Cohousing-L Mailing List: NWIS/Commonplace

[jeklee (jeklee]

Jeff Klee  <JEKlee [at] aol.com>

Laura Bagnall wrote, in response to Dave Hurst's interest in urban cohousing:
 "There is another community in Cambridge... which is more what you are
talking about..."

I am pretty sure that the community which you are thinking of is called
Commonplace, and is located at 141 Oxford Street in Cambridge, between
Harvard and Porter Squares.  It is at least 10 (I think more like 20) years
old, and was founded by a group of families from a local Baptist church who
bought and refurbished a walk-up apartment building.  I suppose it is not,
strictly speaking, cohousing, but it is a tight community which has had to
wrestle with many of the problems people posting to this list seem to be
facing.

I only visited Commonplace a few times to see a friend who lived there, and
unfortunately was too young to fully realize what a unique place it was, so I
cannot provide as much info as I would like.  However, there was an article
in the Boston Globe about it in the last 18-24 months which was pretty
extensive.  Your best bet, though, would probably be to contact Sue and Jim
Stockard, who were one of the founding families, and I believe still live
there.  I am certain that they would be more than happy to talk to you about
their experiences, and also be thrilled to hear of another community coming
together nearby.  Frankly, as a transplanted New Englander who is hoping to
get back there soon, Im pretty excited myself.