{"items": [{"author": "BDan", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/notes/jeff-kaufman/webster-ave-in-cambridge/10150204950401213/?comment_id=10150205253841213", "anchor": "fb-10150205253841213", "service": "fb", "text": "Very cool, especially the buildings. You can see something similar where Concord Ave and Garden St intersect near Harvard Square. In that case, Concord has a very brief discontinuity (just a bit of sidewalk) before continuing. And then it hits the Common, and the actual street stops... but a footpath continues the line across the Common. The other streets that run into the Common do the same thing. It's easy to find maps that show Concord crossing Garden, though I wasn't able to find any that actually show it or other streets going through the Common, just with dotted lines in late 19th century maps.", "timestamp": "1308697819"}, {"author": "Jeff Kaufman", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/notes/jeff-kaufman/webster-ave-in-cambridge/10150204950401213/?comment_id=10150205289841213", "anchor": "fb-10150205289841213", "service": "fb", "text": "I'm not sure it ever crossed the common. This 1830 map has dotted lines too: http://i.imgur.com/MgT9D.png (http://www.wardmaps.com/viewasset.php?aid=11946)
This 1777 image shows no roads in the common at all: http://i.imgur.com/Cbdex.png (http://www.wardmaps.com/viewasset.php?aid=11947)
Older maps don't have waterhouse to the north and have it stretch all the way north to linnean.", "timestamp": "1308701775"}, {"author": "inecather", "source_link": "http://www.reddit.com/r/boston/comments/i5nqk#c2158sw", "anchor": "r-c2158sw", "service": "r", "text": "Odd that it happened so recently. I kindof expect roads like that to break up in like the 1900's not 1970's ish. But I guess Somerville/Cambridge went through a lot of changes since then. \n\n
Also - I like that on the close up there is a place called "Geek Offices" on the corner of Cambridge and Columbia. \n", "timestamp": 1308710390}, {"author": "[deleted]", "source_link": "http://www.reddit.com/r/boston/comments/i5nqk#c215lk3", "anchor": "r-c215lk3", "service": "r", "text": "Cool! I'd always wondered. I used to live on the Cambridge side of Webster Ave... Caused me problems once when I ordered some food and the delivery guy was looking for my address in Somerville. Whoops!\n", "timestamp": 1308714056}, {"author": "Benacor", "source_link": "http://www.reddit.com/r/boston/comments/i5nqk#c2163t5", "anchor": "r-c2163t5", "service": "r", "text": "Best part about living on Webster Ave: close proximity to CBC.\n", "timestamp": 1308719679}, {"author": "radd9er", "source_link": "http://www.reddit.com/r/boston/comments/i5nqk#c21a2zm", "anchor": "r-c21a2zm", "service": "r", "text": "→ Atwoods and Lord Hobo aint bad either.\n", "timestamp": 1308771038}, {"author": "edeloso", "source_link": "http://www.reddit.com/r/boston/comments/i5nqk#c21flnp", "anchor": "r-c21flnp", "service": "r", "text": "→ → Lord Hobo is no B-Side. :-(\n", "timestamp": 1308839371}, {"author": "radd9er", "source_link": "http://www.reddit.com/r/boston/comments/i5nqk#c21fy3k", "anchor": "r-c21fy3k", "service": "r", "text": "→ → → I used to get haircuts across the street, and the lady (who was from Everett) told me that back in the 70s they used to call B side "The murdah bah" because "they used to pull body bags outa there every night".\n", "timestamp": 1308842711}, {"author": "[deleted]", "source_link": "http://www.reddit.com/r/boston/comments/i5nqk#c2173yw", "anchor": "r-c2173yw", "service": "r", "text": "So I asked a friend of mine, old timer that lived in the neighborhood from the late '60s until early '00s and his response was:\n\n\n
The street did run through but was blocked to curb traffic.\n\n
It was a throughway in the 70s, especially for trucks.\n\n\n
