Where to live if you work near Kendall Square

Kendall Square is the eastern edge of Cambridge where MIT’s campus meets a dense cluster of lab and office buildings, just across the Longfellow Bridge from Beacon Hill. If that is where you’ll work, the useful question is not which neighborhood is closest but which transit line you’d ride in, because Kendall is served by one subway station, one nearby Green Line terminal, a shuttle, several bus routes and two river bridges built for walking and biking.

This guide starts at the job center and works outward: first how people physically get to Kendall, then the areas each of those routes reaches and the housing you’ll find there. Station, route and stop details come from MBTA route data and the operators’ own sites, checked October 21, 2026. We don’t quote ride times; use the MBTA trip planner for your actual address and hours.

Kendall Square at a glance

Subway

Red Line

Kendall/MIT, 300 Main St

Green Line

Lechmere

D and E branches, about 0.8 mi north

Shuttle

EZRide

Weekdays, North Station to Cambridgeport via Kendall

Buses

64, 68, 85, 1

Plus 69, 80, 87, 88 at Lechmere

Where Kendall is, and the stops around it

The Red Line’s Kendall/MIT station sits under Main Street at Kendall Square (the MBTA lists its address as 300 Main St). Entrances on both sides of Main Street serve the two platforms, and the MBTA’s station page shows four elevators and no station parking (as of October 2026). Our Cambridge guide describes the surrounding blocks as a dense cluster of biotech and tech offices, with newer residential towers toward Cambridge Crossing.

MIT’s main campus runs west from here along the river to Massachusetts Avenue, where its address is 77 Massachusetts Ave. North of Kendall, Lechmere station (3 North First St) anchors East Cambridge and Cambridge Crossing; the MBTA’s coordinates put it roughly 0.8 miles from Kendall/MIT as the crow flies. Depending on which building you work in, Lechmere can be as practical a stop as Kendall/MIT itself, so map the walk from both.

Walking and biking in

Two bridges link Kendall and MIT to Boston on foot and by bike. The Longfellow Bridge carries the Red Line, cars, sidewalks and bike lanes between Kendall and the foot of Beacon Hill at Charles Circle; per the MBTA, the rehabilitation that wrapped up in 2018 created its bicycle lanes. The Harvard Bridge carries Massachusetts Avenue from Back Bay to the MIT campus.

That makes Beacon Hill and the West End the Boston neighborhoods at the foot of the Longfellow Bridge. Beacon Hill is mostly Federal and Greek Revival brick rowhouses, many divided into condos, with a smaller number of single-family townhouses. The West End is mid-century high-rise condos and apartments plus newer towers near North Station. Back Bay, across the Harvard Bridge, offers brownstone condos, full-service buildings and some single-family townhouses.

Within Cambridge, East Cambridge, Cambridgeport and Wellington-Harrington border Kendall. Our Cambridge guide notes worker cottages, two-families and triple-deckers on tight lots there, with mid-rise and high-rise condo and apartment buildings around Kendall and Cambridge Crossing.

Bluebikes has a dense cluster of docks here. The system’s live station feed (checked October 21, 2026) lists a “Kendall T” station at the subway entrance and others at Ames and Main, Ames and Broadway, Third Street at Broad Canal Way, and on the MIT campus.

The Red Line: one seat from both directions

Kendall/MIT is a through station, so the Red Line reaches it from the north and the south without a transfer.

1. Alewife
2. Davis
3. Porter
4. Harvard
5. Central
6. Kendall/MIT
7. Charles/MGH
8. Park Street
9. Downtown Crossing
10. South Station
11. Broadway
12. Andrew

From the north. Central is one stop away, Harvard two and Porter three, all in Cambridge, with Victorian and Colonial Revival single-families, two-families, triple-deckers and condos in converted and newer buildings. Davis, four stops out, is in Somerville, where triple-deckers, two-families and Victorian single-families (many split into condos) make up most of the housing. Alewife, the terminal, is where buses from Arlington (route 350) and Lexington (routes 62 and 76) meet the Red Line, so homes in those towns reach Kendall with one bus-to-train change. Arlington has two-families, Colonial and Victorian single-families and condo conversions; Lexington has Colonials, Capes, split-levels, antique homes near the center and mid-century modern neighborhoods.

