Winthrop Park: This Is the Place
History of Winthrop Park
Winthrop Park’s history traces back to 1635 when this spot served as the first marketplace and a focal point for “Newtowne”, the original name of the city that would ultimately be called Cambridge. As such, the Newtowne marketplace pre-dates even the founding of Harvard University and Boston Common.
Winthrop Park was dedicated as a public park in 1834 and was likely named after Professor John Winthrop, an eminent mathematician and astronomer who lived nearby during the 18th century. The Park is one of the oldest parks of its kind in the entire country.
A Part of Cambridge History
In the mid-1890s, the firm of prominent architect Frederick Law Olmsted, designer of Boston’s Emerald Necklace chain of parks and New York City’s Central Park, further developed Winthrop Park.
In the 1980s, the city of Cambridge, alongside local Harvard Square business owners and the Cambridge Plant and Garden Club, helped to revitalize Winthrop Park, planting new trees, installing a large granite marker, and restoring the post and rail fence and the diagonal paths that remain in Winthrop Park today.
Sources: Susan E. Maycock and Charles M. Sullivan’s Building Old Cambridge, the Cambridge Historical Society, and Mo Lautman’s Harvard Square: An Illustrated History.
Archives
The History of Winthrop Park - PDF
Winthrop Park Trust Fundraising Pamphlet 1 (1986) - PDF
Winthrop Park Trust Fundraising Pamphlet 2 (1986) - PDF
Winthrop Park Trust Press Release (July 30, 1986) - PDF
Letter to the Editor of Cambridge Chronicle (July 1992) - PDF
“How bad can it be in the Square?” Cambridge Chronicle Article (July 2, 1992) - PDF
“Music limits needed in Winthrop Park” Cambridge Chronicle Article (July 2, 1992) - PDF
Four-season series of Winthrop Park by Sean Moore
