Baldwin, formerly known as Agassiz and also called Harvard North, Area 8 or Agassiz/Baldwin, is one of the thirteen neighborhoods of

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, ...

, United States. Bounded by Massachusetts Avenue on the west, Cambridge Street, Quincy Street, and Kirkland Street on the south,

Porter Square Porter Square is a neighborhood in Cambridge and Somerville, Massachusetts, located around the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Somerville Avenue, between Harvard and Davis Squares. The Porter Square station serves both the MBTA Re ...

on the north, and the

Somerville Somerville may refer to: Places Australia *Somerville, Victoria, a town **Somerville railway station * Somerville, Western Australia, a suburb of Kalgoorlie, Australia New Zealand * Somerville, New Zealand, a suburb of Manukau City, New Zea ...

border on the northeast. It contains the Maria L. Baldwin Elementary School, known as the Agassiz School until 2002. It also contains all of

Lesley University Lesley University is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. It was founded in 1909 to educate teachers. Originally founded as a women's college, male students were admitted beginning in 2005. History 1909–1998 Th ...

and much of

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

, including the

Harvard Science Center The Harvard University Science Center is Harvard University's main classroom and laboratory building for undergraduate science and mathematics, in addition to housing numerous other facilities and services. Located just north of Harvard Yard, the ...

and the

Harvard University Law School Harvard Law School (HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, Harvard Law School is the oldest law school in continuous operation in the United States. Each class ...

History

The neighborhood was formerly named for

Louis Agassiz Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz ( ; ) FRS (For) FRSE (May 28, 1807 – December 14, 1873) was a Swiss-born American biologist and geologist who is recognized as a scholar of Earth's natural history. Spending his early life in Switzerland, he recei ...

(1807-1873), a Harvard biologist and geologist. After being informally known as Agassiz/Baldwin for several years, in 2021 the neighborhood was renamed for Maria Louise Baldwin (1856-1922), an

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

educator who, as principal of the former Agassiz School, was the first Black woman principal in

New England New England is a region consisting of six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the ...

. Like many places and buildings formerly named for Agassiz, this change came following controversy over his scientific racist beliefs, including

polygenism Polygenism is a theory of human origins which posits the view that humans are of different origins (polygenesis). This view is opposite to the idea of monogenism, which posits a single origin of humanity. Modern scientific views find little merit ...

and

eugenics Eugenics is a set of largely discredited beliefs and practices that aim to improve the genetic quality of a human population. Historically, eugenicists have attempted to alter the frequency of various human phenotypes by inhibiting the fer ...

. The change was first proposed in City Council by Cambridge high school student Maya Counter in 2020.Raquel Coronell Uribe,
City Council Approves Baldwin Neighborhood Name, Replacing Agassiz
in ''Harvard Crimson'', August 11, 2021, accessed April 1, 2022.

Geography

In 2005 it had a population of 5,241 residents living in 1,891 households, and the average household income was $55,380. The Baldwin neighborhood has two zip codes 02138 and 02140, which also serve the villages of West and North Cambridge, respectively.

References

External links

Cambridge Police Department
Neighborhoods in Cambridge, Massachusetts {{MiddlesexCountyMA-geo-stub