Data story
The streets that sent the most seniors to high school: Cambridge, Brookline, Springfield and four more cities
Seven cities' busiest streets, counted from the home addresses in the yearbook entries.
Each yearbook entry prints a home street. Put 20,341 of them side by side and a pattern appears in every city: a few main roads send the most students, and between 29% and 49% of a city’s streets sent just one. In Cambridge, Cambridge Street (113) and Massachusetts Avenue (107) lead; in Brookline it is Beacon Street (82), more than any other Brookline street by a wide margin.
- Cambridge StreetCambridge: 113 seniors, 1914–31
- Beacon StreetBrookline: 82 seniors, 1923–31
- Main StreetSpringfield: 68 seniors, 1922–45
- 216 of 603Cambridge streets sent just one senior
Seven cities, the ten busiest streets
| City (yearbooks) | Addresses | Streets | No. 1 | No. 2 | No. 3 | Top ten hold |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Springfield (1922–45) | 4,620 | 1,080 | Main Street (68) | Belmont Avenue (66) | Sumner Avenue (58) | 10.7% |
| Cambridge (1914–31) | 3,960 | 603 | Cambridge Street (113) | Massachusetts Avenue (107) | Harvard Street (73) | 16.6% |
| Somerville (1917–30) | 3,601 | 535 | Highland Avenue (64) | Powder House Boulevard (57) | Medford Street (53) | 13.1% |
| Brockton (1940–45) | 2,843 | 576 | Crescent Street (56) | Warren Avenue (51) | Belmont Street (48) | 15.6% |
| Newton (1911–28) | 1,909 | 552 | Centre Street (48) | Walnut Street (46) | Beacon Street (38) | 15.4% |
| Salem (1932–45) | 1,738 | 469 | Derby Street (40) | Lafayette Street (38) | Essex Street (37) | 16.6% |
| Brookline (1923–31) | 1,670 | 304 | Beacon Street (82) | Boylston Street (47) | Winchester Street (47) | 23.7% |
What the lists say
- Brookline is the most concentrated: its ten busiest streets hold 23.7% of addresses, against 16.6% in Cambridge, 13.1% in Somerville and 10.7% in Springfield.
- Somerville: Highland Avenue (64), Powder House Boulevard (57) and Medford Street (53) lead, 1917–30.
- Brockton, 1940–45: Crescent Street (56), Warren Avenue (51) and Belmont Street (48); North Main Street and North Warren Avenue are counted separately from Main Street and Warren Avenue.
- Newton: Centre Street (48), Walnut Street (46) and Beacon Street (38), 1911–28. Salem, 1932–45: Derby Street (40), Lafayette Street (38), Essex Street (37).
- The same street names turn up everywhere. Park Street appears in 16 towns’ lists, Main, Franklin, Harvard and High Street in 14.
The interactive version is the street map, with a dot for each graduate we could place. Type a surname on the search page to find a family’s street.
How we counted
The printed home address of each published senior is reduced to a street: the house number and anything after a comma are dropped, St/Ave/Rd/Pl are spelled out, and a name must end in a street-type word to count. Only cities with at least 1,500 parsed addresses are ranked (7 of them). Nothing below street level is used or shown here.
A street’s count depends on its length and on which class years survive for the city (the Cambridge books run 1914–31, Brockton’s only 1940–45), so the lists say “in the yearbooks we have read”, not “in the city”. Counts are people; one family’s two seniors count twice.
The script is work/stories/s05_streets.py.
The scans belong to the libraries that digitised them; each person page links back to its scan. Corrections and removal requests: hello@theclassalbum.com or /rights.
Use these charts
Reporters, librarians, teachers and society newsletters are welcome to use the charts on this page with a link back. Copy the snippet under the chart you want; it carries the credit. Every number can be recomputed from the archive’s data (see “How we counted”), and a reporter who wants a different cut, such as one school or one class year, can ask at hello@theclassalbum.com.