From the south. Charles/MGH, at the Boston end of the Longfellow Bridge, is one stop away and serves Beacon Hill and the West End. Park Street and Downtown Crossing follow, then South Station. Past South Station, Broadway and Andrew serve South Boston, where wood triple-deckers, two-families and rowhouses mix with Victorian homes near Thomas Park and new mid-rise condos on the west side. Trains continue to Dorchester and Quincy; our Red Line guide walks every station on both southern branches.

The Green Line at Lechmere

Lechmere is the last stop the D and E branches share before splitting north. That gives two different corridors a one-seat ride to the northern edge of Kendall.

1. Medford/Tufts
2. Ball Square
3. Magoun Square
4. Gilman Square
5. East Somerville
6. Lechmere

North, via the Green Line Extension. E trains run from Medford/Tufts through Ball Square, Magoun Square, Gilman Square and East Somerville to Lechmere. D trains run from Union Square, one stop from Lechmere. Around Medford/Tufts, Medford has many early 20th-century two-family houses, often converted to condos; the Somerville stations sit among triple-deckers and two-families, with newer buildings concentrated at Union Square.

South, through downtown. Going the other way, D and E trains pass Science Park/West End, North Station, Haymarket, Government Center, Park Street, Boylston, Arlington and Copley. From Back Bay’s Arlington and Copley stations, that is a one-seat ride to Lechmere, an alternative to walking the Harvard Bridge or changing to the Red Line at Park Street. Our Green Line guide covers each branch in detail.

The EZRide shuttle

EZRide is run by the Charles River Transportation Management Association, a nonprofit based at 255 Main Street in Kendall. Its site describes the shuttle as fare-free and open to the general public. Weekday buses run from North Station (Nashua Street) through North Point, Lechmere, CambridgeSide and Binney Street to Kendall Square (71 Ames St), then past MIT on Vassar Street to Cambridgeport. The weekend schedule runs only between Lechmere and Kendall, with no service to North Station or Cambridgeport. Buses have front bike racks for two bikes and are low-floor with ramps, per the TMA.

That North Station link matters for Charlestown, one Orange Line stop from North Station at Community College; the TMA’s route maps also mark a walking path from its North Point stop at Morgan and Leighton Streets to the Orange Line. Charlestown’s housing runs from Federal and Greek Revival rowhouses and wood-frame attached homes to condos in converted Navy Yard buildings. It also matters for anyone arriving on Orange Line or commuter rail at North Station; see our Orange Line guide for the stations north and south of there.

Bus routes into Kendall and MIT

Per MBTA route data (as of October 2026), these routes reach Kendall, MIT or Lechmere, or stop just short of them:

• Route 64, Oak Square to Kendall/MIT, runs through Brighton on North Beacon Street, Allston on Cambridge Street, then Central Square and Broadway.
• Route 68, Harvard Square to Kendall/MIT, follows Broadway through Mid-Cambridge.
• Route 85, Ruggles to Assembly Row, crosses from Longwood and the Fenway over the river to Vassar Street, Ames Street and Galileo Way, then on to Union Square and Sullivan Square.
• Route 1 runs Massachusetts Avenue from Nubian through the South End and Back Bay, stopping at 77 Massachusetts Ave by MIT on the way to Harvard.
• Routes 69, 80, 87 and 88 end at Lechmere: the 69 from Harvard along Cambridge Street, the 80 and 87 from Arlington Center (by way of Medford/Tufts and Davis respectively), and the 88 from Clarendon Hill via Davis.
• Route 70 runs from Waltham and Watertown along Arsenal Street and Western Avenue to University Park in Cambridgeport, between Central Square and the MIT campus. It stops short of Kendall, so plan on a walk or a transfer from there.

Commuter rail connections

No commuter rail line stops in Kendall, but two connections work. On the Fitchburg Line, Belmont’s two stations (Belmont, in Belmont Center, and Waverley) run to Porter, where the Red Line is three stops from Kendall/MIT. Belmont’s housing is Colonial, Victorian and Tudor-style single-families, two-families and condo conversions. Lines into North Station, such as the Lowell Line through West Medford, connect to EZRide on weekdays or to the Green Line toward Lechmere. Our commuter rail towns guide lists the stations on each line.

How to compare commutes before you buy

If you’re new to the area, our moving to Boston guide covers the bigger picture, and the area guides linked above describe each place’s streets, parks and housing in more depth.

The Pettengill Group can help you line up homes along the routes that suit your Kendall commute and tour them at the hours you’d actually travel. Start a home search or get in touch with your office address and we’ll start from there.