Harvard Square
Encyclopedia
Harvard Square is a large triangular area in the center of Cambridge
, Massachusetts
, United States, at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue
, Brattle Street
, and John F. Kennedy Street. It is the historic center of Cambridge. Adjacent to Harvard Yard
, the historic heart of Harvard University
, the Square (as it is called locally) functions as a commercial center for Harvard students, as well as residents of western Cambridge and the inner western and northern suburbs of Boston
. These residents use the Harvard station
, a major MBTA
Red Line
subway
and bus
transportation hub
.
In an extended sense, the name "Harvard Square" can also refer to the entire neighborhood surrounding this intersection for several blocks in each direction. The nearby Cambridge Common
has become a park area with a playground, baseball field, and a number of monuments, several relating to the Revolutionary War
.
Although today a commercial center, the Square had famous residents in earlier periods, including the colonial poet Anne Bradstreet
. The high pedestrian traffic makes it a gathering place for street musicians and buskers; singer-songwriters Tracy Chapman
, who attended nearby Tufts University
, is known to have played here during her college years; Amanda Palmer
performed here as a "living statue
".
Until 1984, the Harvard Square stop
was the northern terminus of the Red Line
, and it still functions as a major transfer station between subway, bus, and trackless trolley. Automobile traffic can be heavy, and parking is difficult. Most of the bus lines serving the area from the north and west run through a tunnel adjacent to the subway tunnel. Originally built for streetcars
(which last ran in 1958) and still used by trackless trolleys
as well as ordinary buses, the tunnel lessens bus traffic in central Harvard Square, and lets buses cross the Square without encountering automobile traffic. The tunnel also allows safer and covered access between the subway and the buses.
of the Harvard Square neighborhood and Cambridge in general.
The Square also used to be a neighborhood shopping center, including a grocery store (Sages) and a Woolworth's
five and ten. There does remain a small hardware store (Dickson Hardware), but the Square is now more of a regional shopping center, especially for youths and commuters.
In 1981 and 1987 the Harvard Square Theatre was converted into a multiplex
cinema; it is now part of the Loews Cineplex Entertainment
chain. During the late 1990s, some locally run businesses with long-time shopfronts on the Square—including the unusual Tasty Diner
, a tiny sandwich shop open long hours, and the Wursthaus, a German restaurant with an extensive beer menu—closed to make way for national chains. Elsie's Lunch has also closed.
The student co-op, the Harvard Coop, is now managed by Barnes & Noble
. Schoenhof's Foreign Books
is owned by the French Éditions Gallimard
. Paperback Booksmith and Reading International closed by the end of the 1990s. The independent WordsWorth Books closed in 2004, after a tenure of 29 years as a fixture in the Square. In the same year, it was announced that the famous Grolier Poetry Bookshop
would be sold (although it ended up surviving under different, independent management). Globe Corner Bookstore
transitioned to an online business, serving its last bricks-and-mortar customer on July 4, 2011.
Following national trends, the local Harvard Trust Company bank has been absorbed into the national Bank of America
through a series of mergers. The iconic Out of Town News
is owned by the UK-based Hudson Group
. Still, a few establishments, such as Leavitt & Pierce tobacconists (est. 1883), Laflamme Barber Shop (est. 1898), Harvard Book Store
(est. 1932), Cardullo's Gourmet Shoppe (est. 1950), Charlie's Kitchen
(est. 1951), the Brattle Theater (est. 1953), the Hong Kong Chinese restaurant (est. 1954), Club Passim
(est. 1958), Café Pamplona
(est. 1959), Bartley's Burger Cottage (est. 1960), Algiers Coffee House (est. 1970), and Grendel's Den
(est. 1971) remain as longstanding, locally-run businesses with unique styles.
At the center of the Square is the old Harvard Square Subway Kiosk
, now a newsstand, Out of Town News
, stocking newspapers and magazines from around the world. A video of it appears in transitional clips used on CNN
. A public motion art installation, Lumen Eclipse
, has been introduced at the Tourist Information Booth showing monthly exhibitions of local, national and international artists.
In the southwest area of the Square neighborhood, on Mount Auburn St, stands the Igor Fokin
Memorial. This memorial, created by sculptor Konstantin Simun
, pays tribute not only to the late "beloved puppeteer," but to all street performers that are an integral part of the square, especially during summer months.
