Julia Child and the Porch

A black title card reads Julia Child and the Porch above Julia Child Lived in Cambridge.

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The Listing Photographs and Credits

A white picket fence borders the garden in front of the gabled house.
The stone steps lead to the house’s covered entrance.
The entry hall opens toward a staircase.
The entry hall leads toward a glazed exterior door.
The living room has pale seating around a low coffee table.
A coffee table stands between pale sofas in the living room.
The living room opens toward the dining area.
The dining table stands beside windows overlooking the garden.
The sitting room has yellow walls around a bay window.
The sitting room’s fireplace has built-in shelving on either side.
A sink sits beneath wooden cabinetry beside a window.
A wine refrigerator stands beside wooden cabinets.
The current kitchen has an island facing a window.
A range stands beneath a metal hood in the current kitchen.
A dining table stands beside tall windows.
The bedroom has a fireplace beside the bed.
A sitting area occupies a corner of the bedroom.
The walk-in closet has wooden storage on both sides.
The bathroom’s double vanity faces a wall mirror.
A bathtub sits beneath windows beside a glass shower enclosure.
A round mirror hangs above the bed.
A basin sits beneath a mirror in the tiled bathroom.
The bedroom’s windows overlook trees.
The bedroom has blue bedding beside tall windows.
A desk sits beneath windows on the stair landing.
The room beneath the sloping ceiling has a sofa at the far end.
The room has a fireplace beside freestanding shelving.
The bedroom has a bed beneath a sloping ceiling.
The bathroom’s window stands beside the shower.
The exercise room has yoga mats on the tiled floor.
The brick patio has wicker chairs beside the house.
A round table stands on the brick terrace beside a covered entrance.
The garden surrounds a brick terrace beside the house.
A brick path follows the side of the house.
The garden has a brick path leading toward a white picket fence.
The driveway leads toward a covered parking area beside the house.
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The arrow keys change photographs when the gallery has keyboard focus.

Listing OfficeColdwell Banker Realty - Cambridge
Listing AgentGail Roberts, Ed Feijo & Team
Selling OfficeColdwell Banker Realty - Boston
Selling AgentReig & Losordo
The Brokerage Credits

MLS Property Information Network, Inc. (MLS PIN) compiled the property details and images from sellers, lessors, landlords, public records, and other third-party sources. The material is solely for consumers’ personal, noncommercial use in identifying properties of the type displayed that they have a good-faith interest in buying, leasing, or renting. MLS PIN and its subscribers make no representations or warranties about the accuracy of the details or images.

Commentary

I was a kid who watched cooking teacher Julia Child on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). I thought that she was weird, so wouldn’t keep her show on for long, but would leave her in the background, if there was nothing else to watch. I came to appreciate Julia as a trailblazer through the movie Julie & Julia.

Julia lived at 103 Irving Street in Cambridge from 1961 until 2001.1 The house sold for more than $6 million on October 29th, 2026.2 The Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History preserves the kitchen that Julia used in this house.3

Julia, Simone Beck, and Louisette Bertholle published the 1961 cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking after a decade of work;4 their recipes identified kitchen tools, explained French techniques, and anticipated problems that could trip up a home cook.5 WGBH-TV featured Julia discussing the book in 1962; her omelet demonstration helped launch The French Chef.6 The series premiered in 1963.7

Julia’s kitchen later became a set for three series, including Baking with Julia.8 Julia’s production crew moved furniture, added lights, and installed an island.9 The house where Julia filmed those three series has two covered porches.10

I’d love a front porch because it would give me a place to greet a neighbor; the porch would be spacious and belong to a substantial house. I can be friendly enough to yell, “Hey, neighbor!” from my rocking chair. The nineteenth-century veranda gave a single-family house an outdoor parlor; the tradition continued into the twentieth century.11

President John F. Kennedy’s first home, 83 Beals Street in Brookline, has a front porch.12 The Kennedy family called 51 Abbottsford Road home from 1920 until 1927 and greeted neighbors from the wraparound porch.13 I’d linger over lemonade; my conversation with a neighbor would be unhurried.

Julia’s former home brings to mind my image of America’s post-World War II neighborliness.

