Shop’s ‘Camberville’ items put a divisive moniker on the map
Not everyone likes the mash-up of cambridge and Somerville, but it’s got a home on Mass. ave.
Not everyone in Cambridge or Somerville feels at home in “Camberville.”
The portmanteau of the two cities’ names, which dubs the duo of locales across the river from Boston as a place unto itself, has been controversial for as long as anyone can remember hearing it. Some love it. Some can’t stand it. Plenty wish it would simply go away.
Not Steven Beaucher, owner of Cambridge’s famed memorabilia emporium WardMaps, and an expert on such things.
“I think it’s cool,” said Beaucher, who has had his shop on Massachusetts Avenue since 2008 and published a book on Boston transit maps in 2020. “I love place, and I love naming, so I’m Ok with how things evolve. I think that’s interesting. Yeah, sometimes when things get made up not everyone’s going to jump on board and love it.”
That hasn’t stopped him from leaning into it. Walk through his shop — where, he said, “we celebrate the history of place” — and you’ll find plenty of artwork and memorabilia for those who consider both cities their home, and embrace the name.
In one framed “Camberville” piece made by a local artist that’s available for purchase, the footprints of both cities hover over a rainbow flag. A black-and-white print made in-house shows a city plan map of both cities atop the word “Camberville” in all caps.
Visitors can also pick up a map that dates to 1905 and, although it doesn’t use the “Camberville” name, depicts the two cities together.
“It’s the only antique map that we’ve ever had that shows both Cambridge and Somerville and it’s formatted explicitly for those cities,” Beaucher said. It’s very popular.
Elsewhere, you can find realistic mockups of MBTA signage and maps you would find at a “Camberville” T stop, if such a