The office of NPR's Car Talk
radio show faces the square, with a stencil in the window that reads "Dewey, Cheetham & Howe
," the fictional law firm often referenced on the show. The popular show references this by asking its viewers to send in answers to the "Puzzler" to "Puzzler Tower, Car Talk Plaza, Harvard Square, Cambridge (our fair city), MA 02138".
The sunken region next to the newsstand and the subway entrance is called "The Pit." Its arena-like appearance attracts skateboarders and, more generally, young, high-school aged people from surrounding neighborhoods who are associated with countercultural movements such as the punk
, hardcore, straight edge
, and goth
subcultures. The contrast between these congregants and the often older and more conservatively dressed people associated with nearby Harvard University and the businesses in the Square occasionally leads to tension. Harvard sports teams and clubs, including the track teams and all-male social clubs, are known to make use of this contrast through encouraging or sometimes forcing their newest members to engage in humorous or humiliating performances in "The Pit" as part of these members' initiations into the group.
Across the street to the east of the pit, an outdoor cafe features always-busy tables for chess
players, including Murray Turnbull
, with his ever-present "Play the Chessmaster" sign.
A number of other public squares dot the surrounding streets, notably Brattle Square and Winthrop Square,Brattle Square, Harvard Square, and Winthrop Square are at the three corners of the triangular block formed by Brattle Street, JFK Street, and Mt. Auburn Street – Brattle Square is at the triangular intersection of Brattle and Mt. Auburn, while Winthrop Square is at the southwest corner of Mt. Auburn and JFK. with a wide variety of street performers throughout the year. Brattle Street itself is home to the Brattle Theater (a non-profit arthouse theater
) and the American Repertory Theater. The John F. Kennedy Memorial Park, one block further down JFK Street, is on the bank of the Charles River. Cambridge Common
is two blocks north.
The square often attracts activists for the Communist Party USA
, Lyndon LaRouche
and other non-mainstream political factions. It is also known for its large number of panhandlers; Tom Magliozzi
has called it "the bum capital of the world".
"The Garage" is a small, multi-story shopping mall
, named thus because it was formerly a parking garage
. The original car ramp has been preserved, and is a central feature of this adaptive reuse
project. One of the main attractions in The Garage is a Newbury Comics
store.
were filmed in and around Harvard Square, most notably at the former Tasty Sandwich Shop
and the outdoor seating area of the square's largest Au Bon Pain café.
The 1973 film The Paper Chase features Harvard Square landmarks of its era, including the old Out of Town Newsstand, the old MBTA Harvard station kiosk, with its "8 Minutes to Park Street" sign, and the now-defunct Kupersmith's Florists.
The 1977 film Between the Lines features similar Harvard Square footage as well as aerial footage of Back Bay.
The 1994 film With Honors has a scene filmed in Harvard Square. The Out of Town Newsstand is featured in it. The scene is when Monty approaches Simon as he (Simon) is attempting to sell newspapers he took out of a vending machine.
The 2005 film Touching History; Harvard Square, the Bank, and The Tasty Diner chronicles the changing face of the square through the eyes of a small diner serving its last burger and closing its doors to make way for a large surface retail space.
Ben Affleck
shot portions of his film The Town
(2010) in Grendel's Den
on Winthrop Street.
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
, United States, at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue
Massachusetts Avenue (Boston)
Massachusetts Avenue, known to locals as Mass Ave, is a major thoroughfare in Boston, Massachusetts, and several cities and towns northwest of Boston...
, Brattle Street
Brattle Street (Cambridge, Massachusetts)
Brattle Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts, called the "King's Highway" or "Tory Row" before the American Revolutionary War, is the site of many buildings of historic interest, including the modernist glass-and-concrete building that housed the Design Research store,and a Georgian mansion where...
, and John F. Kennedy Street. It is the historic center of Cambridge. Adjacent to Harvard Yard
Harvard Yard
Harvard Yard is a grassy area of about , adjacent to Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that constitutes the oldest part and the center of the campus of Harvard University...
