Commercial Locksmith in Cambridge, MA

Storefronts on Cambridge Street

According to the Historical Commission's 2022 draft study of East Cambridge, Cambridge Street has been the neighborhood's main commercial corridor since 1809. By 1850 the blocks from Second Street to Sciarappa Street formed its retail center, and farther west many homeowners later added storefronts or opened shops on their ground floors.

That history puts some shops in buildings that began as homes. A storefront in a converted house may share a rear door, a hallway or a basement with the apartments above, and each group needs its own key plan:

• The storefront door keyed for staff only.
• The residential entrance keyed for residents only.
• Shared rear, basement or utility doors keyed so both groups can use them, or split with separate locks.

A single key that opens everything is convenient until one copy leaves with a former employee.

Knox-Box keys

Many Cambridge buildings carry a Knox-Box, a high-security key box near the entrance that the Cambridge Fire Department uses. Owners keep entrance keys, access cards and floor plans inside, and to add keys the department sends a fire company to open the box. A rekey or a new set of access cards makes the copies inside useless, so arrange with the fire department to replace them whenever the building's locks change.

Turnover and key control

Staff turnover, a commercial tenant moving out or a lost master key each give a reason to rekey business doors. A master key system lets a manager open every door while each employee's key opens only one area, so a lost employee key does not force a change to every lock. Keep a written record of who holds which key, and collect keys when someone leaves.

For a request, give the address, the number of doors, which doors are shared with residents and whether the building has a Knox-Box. Service details are on the commercial locksmith page, key changes are explained under lock rekeying, and the Cambridge page describes the city's buildings.