original houses remain. Most were designed by architects, including Eugene Clark, James Fogerty and William Sidebottom, and they range from small side-entrance houses costing about $4,500 to full Queen Anne examples costing as much as $10,000. Consistent lot size, setback and house height give the street unity, yet the houses vary widely in form. Wrap-around porches, towers, bays, terra cotta ornament, spindle screens, and colored and leaded glass are common. A few combine Queen Anne massing with Colonial Revival or Shingle style detail. The district takes in both sides of the street from Massachusetts Avenue to Oxford Street. It was listed because it forms a significant, distinguishable grouping and serves as an unusually complete catalogue of Queen Anne design, with a nineteenth century streetscape that remains intact.