, the historic heart of Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, the Square (as it is called locally) functions as a commercial center for Harvard students, as well as residents of western Cambridge and the inner western and northern suburbs of Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
. These residents use the Harvard station
Harvard (MBTA station)
Harvard is a station on the Red Line of the MBTA subway system in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The third-busiest MBTA subway station, Harvard saw 21,868 entries each weekday in 2010, with only Downtown Crossing and South Station being busier...
, a major MBTA
Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, often referred to as the MBTA or simply The T, is the public operator of most bus, subway, commuter rail and ferry systems in the greater Boston, Massachusetts, area. Officially a "body politic and corporate, and a political subdivision" of the...
Red Line
Red Line (MBTA)
The Red Line is a rapid transit line operated by the MBTA running roughly north-south through Boston, Massachusetts into neighboring communities. The line begins west of Boston, in Cambridge, Massachusetts at Alewife station, near the intersection of Alewife Brook Parkway and Route 2...
subway
Rapid transit
A rapid transit, underground, subway, elevated railway, metro or metropolitan railway system is an electric passenger railway in an urban area with a high capacity and frequency, and grade separation from other traffic. Rapid transit systems are typically located either in underground tunnels or on...
and bus
Bus
A bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. Buses can have a capacity as high as 300 passengers. The most common type of bus is the single-decker bus, with larger loads carried by double-decker buses and articulated buses, and smaller loads carried by midibuses and minibuses; coaches are...
transportation hub
Transportation hub
A transport hub is a place where passengers and cargo are exchanged between vehicles or between transport modes. Public transport hubs include train stations, rapid transit stations, bus stops, tram stop, airports and ferry slips. Freight hubs include classification yards, seaports and truck...
.
In an extended sense, the name "Harvard Square" can also refer to the entire neighborhood surrounding this intersection for several blocks in each direction. The nearby Cambridge Common
Cambridge Common
Cambridge Common is a public park in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. It is located near Harvard Square and borders on several parts of Harvard University.-History:...
has become a park area with a playground, baseball field, and a number of monuments, several relating to the Revolutionary War
American Revolution
The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...
.
History
Anne Bradstreet
Anne Dudley Bradstreet was New England's first published poet. Her work met with a positive reception in both the Old World and the New World.-Biography:...
. The high pedestrian traffic makes it a gathering place for street musicians and buskers; singer-songwriters Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman is an American singer-songwriter, best known for her singles "Fast Car", "Talkin' 'bout a Revolution", "Baby Can I Hold You", "Give Me One Reason" and "Telling Stories". She is a multi-platinum and four-time Grammy Award-winning artist.-Biography:Tracy Chapman was born in Cleveland,...
, who attended nearby Tufts University
Tufts University
Tufts University is a private research university located in Medford/Somerville, near Boston, Massachusetts. It is organized into ten schools, including two undergraduate programs and eight graduate divisions, on four campuses in Massachusetts and on the eastern border of France...
, is known to have played here during her college years; Amanda Palmer
Amanda Palmer
Amanda MacKinnon Gaiman Palmer , sometimes known as Amanda Fucking Palmer, is an American performer who first rose to prominence as the lead singer, pianist, and lyricist/composer of the duo The Dresden Dolls...
performed here as a "living statue
Living statue
The term living statue refers to a mime artist who poses like a statue or mannequin, usually with realistic statue-like makeup, sometimes for hours at a time....
".
Until 1984, the Harvard Square stop
Harvard (MBTA station)
Harvard is a station on the Red Line of the MBTA subway system in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The third-busiest MBTA subway station, Harvard saw 21,868 entries each weekday in 2010, with only Downtown Crossing and South Station being busier...
was the northern terminus of the Red Line
Red Line (MBTA)
The Red Line is a rapid transit line operated by the MBTA running roughly north-south through Boston, Massachusetts into neighboring communities. The line begins west of Boston, in Cambridge, Massachusetts at Alewife station, near the intersection of Alewife Brook Parkway and Route 2...
, and it still functions as a major transfer station between subway, bus, and trackless trolley. Automobile traffic can be heavy, and parking is difficult. Most of the bus lines serving the area from the north and west run through a tunnel adjacent to the subway tunnel. Originally built for streetcars
Tram
A tram is a passenger rail vehicle which runs on tracks along public urban streets and also sometimes on separate rights of way. It may also run between cities and/or towns , and/or partially grade separated even in the cities...
