North Point is a neighborhood within the East Cambridge section 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, ...

. A former

railroad yard A rail yard, railway yard, railroad yard (US) or simply yard, is a series of tracks in a rail network for storing, sorting, or loading and unloading rail vehicles and locomotives. Yards have many tracks in parallel for keeping rolling stock or ...

, the site was originally built by the

Boston and Maine Railroad The Boston and Maine Railroad was a United States, U.S. Class I railroad in northern New England. It was chartered in 1835, and became part of what was the Pan Am Railways network in 1983 (most of which was purchased by CSX in 2022). At the e ...

. It is triangular in shape and bound by the

MBTA Commuter Rail The MBTA Commuter Rail system serves as the commuter rail arm of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority's (MBTA's) transportation coverage of Greater Boston in the United States. Trains run over of track on 12 lines to 142 stations. It ...

Fitchburg Line The Fitchburg Line is a branch of the MBTA Commuter Rail system which runs from Boston's North Station to Wachusett station in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. The line is along the tracks of the former Fitchburg Railroad, which was built across nort ...

, the

Charles River The Charles River (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ), sometimes called the River Charles or simply the Charles, is an river in eastern Massachusetts. It flows northeast from Hopkinton, Massachusetts, Hopkinton to Boston along a highly me ...

and associated

dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use, aqua ...

with the

Lechmere Viaduct The Lechmere Viaduct is a concrete arch bridge connecting the West End neighborhood of Boston to East Cambridge, Massachusetts. Opened in 1912, the viaduct carries the MBTA's Green Line over the Charles River. It is adjacent to the Charles Ri ...

, the former Lechmere wetlands, and

Millers River The Millers River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 1, 2011 river in northern Massachusetts, originating in Ashburnham, Massachusetts, Ashburnham and joining ...

remnant that once divided Cambridge and Charlestown, along with the

Interstate 93 Interstate 93 (I-93) is an Interstate Highway in the New England states of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont in the United States. Spanning approximately along a north–south axis, it is one of three primary Interstate Highways ...

Northern Expressway viaduct to the northeast. After development continued in the area surrounding, it was decided to turn portions of the now-unused rail yard area into a large development, containing commercial, retail and residential development, along with a relocated

Lechmere Lechmere was an American retail store chain founded in 1913 by Abraham Cohen. The name was inspired by the Lechmere Square part of Cambridge, Massachusetts where the first store was located. It originated as a harness shop, and evolved to incl ...

Green Line transit station. The area was master planned and partially constructed under the name NorthPoint, from which the neighborhood received its name. After development stalled, a different developer, DivcoWest, took over the remainder of the site and named it Cambridge Crossing. A new master plan envisioned a center for innovation and collaboration with a central retail hub surrounded by acres of open space.

Transportation

North Point is positioned between two MBTA stations (

on the Green Line and

Community College A community college is a type of undergraduate higher education institution, generally leading to an associate degree, certificate, or diploma. The term can have different meanings in different countries: many community colleges have an open enr ...

on the Orange Line), adjacent to

Kendall Square Kendall Square is a neighborhood in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. The square itself is at the intersection of the Main Street and Broadway. It also refers to the broad business district east of Portland Street, northwest of the Charl ...

, one MBTA stop away from

North Station North Station is a commuter rail and intercity rail terminal station in Boston, Massachusetts. It is served by four MBTA Commuter Rail lines – the Fitchburg Line, Haverhill Line, Lowell Line, and Newburyport/Rockport Line – and the Amtr ...

. Lechmere opened on March 21, 2022 as part of the

Green Line Extension The Green Line Extension (GLX) was a construction project to extend the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) Green Line (MBTA), Green Line light rail system northwest into Somerville, Massachusetts, Somerville and Medford, Massac ...

project.

Construction phases

Completed as of January 2022 are two original North Point buildings containing condominiums, one life science building, one retail and office building, and a central retail building along with acres of green space. In progress as of January 2022 are four life science buildings and one residential building. Phase 2 includes additional life science, residential and retail buildings along with new streets being constructed. The final plans for the complete area include 4.5 million square feet of commercial, residential, and retail buildings and 11 acres of open and green space, including a segment of the

Mass Central Rail Trail The Mass Central Rail Trail (MCRT) is a partially completed rail trail between Northampton, Massachusetts and Boston along the right-of-way (ROW) of the former Massachusetts Central Railroad and former Central Massachusetts Railroad. It currently ...

References

External links

Neighborhood ProfileDeveloper web site
{{coord, 42, 22, 20.6, N, 71, 4, 30.2, W, region:US, display=title Neighborhoods in Cambridge, Massachusetts Pan Am Railways