Lucius R. Paige, History of Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1630-1877, with a genealogical register

“ [174] their heirs and assigns, . . . . so as to leave open an uninterrupted view from the said Dana's present dwelling-house of such part of Cambridge Bay and of Boston as may fall in the course of the same way, so far as the said Jarvis's land, lately Inman's, extends.” Judge Dana also owned much land on the southerly side of Main Street, both marsh and upland, including the “Soden Farm,” so called, bounded northerly on Main Street and easterly on Pleasant Street, and a large tract, bounded northerly on Main Street and westerly on Putnam Avenue. His estate bordered on the southerly side of Main Street, from Putnam Avenue to Bay Street, from Vernon Street to Pearl Street; and from Brookline Street to Front Street; also on the northerly side of Main Street, from a point about two hundred feet westerly from Remington Street to a point about midway between Hancock and Lee streets. The Judge had therefore a strong personal interest in the improvement of this part of the town.

Of the large lots lying eastwardly from “small lot hill,” the first two were owned by Governor Thomas Dudley and his son Samuel Dudley. When Dudley left Cambridge his real estate was purchased by Roger Harlakenden, who died in 1638, and his widow married Herbert Pelham. In 1642, Pelham appears to have owned the above mentioned lots, together with the next two, formerly owned by Richard Goodman and William Westwood; the whole containing 118 acres,¹ and extending from Main Street to Somerville line. Pelham also became the owner of the real estate of Simon Bradstreet, one portion of which was a lot of upland and marsh, long known as “Pelham's Island;” its boundaries very nearly coincided with Columbia Street on the west, School Street on the north, and Moore Street on the east; the east and west lines being extended across Main Street, beyond Goffe's Cove, so far as to embrace sixty acres in the whole lot. These two large lots passed, by several conveyances, to Ralph Inman, who became the owner in 1756; this executor conveyed the same to Leonard Jarvis, Aug. 21, 1792, except ten acres, south of Goffe's Cove, previously sold to Judge Dana. Subsequently Jarvis purchased the land between these two lots, extending from Norfolk Street to Columbia Street, and northerly from one hundred to two hundred feet beyond Austin Street; so that he then owned all the land bordering on the northerly side of Main Street from the point about midway between Hancock