(which last ran in 1958) and still used by trackless trolleys
Trolleybus
A trolleybus is an electric bus that draws its electricity from overhead wires using spring-loaded trolley poles. Two wires and poles are required to complete the electrical circuit...
as well as ordinary buses, the tunnel lessens bus traffic in central Harvard Square, and lets buses cross the Square without encountering automobile traffic. The tunnel also allows safer and covered access between the subway and the buses.
Transformation
Discussions of how the Square has changed in recent years usually center on the perceived gentrificationGentrification
Gentrification and urban gentrification refer to the changes that result when wealthier people acquire or rent property in low income and working class communities. Urban gentrification is associated with movement. Consequent to gentrification, the average income increases and average family size...
of the Harvard Square neighborhood and Cambridge in general.
The Square also used to be a neighborhood shopping center, including a grocery store (Sages) and a Woolworth's
F. W. Woolworth Company
The F. W. Woolworth Company was a retail company that was one of the original American five-and-dime stores. The first successful Woolworth store was opened on July 18, 1879 by Frank Winfield Woolworth in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, as "Woolworth's Great Five Cent Store"...
five and ten. There does remain a small hardware store (Dickson Hardware), but the Square is now more of a regional shopping center, especially for youths and commuters.
In 1981 and 1987 the Harvard Square Theatre was converted into a multiplex
Multiplex (movie theater)
A multiplex is a movie theater complex with multiple screens, typically three or more. They are usually housed in a specially designed building. Sometimes, an existing venue undergoes a renovation where the existing auditoriums are split into smaller ones, or more auditoriums are added in an...
cinema; it is now part of the Loews Cineplex Entertainment
Loews Cineplex Entertainment
Loews Theatres, aka Loews Incorporated , founded in 1904 by Marcus Loew and Brantford Schwartz, was the oldest theater chain operating in North America until it merged with AMC Theatres on January 26, 2006. From 1924 until 1959, it was also the parent company of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios. The...
chain. During the late 1990s, some locally run businesses with long-time shopfronts on the Square—including the unusual Tasty Diner
Tasty Sandwich Shop
The Tasty Sandwich Shop, sometimes referred to as "The Tasty", was located near the joining of John F. Kennedy Street and Massachusetts Avenue, at the center of Harvard Square, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the Read Block building, the site of the home of colonial poet Anne Bradstreet...
, a tiny sandwich shop open long hours, and the Wursthaus, a German restaurant with an extensive beer menu—closed to make way for national chains. Elsie's Lunch has also closed.
The student co-op, the Harvard Coop, is now managed by Barnes & Noble
Barnes & Noble
Barnes & Noble, Inc. is the largest book retailer in the United States, operating mainly through its Barnes & Noble Booksellers chain of bookstores headquartered at 122 Fifth Avenue in the Flatiron District in Manhattan in New York City. Barnes & Noble also operated the chain of small B. Dalton...
. Schoenhof's Foreign Books
Schoenhof's Foreign Books
Schoenhof's Foreign Books is a specialty bookstore in Cambridge, Massachusetts, near Harvard Square. Founded in 1856, Schoenhof's claims to be the oldest foreign language book dealer in the United States and to offer the largest selection foreign language books in North America...
is owned by the French Éditions Gallimard
Éditions Gallimard
Éditions Gallimard is one of the leading French publishers of books. The Guardian has described it as having "the best backlist in the world". In 2003 it and its subsidiaries published 1418 titles....
. Paperback Booksmith and Reading International closed by the end of the 1990s. The independent WordsWorth Books closed in 2004, after a tenure of 29 years as a fixture in the Square. In the same year, it was announced that the famous Grolier Poetry Bookshop
Grolier Poetry Bookshop
The Grolier Poetry Bookshop is an independent bookstore on Plympton Street near Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Although founded as a "fine-arts" bookstore, its focus today is solely poetry...
would be sold (although it ended up surviving under different, independent management). Globe Corner Bookstore
Globe Corner Bookstore
The Globe Corner Bookstore was one of the largest travel book and map retailers in North America. It was located at 90 Mount Auburn Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts, near Harvard Square...
transitioned to an online business, serving its last bricks-and-mortar customer on July 4, 2011.
