CambridgeSide (previously CambridgeSide Galleria) is an enclosed

shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a large indoor shopping center, usually Anchor tenant, anchored by department stores. The term ''mall'' originally meant pedestrian zone, a pedestrian promenade with shops along it, but in the late 1960s, i ...

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, ...

that opened in 1990. , the mall is anchored by

TJ Maxx TJ Maxx (stylized as T•J•maxx) is an American discount department store chain. It has more than 1,000 stores in the United States, making it one of the largest clothing retailers in the country. TJ Maxx is the flagship chain of the TJX Comp ...

. Previous anchors include department stores

Filene's Filene's was an American department store chain founded in 1881 by William Filene. The historic Filene's Department Store in the Downtown Crossing district of Boston, Massachusetts housed the flagship store and headquarters, while branch store ...

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 ...

Macy's Macy's is an American department store chain founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. The first store was located in Manhattan on Sixth Avenue between 13th and 14th Streets, south of the present-day flagship store at Herald Square on West 34 ...

, Macy's Home and Children's,

Best Buy Best Buy Co., Inc. is an American multinational consumer electronics retailer headquartered in Richfield, Minnesota. Originally founded by Richard M. Schulze and James Wheeler in 1966 as an audio specialty store called Sound of Music, it was r ...

and

Sears Sears, Roebuck and Co., commonly known as Sears ( ), is an American chain of department stores and online retailer founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosen ...

History

The center was an outgrowth of the 1978 East Cambridge Riverfront Plan, which sought to revitalize the then-industrial district between Monsignor O'Brien Highway, Cambridge Parkway, and First Street. The east end of CambridgeSide is near the

Museum of Science A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private collections that are used by researchers ...

and the north end of CambridgeSide is near the MBTA Lechmere station on the

Green Line E branch The E branch (also referred to as the Huntington Avenue branch, or formerly as the Arborway Line) is a light rail line in Boston, Cambridge, Medford, and Somerville, Massachusetts, operating as part of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Aut ...

. It is also located along the

Lechmere Canal Lechmere Canal is a short canal in East Cambridge, Massachusetts. It opens onto the Charles River and used to be an active port for Boston Harbor and the Atlantic Ocean. History The canal was constructed in 1895, essentially by walling off an ex ...

off 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 ...

. In October 2018, it was announced that Sears would be closing in December 2018. In January 2019, Macy's announced that the Macy's Home and Children's store would also be closing in mid-2019. On December 27, 2020, Macy's closed permanently as part of a plan to close 46 stores nationwide. On May 14, 2022, it was announced that Best Buy would be closing on June 4, 2022 which will leave TJ Maxx as the only anchor left. Since September 13, 2024, the mall has hosted Harry Potter: The Exhibition. The exhibit features many authentic props and costumes from the

Harry Potter ''Harry Potter'' is a series of seven Fantasy literature, fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The novels chronicle the lives of a young Magician (fantasy), wizard, Harry Potter (character), Harry Potter, and his friends ...

films A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of Visual arts, visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are gen ...

and the Broadway production. The exhibit also has interactive features and was created and developed by Warner Bros. Discovery Global.

List of anchor stores

Notes

* * * Community Development Department, City of Cambridge. ''East Cambridge Riverfront Plan.'' City of Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1978.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:CambridgeSide 1990 establishments in Massachusetts Buildings and structures in Cambridge, Massachusetts Shopping malls established in 1990 Shopping malls in Massachusetts