The 5-BR, 5-BA at 30 Francis Avenue is one of those stately homes along what used to be commonly called Professors' Row. Now, though, most of the professors have moved on, passed away or simply can't afford to buy there. Indeed, as far back as 1986, The New York Times noted that few academics could manage the drag northeast of Harvard unless they were independently wealthy. The 4,500-square-foot manse at 30 Francis definitely, then, fits into the wisps of Professors' Row—with a twist of irony. It was the one-time, longtime home of economist John Kenneth Galbraith, he who believed the laws of the dismal science were far from set in stone, subject, in fact, to everything from extreme weather to commercials during the Super Bowl. Now his old place (Galbraith died in 2006) is the priciest rental available in Cambridge: $10,000 a month. Pricey—and arbitrarily so, subject as it is to the madness that is the Hub housing market.
· Listing: 30 Francis Avenue [Zillow]
· Lessons From a Rare Listing on Cambridge's Professors' Row [Curbed Boston]
· Our Rent Check archive [Curbed Boston]
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