Following national trends, the local Harvard Trust Company bank has been absorbed into the national Bank of America
Bank of America
Bank of America Corporation, an American multinational banking and financial services corporation, is the second largest bank holding company in the United States by assets, and the fourth largest bank in the U.S. by market capitalization. The bank is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina...
through a series of mergers. The iconic Out of Town News
Out of Town News
Out of Town News is an iconic newsstand located in the center of Harvard Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts.The newsstand was long noted for stocking the leading newspapers from around the nation and around the world...
is owned by the UK-based Hudson Group
Hudson Group
The Hudson Group is an East Rutherford, New Jersey, based retailer which operates a chain of newsstands, bookstores, fast food restaurants, and other retail stores chiefly at airports and train stations in the United States. It was founded in 1918 by Ike Cohen as a newspaper distributorship in...
. Still, a few establishments, such as Leavitt & Pierce tobacconists (est. 1883), Laflamme Barber Shop (est. 1898), Harvard Book Store
Harvard Book Store
Harvard Book Store is an independent and locally owned seller of used, new, and bargain books in Cambridge's Harvard Square.Harvard Book Store was established in 1932 by Mark Kramer, father of longtime owner Frank Kramer, and originally sold used textbooks to students.Family-owned for over...
(est. 1932), Cardullo's Gourmet Shoppe (est. 1950), Charlie's Kitchen
Charlie's Kitchen
Charlie's Kitchen is a restaurant serving American fare with New England specialties in the Harvard Square neighborhood of Cambridge, Massachusetts. “Charlie’s” houses bars on two separate floors; additionally, a front patio and backyard beer garden are open seasonally...
(est. 1951), the Brattle Theater (est. 1953), the Hong Kong Chinese restaurant (est. 1954), Club Passim
Club Passim
Club Passim is a folk music club in the Harvard Square area of Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was opened by Joyce Kalina and Paula Kelley in 1958, when it was known as Club 47 , and changed its name to simply Passim in 1969...
(est. 1958), Café Pamplona
Café Pamplona
Café Pamplona, located at 12 Bow St. beside the intersection of Bow and Arrow Streets near Harvard Square, is an unusual and renowned café. When it opened in 1959 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it was the first café in the Square. The owner, Josefina Yanguas, claimed the café had the first...
(est. 1959), Bartley's Burger Cottage (est. 1960), Algiers Coffee House (est. 1970), and Grendel's Den
Grendel's Den
Grendel's Den is a bar and restaurant in Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts located at 89 Winthrop Street. The establishment is frequented by both students and professors of Harvard University as well as many others from the Cambridge and Boston area...
(est. 1971) remain as longstanding, locally-run businesses with unique styles.
Other features
Harvard Square Subway Kiosk
The Harvard Square Subway Kiosk is an historic kiosk and landmark in Harvard Square on Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was constructed in 1928 and retired in 1981, when the Harvard Station of the MBTA closed for renovation and expansion....
, now a newsstand, Out of Town News
Out of Town News
Out of Town News is an iconic newsstand located in the center of Harvard Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts.The newsstand was long noted for stocking the leading newspapers from around the nation and around the world...
, stocking newspapers and magazines from around the world. A video of it appears in transitional clips used on CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
. A public motion art installation, Lumen Eclipse
Lumen Eclipse
Lumen Eclipse is a public media arts gallery located in Harvard Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts, founded to expand public awareness of local, national, and international artists. The gallery is situated on two mounted displays on the Tourism Information Kiosk, just outside the Harvard Square MBTA...
, has been introduced at the Tourist Information Booth showing monthly exhibitions of local, national and international artists.
In the southwest area of the Square neighborhood, on Mount Auburn St, stands the Igor Fokin
Igor Fokin
Igor Fokin was a Russian puppeteer and street performer. He learned his craft in his hometown of St. Petersburg. He moved from the then-Soviet Union to Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the United States, in 1993...
Memorial. This memorial, created by sculptor Konstantin Simun
Konstantin Simun
- Biography :Simun was born in Leningrad, USSR, in 1934. He studied sculpture at the secondary school of Arts at the I. Repin Art Institute in Leningrad, then at the Tallinn Art Institute in Estonia, and from 1953 to 1957 at the I. Repin Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. In 1958 he...