streets-springfield.png
<a href="https://theclassalbum.com/stories/the-streets-that-sent-the-most-seniors/"><img src="https://theclassalbum.com/stories/the-streets-that-sent-the-most-seniors/streets-springfield.png" alt="Springfield: the ten streets that sent the most seniors" width="1200" height="675" style="max-width:100%;height:auto"></a> <p style="font-size:.85em">Chart: The Class Album (theclassalbum.com), from yearbooks digitised by public libraries and posted on the Internet Archive. <a href="https://theclassalbum.com/stories/the-streets-that-sent-the-most-seniors/">The streets that sent the most seniors to high school: Cambridge, Brookline, Springfield and four more cities</a></p>
streets-cambridge.png
<a href="https://theclassalbum.com/stories/the-streets-that-sent-the-most-seniors/"><img src="https://theclassalbum.com/stories/the-streets-that-sent-the-most-seniors/streets-cambridge.png" alt="Cambridge: the ten streets that sent the most seniors" width="1200" height="675" style="max-width:100%;height:auto"></a> <p style="font-size:.85em">Chart: The Class Album (theclassalbum.com), from yearbooks digitised by public libraries and posted on the Internet Archive. <a href="https://theclassalbum.com/stories/the-streets-that-sent-the-most-seniors/">The streets that sent the most seniors to high school: Cambridge, Brookline, Springfield and four more cities</a></p>
streets-somerville.png
<a href="https://theclassalbum.com/stories/the-streets-that-sent-the-most-seniors/"><img src="https://theclassalbum.com/stories/the-streets-that-sent-the-most-seniors/streets-somerville.png" alt="Somerville: the ten streets that sent the most seniors" width="1200" height="675" style="max-width:100%;height:auto"></a> <p style="font-size:.85em">Chart: The Class Album (theclassalbum.com), from yearbooks digitised by public libraries and posted on the Internet Archive. <a href="https://theclassalbum.com/stories/the-streets-that-sent-the-most-seniors/">The streets that sent the most seniors to high school: Cambridge, Brookline, Springfield and four more cities</a></p>
streets-brockton.png
<a href="https://theclassalbum.com/stories/the-streets-that-sent-the-most-seniors/"><img src="https://theclassalbum.com/stories/the-streets-that-sent-the-most-seniors/streets-brockton.png" alt="Brockton: the ten streets that sent the most seniors" width="1200" height="675" style="max-width:100%;height:auto"></a> <p style="font-size:.85em">Chart: The Class Album (theclassalbum.com), from yearbooks digitised by public libraries and posted on the Internet Archive. <a href="https://theclassalbum.com/stories/the-streets-that-sent-the-most-seniors/">The streets that sent the most seniors to high school: Cambridge, Brookline, Springfield and four more cities</a></p>
streets-newton.png
<a href="https://theclassalbum.com/stories/the-streets-that-sent-the-most-seniors/"><img src="https://theclassalbum.com/stories/the-streets-that-sent-the-most-seniors/streets-newton.png" alt="Newton: the ten streets that sent the most seniors" width="1200" height="675" style="max-width:100%;height:auto"></a> <p style="font-size:.85em">Chart: The Class Album (theclassalbum.com), from yearbooks digitised by public libraries and posted on the Internet Archive. <a href="https://theclassalbum.com/stories/the-streets-that-sent-the-most-seniors/">The streets that sent the most seniors to high school: Cambridge, Brookline, Springfield and four more cities</a></p>
streets-salem.png
<a href="https://theclassalbum.com/stories/the-streets-that-sent-the-most-seniors/"><img src="https://theclassalbum.com/stories/the-streets-that-sent-the-most-seniors/streets-salem.png" alt="Salem: the ten streets that sent the most seniors" width="1200" height="675" style="max-width:100%;height:auto"></a> <p style="font-size:.85em">Chart: The Class Album (theclassalbum.com), from yearbooks digitised by public libraries and posted on the Internet Archive. <a href="https://theclassalbum.com/stories/the-streets-that-sent-the-most-seniors/">The streets that sent the most seniors to high school: Cambridge, Brookline, Springfield and four more cities</a></p>
streets-brookline.png
<a href="https://theclassalbum.com/stories/the-streets-that-sent-the-most-seniors/"><img src="https://theclassalbum.com/stories/the-streets-that-sent-the-most-seniors/streets-brookline.png" alt="Brookline: the ten streets that sent the most seniors" width="1200" height="675" style="max-width:100%;height:auto"></a> <p style="font-size:.85em">Chart: The Class Album (theclassalbum.com), from yearbooks digitised by public libraries and posted on the Internet Archive. <a href="https://theclassalbum.com/stories/the-streets-that-sent-the-most-seniors/">The streets that sent the most seniors to high school: Cambridge, Brookline, Springfield and four more cities</a></p>
More data stories
- Boston University or Harvard? Where Massachusetts seniors said they were headed, 1920s-1940s
- The war in the senior class: Massachusetts seniors who named the service, 1939-1945
- Barbara rises, Mildred fades: first names in Massachusetts senior classes, 1920s-1940s
- Dot, Al, Bob and Red: the nicknames in Massachusetts senior classes, 1917-1945
- The most common surnames in Massachusetts senior classes, town by town
- Girls, boys and the course of study: who took commercial, college and technical in Massachusetts high schools
- Before they were famous: 70 notable people in Massachusetts high school yearbooks
Numbers come from the archive's own records and are reproducible; see how the archive is made.