History
The area presently known as University Park was originally an area of mostly marshy land along the Charles River. During the American Revolutionary War, one area of higher land was the site of a gun battery (now called Fort Washington) erected to guard against British attack during the Siege of Boston.
In the 1850s, the Grand Junction Railroad built tracks along what was then the swampy edge of the river. The nearby marshes were landfilled, and the area became home to a number of manufacturing plants. These included the Simplex Wire & Cable Company, the Kennedy Biscuit Company (which is the originator of the Fig Newton and is on the National Register of Historic Places), the Necco candy factory, a Sears shoe factory, and a Ford assembly plant.
In the 1960s, this part of Cambridge had been threatened by a proposed new highway, Interstate 695, also known as the "Inner Belt" project. The highway would have been routed along the western boundary of the area that is now University Park, and would have required the demolition of many homes in the adjacent area of Cambridgeport. Plans for building the highway were eventually dropped because of community opposition.
Simplex, owner of the largest parcel of land, left Cambridge in 1969 (the company later became a unit of Tyco International). The Simplex property was then acquired by MIT. Most of the buildings were razed in the 1970s, leaving a large area of overgrown vacant lots that languished for many years while MIT tried to find a use for the 27-acre (110,000 m2) property. Serious planning began in 1983 with MIT's selection of Forest City Enterprises to develop the land, and approval of a city master plan for the area. Construction started in 1985.
For some years afterwards, the site was the subject of protests by community activists who objected to MIT's plans for gentrification of the neighborhood, and wanted the development to include more affordable housing as well as to preserve the remaining businesses and historic buildings in the area. Final zoning approval for the project was given by the city in January, 1988.
Read more about this topic: University Park At MIT
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