, pays tribute not only to the late "beloved puppeteer," but to all street performers that are an integral part of the square, especially during summer months.
The office of NPR's Car Talk
Car Talk
Car Talk is a radio talk show broadcast weekly on National Public Radio stations throughout the United States and elsewhere. Its subjects are automobiles and repair, and it often takes humorous turns...
radio show faces the square, with a stencil in the window that reads "Dewey, Cheetham & Howe
Dewey, Cheatem & Howe
Dewey, Cheatem & Howe is the gag name of a fictional law or accounting firm, used in several parody settings. For example, a popular Three Stooges poster features the Stooges as bumbling members of such a firm...
," the fictional law firm often referenced on the show. The popular show references this by asking its viewers to send in answers to the "Puzzler" to "Puzzler Tower, Car Talk Plaza, Harvard Square, Cambridge (our fair city), MA 02138".
The sunken region next to the newsstand and the subway entrance is called "The Pit." Its arena-like appearance attracts skateboarders and, more generally, young, high-school aged people from surrounding neighborhoods who are associated with countercultural movements such as the punk
Punk subculture
The punk subculture includes a diverse array of ideologies, and forms of expression, including fashion, visual art, dance, literature, and film, which grew out of punk rock.-History:...
, hardcore, straight edge
Straight edge
Straight edge is a subculture of hardcore punk whose adherents refrain from using alcohol, tobacco, and other recreational drugs. It was a direct reaction to the sexual revolution, hedonism, and excess associated with punk rock. For some, this extends to not engaging in promiscuous sex, following a...
, and goth
Goth subculture
The goth subculture is a contemporary subculture found in many countries. It began in England during the early 1980s in the gothic rock scene, an offshoot of the post-punk genre. The goth subculture has survived much longer than others of the same era, and has continued to diversify...
subcultures. The contrast between these congregants and the often older and more conservatively dressed people associated with nearby Harvard University and the businesses in the Square occasionally leads to tension. Harvard sports teams and clubs, including the track teams and all-male social clubs, are known to make use of this contrast through encouraging or sometimes forcing their newest members to engage in humorous or humiliating performances in "The Pit" as part of these members' initiations into the group.
Across the street to the east of the pit, an outdoor cafe features always-busy tables for chess
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
players, including Murray Turnbull
Murray Turnbull
Murray Turnbull is better known by the name "The Chessmaster" who spends his days playing chess in Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He attended Harvard University and later dropped out. In 1981, he achieved a certified level of a chess master. Since 1982, he has been playing chess...
, with his ever-present "Play the Chessmaster" sign.
A number of other public squares dot the surrounding streets, notably Brattle Square and Winthrop Square,Brattle Square, Harvard Square, and Winthrop Square are at the three corners of the triangular block formed by Brattle Street, JFK Street, and Mt. Auburn Street – Brattle Square is at the triangular intersection of Brattle and Mt. Auburn, while Winthrop Square is at the southwest corner of Mt. Auburn and JFK. with a wide variety of street performers throughout the year. Brattle Street itself is home to the Brattle Theater (a non-profit arthouse theater
Art film
An art film is the result of filmmaking which is typically a serious, independent film aimed at a niche market rather than a mass market audience...
) and the American Repertory Theater. The John F. Kennedy Memorial Park, one block further down JFK Street, is on the bank of the Charles River. Cambridge Common
Cambridge Common
Cambridge Common is a public park in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. It is located near Harvard Square and borders on several parts of Harvard University.-History:...
is two blocks north.
The square often attracts activists for the Communist Party USA
Communist Party USA
The Communist Party USA is a Marxist political party in the United States, established in 1919. It has a long, complex history that is closely related to the histories of similar communist parties worldwide and the U.S. labor movement....
, Lyndon LaRouche
Lyndon LaRouche
Lyndon Hermyle LaRouche, Jr. is an American political activist and founder of a network of political committees, parties, and publications known collectively as the LaRouche movement...
and other non-mainstream political factions. It is also known for its large number of panhandlers; Tom Magliozzi
Tom Magliozzi
Thomas Louis "Click Tappet" Magliozzi is an American radio talk show host. He and his younger brother Ray Magliozzi, also known collectively as Click and Clack, The Tappet Brothers, are the hosts of National Public Radio's Car Talk. -Biography:Thomas Louis...
has called it "the bum capital of the world".
