Why JFK Street in Cambridge is called that
This is the sort of trivia that I am unendingly happy to learn: JFK Street in Cambridge was named that way to get back at the Kennedy School of Government. Rodrik’s post included below.
Goodbye the Kennedy School of Government (KSG), hello the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS). It’s not a name change, officially, since we are still the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University–but it is a make-over for sure. Check out the new web site to get a taste.
This re-branding brings to mind an earlier, ill-fated effort in 1981 by then-Dean Graham Allison. Then, the goal was to shift away from the name “Kennedy,” so as to facilitate fund raising during the Reagan era–or so some claimed. Here is what happened, as described in the New York Times:
When students arrived for registration in the fall of 1981, they found the abbreviation H.S.G. – for Harvard School of Government – had replaced K.S.G. in schedules and course listings. After The Boston Globe blew the whistle on what it called a ”first step in minimizing the association of the Kennedy name with the school,” President Bok – who sources say was ”surprised and angered” by Allison’s strategy – hastily declared that Harvard had no intention of wiggling away from the Kennedy name.
So the plan was shelved, but it was too late to assuage the Democrats on the Cambridge City Council:
The Irish and Italian politicians on the Cambridge City Council didn’t get mad, they got even, changing the name of the street on which the school fronts from Boylston Street to John F. Kennedy Street, so that the name would have to go on the school’s stationery, whatever it was called.
In other words, we went from the Kennedy School of Government at 79 Boylston Street, to the Kennedy School of Government at 79 Kennedy Street.
And now of course, we are HKS, in parallel with HBS and HLS. HBS teaches business, HLS teaches law, and we teach… Never mind.
That is a great story. A major side benefit: one fewer Boylston Streets to worry about when giving directions in the Greater Boston Area.
Comment by Adam Rosi-Kessel — March 4, 2008 @ 9:39 am
Check this out: http://www.cambridgema.gov/~Historic/Cambridge_Street_Names.pdf
Comment by Seth — March 6, 2008 @ 7:59 am
That historical document is great. Though their explanation of JFK Street’s name is … limited.
I tried a while back to document all the subsquares in Cambridge: Mark Sandman Square, Rick Modica Square, etc. Each of them is named after a local hero of some sort, but no one has documented who those heroes are. Sandman was the lead singer of Morphine, which played a lot at the Middle East; hence Mark Sandman Square is just outside of the Middle East. Modica was a friend of a friend of mine, who died in a car accident in Florida when there with his Princeton singing troupe. I dug around a bit and couldn’t find any explanation for why he’s honored in Cambridge: he appears to be from upstate New York.
So I contacted various departments within Cambridge city government, then contacted the city council. They were very generous and offered to let me come dig through their library to look at the minutes of Council meetings. I’ve not gotten around to that yet. It’s sort of surprising that those minutes aren’t already on the web.
Comment by slaniel — March 6, 2008 @ 8:46 am