As early as 1630, the plot of land on which the Baldwin School now
sits, and the entire surrounding area, was used for agriculture. The
earliest residents laid out planting fields, and by 1640, the fields
were owned by some of the most prominent Cambridge citizens of the era,
whose homes were built along the road to Concord (now Massachusetts
Avenue).
As the population began to grow and the city became more densely
populated, the City purchased two vacant lots at the southwest corner of
Sacramento and Oxford Streets in May of 1874, to build a school. The
school was named on November 24th, 1874 and a two-story brick building
completed in 1875.
The school was originally named for Professor Louis Agassiz,
a Swiss-American naturalist. Agassiz came to Cambridge to assume the
professorship of natural history in the Lawrence Scientific School of
Harvard University.
The first structure was brick with granite trimmings, housing eight
rooms which held 42 students each. It cost approximately $25,000 to
build. The first principal was Miss Charlotte Ewell, who later taught at
the Peabody Grammar School.
The first Agassiz building was two stories tall, with primary grades
classrooms on its first floor, and a "Training School" and offices on
its second. By its second year, the building was already beginning to
outgrow the city's needs.
On the evening of May 21, 2002 the School Committee voted unanimously
to accept the recommendation to change the name of our school to the
Maria L. Baldwin School. Maria L. Baldwin,
an African-American Cantabridgian, who served as principal and later
master of the school from 1889, until her death in 1922. Under Baldwin's
leadership, the school's student body grew until in 1915, the decision
was made, with Baldwin's prompting, to build a new school. Upon its
completion in 1916, Baldwin was appointed Master.
The school that Baldwin shaped and led continued with her spirit, and
in 1989/90, the Committee on Agassiz in the 21st Century was formed.
This consortium of parents, staff and public officials first conceived
the notion of building a new school. This committee developed the
building program and were advisers to the City on the selection of our
architect. The School Committee approved demolition and construction of
the new school building was started during the 1992-93 school year.
The current new building is a tribute to a unique and expansive
process that included a great deal of school-wide, city and neighborhood
input. The new school is a unique blend of the new and the old, and
will proudly carry the Baldwin / Agassiz tradition on into the next
century.
Photographs in the photo archive come from the Agassiz/Baldwin library.