Inside the Atheneum building they have some interesting aerial shot of the area, which as I even recall in the '80s was very much industrialized. Basically, everywhere in East Cambridge/Kendall Sq. where you see large condominium or biotech developments used to be factories and/or storage lots.\n", "timestamp": 1308741516}, {"author": "Benacor", "source_link": "http://www.reddit.com/r/boston/comments/i5nqk#c21aec0", "anchor": "r-c21aec0", "service": "r", "text": "→ That explains why there's a sign that says "No Thru Traffic" even though there's no way for there to really be thru traffic.\n", "timestamp": 1308773638}, {"author": "[deleted]", "source_link": "http://www.reddit.com/r/boston/comments/i5nqk#c21bc2i", "anchor": "r-c21bc2i", "service": "r", "text": "→ → Thru traffic, or non-abutters cutting through your neighborhood, has always been a problem in that area, especially on Cardinal Madeiros and Third Street, as I can imagine Webster Ave. once was. I've seen other types of mitigation like rerouting heavy traffic through a connector or raised cross walks along with impeding trucks from using side streets, but cutting off a street with a housing project is a first.\n", "timestamp": 1308782832}, {"author": "toiletcake", "source_link": "http://www.reddit.com/r/boston/comments/i5nqk#c21859s", "anchor": "r-c21859s", "service": "r", "text": "Thanks for posting. I live right near there and have always wondered about that.\n", "timestamp": 1308755913}, {"author": "Hypnotoad22", "source_link": "http://www.reddit.com/r/boston/comments/i5nqk#c21ctpm", "anchor": "r-c21ctpm", "service": "r", "text": "I lived on Webster Ave a few years back. The issue you've highlighted here caused my take out to be cold more than a few times.\n", "timestamp": 1308797751}, {"author": "Rob", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/notes/jeff-kaufman/webster-ave-in-cambridge/10150204950401213/?comment_id=10150334620506213", "anchor": "fb-10150334620506213", "service": "fb", "text": "funny, i just noticed this on a map and decided to google for info, and your post popped up! it's a small world of people who scratch their head about these things.", "timestamp": "1320264326"}, {"author": "Rob", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/notes/jeff-kaufman/webster-ave-in-cambridge/10150204950401213/?comment_id=10150334706246213", "anchor": "fb-10150334706246213", "service": "fb", "text": "I start to imagine a world where certain streets are reconnected/connected to relieve congestion (Trowbridge could never happen--not that I would want to take out the awesome library, but maybe Norfolk St, Webster Ave, 6th/Ames, Properzi Way, Windsor St/Linden St across the train tracks, etc). Selective reconstruction of street grids also seems like a cheap way to create more bike- and pedestrian-priority pathways.", "timestamp": "1320269085"}, {"author": "Jeff Kaufman", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/notes/jeff-kaufman/webster-ave-in-cambridge/10150204950401213/?comment_id=10150334718146213", "anchor": "fb-10150334718146213", "service": "fb", "text": "reconstruction of street grids sounds very expensive, because you're mostly turning houses and business into right of way", "timestamp": "1320269793"}, {"author": "Neil", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/notes/jeff-kaufman/webster-ave-in-cambridge/10150204950401213/?comment_id=10150334729246213", "anchor": "fb-10150334729246213", "service": "fb", "text": "On reconstruction of street grids: some European cities ought to share the source of Boston's congestion woes - roads established without any central planning and before cars were invented - but don't, because those homes and businesses, even whole sections of the cities, were razed - bombed flat - in WWII. When the cities were rebuilt from the ground up, it was done with modern principles of design in mind.", "timestamp": "1320270461"}, {"author": "Neil", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/notes/jeff-kaufman/webster-ave-in-cambridge/10150204950401213/?comment_id=10150334739396213", "anchor": "fb-10150334739396213", "service": "fb", "text": "About the maps of the common: it would appear that the 1777 map was actually created in 1925, almost a century after the 1830 map. I'm just throwing that out there as a for what it's worth - I don't mean to say that the 1777 map is necessarily any less accurate.", "timestamp": "1320270997"}, {"author": "Andrew", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/notes/jeff-kaufman/webster-ave-in-cambridge/10150204950401213/?comment_id=10150334878046213", "anchor": "fb-10150334878046213", "service": "fb", "text": "Speaking of the Common, maps of that other Common in Boston are kind of interesting. If you walk over there it seems that the Public Garden and the Boston Common are pretty well merged, but if you look at a map, you see that the Public Garden's paths are mostly all curvy and the Common's paths are mostly all very straight. If you know the history, they are quite distinct, though they are adjacent.", "timestamp": "1320279453"}]}