Harvard Square
Harvard Square Historic District | ||
MPS Cambridge MRA | | |
NRHP reference No. | 82001944[1] (original) 86003654 (increase) | |
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Significant dates | ||
Added to NRHP | April 13, 1982 | |
Boundary increase | July 28, 1988 |
Harvard Square is a triangular plaza at the intersection of
The name "Harvard Square" can also refer to the entire neighborhood surrounding this intersection for several blocks in each direction, including Brattle Square, a block away, and the nearby Cambridge Common. The Common is a park area with a playground, baseball field, and a number of monuments, several relating to the Revolutionary War.
Location
The heart of Harvard Square is the junction of
Nearby places
The walled enclosure of
Other institutions in the general neighborhood include the
The high pedestrian traffic makes Harvard Square and Brattle Square, a block away, a gathering place for street musicians and
A small bronze statue of "Doo Doo," a puppet created by Igor Fokin, sits at the corner of Brattle and Eliot streets, in honor of Fokin and all the street performers.[6] Fokin performed regularly in Brattle Square after immigrating from Russa and before his untimely death.
Other features
This section needs additional citations for verification. (July 2011) |
Until 1984, the
At the center of the Square is the old
The office of
In the southwest of the neighborhood, on Mount Auburn St, stands the Igor Fokin Memorial.[7] This memorial, created by sculptor Konstantin Simun, pays tribute not only to the late puppeteer, but to all street performers that are an integral part of the square.
A number of public squares dot the surrounding streets, notably Brattle Square and Winthrop Square,
The Square attracts activists for unconventional political factions and has its share of
History
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Although today a commercial center, the Square had famous residents in earlier periods, including the colonial poet Anne Bradstreet.
Transformation
Discussions of how the Square has changed in recent years usually center on the gentrification 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. Although a hardware store (Dickson Hardware at 26 Brattle Street) survived until 2021 amid chain drug stores and bank branches, the Square is mainly a regional rather than neighborhood shopping destination, serving students and commuters.[1]
In 1981 and 1987 the Harvard Square Theater was converted into a multiplex cinema; it later became part of the Loews Cineplex Entertainment chain and then closed on July 8, 2012.[8] 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, a long-popular deli, has also closed; what remained of its small corner storefront space facing Lowell House on Mount Auburn Street is now occupied by an ATM. Another long-time restaurant, the 64-year-old Leo's Place, closed in December 2013 when the landlord of the property terminated their lease. [9]
The student co-op, the Harvard/MIT Cooperative Society ("The Coop", founded in 1882) is now managed by Barnes & Noble, though it is still overseen by a board elected by its membership of Harvard and MIT students and staff. Schoenhof's Foreign Books is owned by the French Éditions Gallimard. Major bookstores Paperback Booksmith, Reading International, and Barilari Books had closed by the end of the 1990s.[10] WordsWorth Books at 30 Brattle Street closed in 2004, after 29 years as a fixture in the Square.[11] In the same year, the famous Grolier Poetry Bookshop announced that it would be sold (although it survived under new management). Globe Corner Bookstore converted to an exclusively online business, serving its last walk-in customer on July 4, 2011.
Following national trends, the former Harvard Trust Company has been absorbed into the national
In film and other media
The 1969 film Goodbye, Columbus takes place in Harvard Square near the film's conclusion, after the Richard Benjamin character learns that his girlfriend, Brenda Potimkin (played by Ali MacGraw), an undergraduate at Radcliffe College, had left her diaphragm in the top drawer of her bureau at home for her mother to discover.
The 1970 film
The 1973 film The Paper Chase, set at Harvard Law School, 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 the Back Bay.
The 1994 film With Honors has a scene filmed in Harvard Square in which the Out of Town Newsstand is featured. In the scene, Monty approaches Simon as he (Simon) is attempting to sell newspapers he took out of a vending machine.
Various parts of the 1997 film Good Will Hunting 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 2005 documentary film Touching History; Harvard Square, the Bank, and The Tasty Diner chronicles the changing face of the Square, as a small diner (The Tasty) closes its doors to make way for a large retail space.[14]
Ben Affleck shot portions of his film The Town (2010) in Grendel's Den on Winthrop Street, locally famous in the 1970s for its chocolate fondue.[15]
The 2015 game Fallout 4 features Harvard Square as an in-game location. Though the layout of the surrounding area is not accurate, the Cambridge visitor's Center kiosk is present.
Gallery
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Harvard Square in 1869
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Harvard Square, May 2004
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Harvard Square on a rainy day
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Harvard Book Store at dusk
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former Loews Movie Theatre, Church Street (now closed)
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Storefronts along Massachusetts Ave. in winter
See also
- Design Research
- National Register of Historic Places listings in Cambridge, Massachusetts
- Orson Welles Cinema
- William Brattle House
- Conductor's Building
- St. Paul Church (Cambridge, Massachusetts)
References
Notes
- ^ 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.
Citations
- ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. January 23, 2007.
- ^ "Harvard Square Historic District - MACRIS Details". Inventory of Historic Assets of the Commonwealth. The Massachusetts Historical Commission. 1988-07-27. Archived from the original on 2011-07-23. Retrieved 2011-01-07.
Old Cambridge; Harvard Square; Mid-Cambridge; Dana Hill
- ^ "Harvard Yard Historic District - MACRIS Details". Inventory of Historic Assets of the Commonwealth. The Massachusetts Historical Commission. 1986-06-23. Archived from the original on 2016-03-09. Retrieved 2011-01-07.
Old Cambridge; Harvard Square
- ISBN 9781584797470.
- ^ Justine Sutton, "Review: Flying Karamazov Brothers Take Act to New Heights", Noozhawk, October 27, 2009
- ^ Show, Jim. "The Igor Fokin Memorial Sculpture Project". Igor Fokin 1960-1996. Retrieved 24 June 2013.
- ^ "Igor Fokin Memorial". Igorfokin.com. 2001-09-22. Retrieved 2011-03-12.
- ^ "AMC to close theater in Harvard Square in July". Boston.com. Retrieved 2012-12-31.
- ^ Baldassari, Erin. "After 32 years, Leo's Place closes". Wicked Local News. Retrieved 13 March 2014.
- ^ "Ohio-state.edu". Omega.cohums.ohio-state.edu. Retrieved 2011-03-12.
- ^ ""WordsWorth to Close on Saturday", "Book Selling This Week"". News.bookweb.org. Retrieved 2011-03-12.
- ^ "Harvard Square's iconic Out of Town News to close as early as Oct. 31 as Cambridge prepares to renovate the kiosk". 16 September 2019.
- ^ "'Just Such a Landmark': Customers Lament Closing of Harvard Square's Out of Town News".
- ^ "Createspace.com". Createspace.com. 2011-03-08. Retrieved 2011-03-12.
- ^ Fennimore, Jillian. "Movie shoot at Grendel's Den". Wickedlocal.com. Archived from the original on 2010-12-06. Retrieved 2011-03-12.
Further reading
- Lotman, Mo (2009). Harvard Square: An Illustrated History Since 1950. Stewart, Tabori & Chang. p. 240. ISBN 978-1-58479-747-0.
- Sullivan, Charles M., "Harvard Square History and Development", Cambridge Historical Commission