Walden Street Cattle Pass
Walden Street Cattle Pass is a structure in Cambridge, Massachusetts, listed on the National Register of Historic Places on June 3, 1994.
Plan your visit
- Access
- Access unknown
No official access source yet · checked October 31, 2026 - Location
- Cambridge, Middlesex County, Massachusetts
National Register listing does not mean a place is open to the public. Parking and accessibility are shown only when verified.
History
The Walden Street Cattle Pass, also referred to as the cow path, is a historic site adjacent to the MBTA Commuter Rail Fitchburg Line right-of-way, under the Walden Street Bridge in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1994.
The site, a tunnel for moving cattle between the railroad and the nearby stockyards of the 19th century, was built in 1857. The cattle yards were closed in 1868 or "about 1871", but the cattle trade continued; "until the 1920s, cows were unloaded here and driven down Massachusetts Avenue, through Harvard Square, and across the river to the Brighton Abattoir".
Restoration (re-pointing) of the tunnel's brickwork was carried out during the 2007–08 replacement of the second-generation bridge dating from 1914. The third-generation bridge opened for traffic in December 2008. The Cambridge City Council discussed creation of a vantage point for viewing the tunnel, ca. 2008, but no action was taken.
Excerpt from the Wikipedia article, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. The official nomination form is linked under Sources.
Other listings in Cambridge
- Birkhoff, George D., House Building · listed 1975
- Brattle Hall Building · listed 1982
- Bridgman, Percy, House Building · listed 1975
- Cambridge Common Historic District (Boundary Increase and Decrease) District · listed 1987
- Cambridge Public Library Building · listed 1982
- City Hall Historic District District · listed 1982
- Cooper-Frost-Austin House Building · listed 1972
- Daly, Reginald A., House Building · listed 1976
- Divinity Hall Building · listed 1986
- Dunvegan, The Building · listed 1986
- Elmwood District · listed 1966
- Fogg Art Museum Building · listed 1986
- Follen Street Historic District District · listed 1986
- Gray Gardens East and West Historic District District · listed 1986
- Harvard Houses Historic District District · listed 1986
Nearby historic places
- Spring Hill Historic District Somerville, MA · about 1 mi
- Old Cemetery Somerville, MA · about 1 mi
- Langmaid Terrace Somerville, MA · about 1 mi
- Prince Hall Mystic Cemetery Arlington, MA · about 2 mi
- US Post Office-Somerville Main Somerville, MA · about 2 mi
- Coolidge School Watertown, MA · about 2 mi