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South Canal, 60 feet wide, about midway between Harvard Street and Broadway, from South Dock to a point 113 feet easterly from Davis Street.
“In 1802, a school house was built on a piece of land1 presented by Mr. Andrew Bordman to the town for that purpose.
It cost about six hundred dollars; upwards of three hundred dollars were paid by the town of Cambridge, and the remainder contributed by individuals.”
“In 1803, a Fire Society was formed, which, at an expense of upwards of five hundred dollars, procured an excellent engine; and a company was raised to take charge of it.”
2
By an act passed June 15, 1805, Royal Makepeace, John Cook, Josiah Mason, Jr., Daniel Mason, and Andrew Bordman, were “constituted and made a corporation and body-politic, by the name of the Cambridgeport Meeting-house Corporation, . . . for the purpose of building a meeting-house and supporting public worship therein, in the easterly part of Cambridge.”
Of the hundred shares of stock in this Corporation, Rufus Davenport was the owner of twenty, and Royal Makepeace of seventeen.
A spacious brick meeting-house was erected on the westerly side of the square bounded by Broadway, and Boardman, Harvard, and Columbia streets. The easterly half of the square was given by Andrew Bordman, and the westerly half by the owners of the “hundred share estate.”
3 This house was dedicated Jan. 1, 1807.
By an Act passed March 1, 1808, the proprietors of the meeting-house, together with all the inhabitants and estates in the Fifth School District, in Cambridge, east of Dana Street and a line extended in the same direction northerly to Charlestown (now Somerville), and southerly to the river, were incorporated
1 At the northwesterly corner of Windsor and School streets, where a large brick school-house now stands.
2 Dr. Holmes' Ordination Sermon, ut sup.
3 A portion of this square was offered to the County of Middlesex, for the accommodation of a court-house and other County buildings; but the offer was not accepted. The meeting-house was occupied until Nov. 10, 1833, when it was so much damaged by the wind that it was abandoned, and a new house was erected, in 1834, on the northerly side of Austin Street, between Norfolk and Essex streets. The lot, having ceased to be used for a meeting-house, was forfeited, and reverted to the heirs and assigns of the donors. It is worthy of note, as indicating the expectations indulged at that period, that when the meeting-house was erected, there was not a single dwelling-house on Columbia Street; this fact was assigned by the Selectmen, Nov. 3, 1806, as a reason for not establishing that street as a public highway.
Boston. Houghton and Mifflin. 1877.
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