Blackstone History
Blackstone Station
In June 1888, the newly-formed Cambridge Electric Light Company, in order to provide sufficient electricity for the city's growing number of street lamps, began construction of a new electric station along the banks of the Charles River. Bounded by the river, Western Avenue, Albro Street and Ampere Street, the plant was situated alongthe low water line of theriver. This centrally located site allowed ideal access for the barge delivery of coal. Improvements were constantly made and the plant thrived as the demand for electricity grew so much that expansion was soon deemed necessary.
The same prosperity and growth that spurred the need for electricity also encouraged the desire for green space in the increasingly populous city. Following the example set by Boston, a new City of Cambridge Park Commission was created and led by landscape architect Charles Eliot, son of then Harvard President Charles W. Eliot. In 1894 the commission set about acquiring all riverfront property through eminent domain, including the land on which the electric station stood, and planned a series of parks linked by the new Charles River Road (now Memorial Drive).
By the spring of 1901, construction began on the new power plant buildings designed by the Boston engineering firm of Sheaff and Jaastad. The office and storehouse building, a long one story building with a one-and-a-half story office block on the corner of Blackstone Street and Western Avenue, was the first to be completed. Soon after, a building permit was issued for the generating plant situated along the new parkway. This massive structure, running one hundred and fifty feet along the riverfront, included both the cavernous engine hall and a smaller boiler room.
Over the years the site and buildings were altered in many ways. The office and storehouse building was raised one story (1915), a small building was added between the storehouse and boiler room (1918), a grouping of garage buildings was placed along the parkway (1919-1923), a switch house was built across Blackstone Street (1922) and later expanded (1941), a smaller workshop building was added next to the Standard Diary Co. (1926) and the boiler room roof was raised over 20 feet (1930). Further changes and improvements were made to the buildings throughout the 1950s and 1960s.
Today, eighty percent of Harvard's buildings are heated by steam produced at Blackstone and distributed through over ten miles of pipeline under the campus.
Standard Diary
Founded in 1850 by Edwin Dresser and Eben Denton, what eventually became known as the Standard Diary Company has modest beginnings in two rooms over a storefront on Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge. The company produced small diaries and memo books on hand-turned presses from paper carried from Boston by the owners.
As the popularity of the diaries grew, most significantly during the Civil War and World War I, the company adapted to its growing needs. In 1857 Standard Diary leased more spacious quarters on Magazine Street where, in 1873, it was incorporated as the Cambridgeport Diary Company. In 1889, it purchased land on the corner of Blackstone and Albro Streets to locate a new factory and headquarters among related institutions including The Riverside Press and Little & Brown Bindery.
Designed by architects Chamberlin & Whidden, the four-story brick structure at 24 Blackstone Street was built to accommodate all the company's needs. A two-story warehouse was added in 1929.
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