The building across from the post office (A&M Printers in 2024) started as the Congregational Church. In 1872, a splinter group of the United Presbyterians disagreed with the construction of the “new” U.P. church (the current one at the traffic light). They built their own church thanks to the financial support of Mary Hubbard (Martin’s widow). It opened in 1877
It had a steeply-pitched roof of slate, gabled vestibule and ogival windows. High above the narrow front entrance, set into the red brick of the building, was an oblong block of sandstone, bearing the inscription, “Congressional Chapel, 1877”.
The congregation disbanded in the early 1900s and the building sat idle. After a few years, it became an automobile garage. A ramp was built so cars could roll up the front steps and into the main door, which was the only entry wide enough to admit them.
Although the pews had been removed from the church, the original pulpit remained. It bore the carved motto: “The Lord Shall Ride Into His Courts in Glory”. The garage people scribbled “The Lord rode in on a Chevrolet” underneath the religious motto.
Some time after World War I, a veteran opened the Victory Movie theater. Like many things of that era, it was given the moniker “victory”. Mrs. Wager (piano teacher to many of my generation) played the piano to accompany the silent films. Saturday afternoons double features cost a dime.
In the early dawn on a freezing cold morning in March-1927, a fire destroyed the Victory Theater. The original stained glass windows (made opaque with a layer of black paint) exploded.
Sometime after (not sure how long), a new “modern” movie theater was built on the site. This is the Cambridge Theater that people remember from the 1940s and 1950s.
Around Christmas 1955 the A&P grocery store moved into the old movie theater from its location at 67 East Main. They never leveled the floors from the movie theater which allowed kids to hop on shopping carts at the north end of an aisle and race toward the back of the store.
The Cambridge Fire Dept well remembers the 1927 fire at the Victory Theater. Salem brought its new pumper to help fight the fire. It far outperformed our 1922 Chemical truck. Later that year, the village approved the purchase our American La France pumping engine