The neighborhood in which our Doble Campus is nestled has a new name that honors a groundbreaking female educator of color and replaces the former namesake’s problematic past.
In a unanimous vote on Aug. 2, the Cambridge City Council voted to change the name of the Agassiz Neighborhood, roughly bordered by Porter and Harvard squares, to Baldwin.
The neighborhood’s new moniker honors the legacy of Maria L. Baldwin, a 19th-century educator who was the first Black school principal in the Northeast. Her name already adorns an elementary school on Oxford Street in the heart of the neighborhood.
The area was previously named after Switzerland-born scientist Louis Agassiz, who espoused controversial theories, some of which are considered scientific racism.
More information about the neighborhood name change can be found on the Cambridge Day news site.