The Source Notes

  1. Cambridge Office for Tourism, Julia Child’s House; Undated house record; address and residence interval. The record identifies 103 Irving Street as Julia Child’s home from 1961 until 2001, without identifying which present features survive from her residence. ↩︎
  2. MLS Property Information Network, Inc., Pinergy Full Report and Native CSV for Listing 73581659; Full Report checked November 11th, 2026; sale fields and listing history. The retained MLS record reports a sale for $6,525,000 on October 29th, 2026, while the asking price was $6,475,000. ↩︎
  3. Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of American History, The Real Thing; Undated online exhibition; Julia Child’s Kitchen. The museum preserves the kitchen’s arrangement from 2001 with original equipment and a reproduction floor; the exhibition doesn’t establish the identity of the house’s current kitchen. ↩︎
  4. Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of American History, A New Kind of Cookbook; Undated online exhibition; publication history. The museum identifies Julia Child, Simone Beck, and Louisette Bertholle as the authors of the 1961 cookbook and describes a decade of preparation. ↩︎
  5. Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of American History, A New Kind of Cookbook; Undated online exhibition; recipe instructions. The museum describes instructions that identified tools, explained techniques, and anticipated problems; this account concerns the cookbook’s method. ↩︎
  6. Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of American History, A Television Star; Undated online exhibition; WGBH appearance and series development. The museum describes Julia Child’s 1962 book appearance and omelet demonstration, which preceded the regular series. ↩︎
  7. Paula J. Johnson, Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of American History, Celebrating the 50th anniversary of Julia Child’s “The French Chef”; February 11th, 2013; opening paragraph. The museum dates the series premiere to February 11th, 1963; that date remains separate from the 1962 appearance and pilots. ↩︎
  8. Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of American History, Julia Child’s Kitchen; Undated museum fact sheet; television production. The fact sheet identifies In Julia’s Kitchen with Master Chefs, Baking with Julia, and Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home as the three series filmed in the kitchen; it doesn’t place The French Chef there. ↩︎
  9. Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of American History, Julia Child’s Kitchen; Undated online exhibition; adapting the home kitchen for television. The museum describes the crew’s removal of furniture and cabinets, installation of lights, and addition of an island for filming; these changes concern the kitchen during television production. ↩︎
  10. Boston.com, Report on the Sale of Julia Child’s Cambridge Home; November 4th, 2026; property description; descriptive record title. The report describes two covered porches; it doesn’t establish their construction dates or Julia Child’s use of them. ↩︎
  11. National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, Preserving Historic Wood Porches; Aleca Sullivan and John Leeke, Preservation Brief 45, October 2006; printed pages 2–3. The brief traces the nineteenth-century outdoor parlor into early twentieth-century porch construction; this national architectural history doesn’t establish a Massachusetts peak in neighborliness or the history of this house’s porches. ↩︎
  12. National Park Service, John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site, 2014 Celebration of John F. Kennedy’s Birthday; June 5th, 2014; address and photograph caption; see also Birthplace of John F. Kennedy: Growing Up Kennedy. The birthplace record identifies Kennedy’s first home, and the news release identifies its front porch; neither citation establishes an original-construction claim. ↩︎
  13. National Park Service, John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site, Accessible Brochure Formats; Undated accessible brochure; Tour Stop 2. The brochure places the Kennedy family at 51 Abbottsford Road from 1920 until 1927 and describes greeting neighbors from the wraparound porch; it supplies no postwar claim. ↩︎

My Brokerage Disclosure

I’m Jonathan Bowen, licensed in Massachusetts as a real estate broker. I must follow the rules of MLS Property Information Network, Inc. (MLS PIN), Massachusetts law, and federal law when publishing real estate posts; fair housing requirements apply. I keep my opinions separate from the information attributed to listing sources.

The Listing Record

Property TypeSF
StatusSLD
Active Status FlagNo
Listing Number73581659
Street Number103
Street NameIrving Street
Unit Number
TownCambridge, MA
StateMA
List Price$6,475,000
Listing OfficeColdwell Banker Realty - Cambridge
Listing AgentGail Roberts, Ed Feijo & Team
The MLS Record
Closing Price$6,525,000
Closing DateOctober 29th, 2026
The Closing Record

The source was checked on November 11th, 2026.

MLS Property Information Network, Inc. (MLS PIN) compiled the property details and images from sellers, lessors, landlords, public records, and other third-party sources. The material is solely for consumers’ personal, noncommercial use in identifying properties of the type displayed that they have a good-faith interest in buying, leasing, or renting. MLS PIN and its subscribers make no representations or warranties about the accuracy of the details or images.

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