"The Garage" is a small, multi-story shopping mall
Shopping mall
A shopping mall, shopping centre, shopping arcade, shopping precinct or simply mall is one or more buildings forming a complex of shops representing merchandisers, with interconnecting walkways enabling visitors to easily walk from unit to unit, along with a parking area — a modern, indoor version...
, named thus because it was formerly a parking garage
Multi-storey car park
A multi-storey car-park is a building designed specifically to be for car parking and where there are a number of floors or levels on which parking takes place...
. The original car ramp has been preserved, and is a central feature of this adaptive reuse
Adaptive reuse
Adaptive reuse refers to the process of reusing an old site or building for a purpose other than which it was built or designed for. Along with brownfield reclamation, adaptive reuse is seen by many as a key factor in land conservation and the reduction of urban sprawl...
project. One of the main attractions in The Garage is a Newbury Comics
Newbury Comics
Newbury Comics is a New England-based music retailer. Newbury Comics began as a comic book vendor on Newbury Street in Boston. The company was founded in 1978 by Massachusetts Institute of Technology students John Brusger and Mike Dreese. Over the next few years, the focus of the company changed...
store.
In film
Various parts of the 1997 film Good Will HuntingGood Will Hunting
Good Will Hunting is a 1997 drama film directed by Gus Van Sant and starring Matt Damon, Robin Williams, Ben Affleck, Minnie Driver, and Stellan Skarsgård...
were filmed in and around Harvard Square, most notably at the former Tasty Sandwich Shop
Tasty Sandwich Shop
The Tasty Sandwich Shop, sometimes referred to as "The Tasty", was located near the joining of John F. Kennedy Street and Massachusetts Avenue, at the center of Harvard Square, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the Read Block building, the site of the home of colonial poet Anne Bradstreet...
and the outdoor seating area of the square's largest Au Bon Pain café.
The 1973 film The Paper Chase features Harvard Square landmarks of its era, including the old Out of Town Newsstand, the old MBTA Harvard station kiosk, with its "8 Minutes to Park Street" sign, and the now-defunct Kupersmith's Florists.
The 1977 film Between the Lines features similar Harvard Square footage as well as aerial footage of Back Bay.
The 1994 film With Honors has a scene filmed in Harvard Square. The Out of Town Newsstand is featured in it. The scene is when Monty approaches Simon as he (Simon) is attempting to sell newspapers he took out of a vending machine.
The 2005 film Touching History; Harvard Square, the Bank, and The Tasty Diner chronicles the changing face of the square through the eyes of a small diner serving its last burger and closing its doors to make way for a large surface retail space.
Ben Affleck
Ben Affleck
Benjamin Géza Affleck-Boldt , better known as Ben Affleck, is an American actor, film director, writer, and producer. He became known with his performances in Kevin Smith's films such as Mallrats and Chasing Amy...
shot portions of his film The Town
The Town (2010 film)
The Town is a 2010 crime film starring, co-written, and directed by Ben Affleck adapted from Chuck Hogan's novel Prince of Thieves. The film opened in theaters in the United States on September 17, 2010 at number one with more than $23 million and positive reviews...
(2010) in Grendel's Den
Grendel's Den
Grendel's Den is a bar and restaurant in Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts located at 89 Winthrop Street. The establishment is frequented by both students and professors of Harvard University as well as many others from the Cambridge and Boston area...
on Winthrop Street.
See also
- National Register of Historic Places listings in Cambridge, Massachusetts
- Orson Welles CinemaOrson Welles CinemaThe Orson Welles Cinema was a movie theater at 1001 Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge, Massachusetts that operated from 1969 to 1986. Showcasing independent films, foreign films and revivals, it became a focal point of the Boston-Cambridge film community....
- William Brattle HouseWilliam Brattle HouseThe William Brattle House is an historic house at 42 Brattle Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is one of the seven Colonial mansions described by historian Samuel Atkins Eliot as making up Tory Row.-History:...