Baldwin, formerly known as Agassiz and also called Harvard North, Area 8 or Agassiz/Baldwin, is an unincorporated

section Section, Sectioning or Sectioned may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Section (music), a complete, but not independent, musical idea * Section (typography), a subdivision, especially of a chapter, in books and documents ** Section sig ...

of the city of

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

and as one of the thirteen sections (

neighborhoods A neighbourhood (British English, Irish English, Australian English and Canadian English) or neighborhood (American English; see spelling differences) is a geographically localised community within a larger city, town, suburb or rural area, ...

) that make up the City of Cambridge. Bounded by Massachusetts Avenue on the west, Cambridge Street, Quincy Street, and Kirkland Street on the south, Porter Square on the north, and the Somerville border on the northeast. It contains the Maria L. Baldwin Elementary School, known as the Agassiz School until 2002. The neighborhood was formerly named for Louis Agassiz (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 referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

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

New England New England is a region comprising 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 Can ...

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

scientific racist Scientific racism, sometimes termed biological racism, is the pseudoscientific belief that empirical evidence exists to support or justify racism (racial discrimination), racial inferiority, or racial superiority.. "Few tragedies can be more e ...

beliefs, including

polygenism Polygenism is a theory of human origins which posits the view that the human races are of different origins (''polygenesis''). This view is opposite to the idea of monogenism, which posits a single origin of humanity. Modern scientific views no ...

and

eugenics Eugenics ( ; ) is a fringe set of beliefs and practices that aim to improve the genetic quality of a human population. Historically, eugenicists have attempted to alter human gene pools by excluding people and groups judged to be inferior o ...

. 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. It is the home to campuses of

Lesley University Lesley University is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education. As of 2018-19 Lesley University enrolled 6,593 students (2,707 undergraduate and 3,886 graduate). History ...

and the

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

. 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.

Notes

References

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