MARGARET FULLER NEIGHBORHOOD HOUSE

What's New

In 2022, the CRA recieved a $500,000 commitment from the City's Community Preservation Act (CPA) fund for the restoration of the historic Margaret Fuller House.

Throughout 2023, the MFNH Board has undertaken a strategic planning process that has shifted some of the social service programs and the ir space needs. Therefore, the CRA has put the design process on hold in order to adjust the project's conceptual design to allign with the future needs of the MFNH.

Looking for information about MFNH's after school, food pantry, community advancement, or adult enrichment programs? Please visit their website or call them directly at: 617-547-4680.

Project Context and Goals

The Margaret Fuller Neighborhood House and the CRA are working in partnership to bring new housing to MFNH's site in the Port, and redevelop MFNH's after-school program, food pantry, and community advancement facilities, including upgrading its historic house. This project is aligned with the CRA's growing work to support affordable housing and social services in the City, using tools and strategies not readily available to other government agencies or nonprofits. The goals of the project are to:

Apply the value of undeveloped land owned by MFNH to expand the organization’s capacity, and strengthen its programs.
Strengthen MFNH’s immediate and long term financial position.
Supply mixed-income housing for the Cambridge community.

Project Summary

Margaret Fuller Neighborhood House (MFNH) has provided social services and community connection from the historic home it owns at 71 Cherry Street since 1902.

Since 2018, the CRA and the MFNH have been exploring options to develop a moderate-scale housing development on an approximately 9,000 square foot surface parking lot owned by MFNH. This project would provide revenue that would allow MFNH to make improvements to the interior of its historic house in order to better support its programs, and to construct a new social services facility to replace the basement level structure that now sits adjacent to the house, potentially utilizing portions of that existing structure. The CRA and the MFNH have entered into a Cooperation Agreement in order to:

Supply mixed-income housing for the Cambridge community.
Apply the value of undeveloped land owned by MFNH (Parking Lot) to expand the organization’s capacity, and strengthen and grow programs.
Strengthen MFNH’s immediate and long-term financial position and improve its community-serving facilities.

MFNH’s administrative offices, community library, and computer lab are located in the historic home. MFNH has conducted repairs as needed to the house, but has not conducted any major renovations in the recent past. The house does not have air conditioning. Other systems may be near the end of their useful life. Now is the time for MFNH to restore its facilities and so that it can continue serving the community for another 117 years.

16,000 individuals and families collect food from the pantry each year. However, the pantry is tiny, requiring MFNH to store some food in a separate part of the home’s basement, and requiring the pantry customers to navigate around through tight spaces when they come for groceries. Additionally, the pantry and the offices and programs in the house itself are not currently accessible to those with physical disabilities.

*View of rear parking lot from back of historic house. The homes across from the far end of the lot are on Pine Street.*

*Room in the current childcare facility.*

Members of MFNH’s “Breakfast Club”, a weekly gathering for elders

BAckground

*The only known photograph of Margaret Fuller, c 1846.*

Home to Margaret Fuller until the age of 16, the three-story, Federal style house at 71 Cherry Street was built in 1807. Fuller was born in 1810, and was considered a prodigy, reading Latin by age six. In 1845 she published Women in the 19th Century, which was extremely influential in the feminist movement of the 18th Century. (Source: https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/pwwmh/ma59.htm)

In 1902, the home was reinvented as the Margaret Fuller Neighborhood House, becoming one of the first settlement houses in the United States, and serving the social needs of recent immigrant families in the Port neighborhood of Cambridge. This was at the the height of the industrial revolution and Cambridge’s local factories were staffed mostly by recent immigrants. Their living conditions, in boarding and tenement houses, were often overcrowded and unhealthy. In keeping with the spirit of the Settlement House movement, MFNH was designed as an outpost of education and culture for these workers.

Today, MFNH serves as a nexus of activity for residents of the Port neighborhood and beyond, and provides adult enrichment programs, after-school programs, community outreach, a computer lab, a community library, and a food pantry.

Historical Project Data

Project Overview Flyers 2019 and 2021

Real Estate Financing Consultants Process Memo, Recommending partnership of Stone Soup Collaborative and Traggorth Companies

Designer Selection Process Memo, Recommending Studio G as the Designer

May 2019 Flyer for Community Meetings Hosted by MFNH

CRA-MFNH Agreements

January 2022 Amendment Three to the Cooperation Agreement

June 2020 Amendment Two to the Cooperation Agreement

December 2019 Amendment One to the Cooperation Agreement

April 2019 Cooperation Agreement between CRA and MFNH

Historical Documents and Photos about Margaret Fuller Neighborhood House

1924 Photo of Planned Expansion, Not Realized

Application for National Register of Historic Places, 1973

Fall 2019 Real Estate Financing RFP Documents

RFP for Real Estate Financing Services

Spring 2019 Designer RFQ Documents

Site Visits — Attendees List

5-21-19 Addendum 5 to Designer RFQ - 71 Cherry Street

5-10-19 Addendum 4 to Designer RFQ - 71 Cherry Street: Deadline Postponed to May 28th

5-7-19 Addendum 3 to Designer RFQ - 71 Cherry Street

Addendum 2 was retracted and replaced by Addendum 3

5-6-19 Addendum 1 to Designer RFQ - 71 Cherry Street

RFQ for Design Services - 71 Cherry Street

Owner’s Project Management

In November, 2021, the CRA and Margaret Fuller Neighborhood House concluded a process to select an Owner’s Project Manager to support this project. The following firms were ranked in the following order. A contract is expected to be executed with CBI Consulting in December 2021. Download top ranked CBI’s Consulting’s response to the RFQ.