Harvard Square Infill and Small Developments

Funny, as I read the article, I was reminded of the late 90's when the Tasty closed, etc. and Abercrombie & Fitch opened. We thought the end of HS was near. But, A&F didn't last long, the Square moved on.

It is still an incredibly unique place. I hope that it does not end up like the West Village, where whole blocks of retail are vacant along Bleecker Street and Greenwich Ave as landlords await the coming of corporate tenants that are not coming anymore.

chrisbrat said:
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2019/06/05/amid-closures-turnover-and-vacancies-harvard-square-source-angst-and-anxiety/RS8Imk0GozEdYaU8RLdYPP/story.html. not overreacting
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I just noticed who started this thread ...
 
In a million years, I never would have dreamt that the area around Northeastern would become far better than Harvard Square. The Crimson folks should be ashamed.
 
shmessy said:
In a million years, I never would have dreamt that the area around Northeastern would become far better than Harvard Square. The Crimson folks should be ashamed.
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Please do explain in depth & detail. Especially because of this enduring reality. Compounded by the forbidding/desolate character of Huntington Ave west of NU--the deep set-backs of Wentworth, MFA. The fortress-like streetwall of Mass Pharmacy College/southwest corner of Longwood medical complexes. It doesn't get inviting until you get to Brigham Circle (although I do consider that a gem).

Also, it's going to take A LOT to compensate for the demise of Punter's, the quintessential "great good place" if there ever was one. Do you really think whatever marginal improvement of the restaurant mix that has taken place on the north side of Huntington between Mass Ave. & Conor Larkin's compensates for the loss of Punter's?

<Admittedly, it's been a decade since I was at school at NU, so I'm quite agreeable to being "schooled" in any dramatic transformations that have taken place since 2009 in the vicinity.>
 
shmessy said:
In a million years, I never would have dreamt that the area around Northeastern would become far better than Harvard Square. The Crimson folks should be ashamed.
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Are you suggesting that Harvard owns all this commercial property, or should own it?

From the City of Cambridge real property database. (I took two short streets near Harvard Square because I am not chasing down addresses on Mass Ave., or Mt. Auburn St.)

Address and owner of record
8 Brattle
AP BRATTLE SQUARE, LP
C/O ASANA PARTNERS, LP
1616 CAMDEN ROAD. SUITE # 210
CHARLOTTE, NC 28203

24 Brattle
HARVARD COLLECTION LLC
C/O EQUITY ONE, INC. ATTN: CONTROLLER
410 PARK AVE., SUITE 1220
NEW YORK, NY 10022

26 Brattle
VERPLANCK, EDWARD P. TR.
C/O 26 BRATTLE STREET TRUST
26 BRATTLE ST
CAMBRIDGE, MA 02138

28-36 Brattle
HADLEY, LILLIAN H.,
HARRY LEBARON SAMPSON, TR.
C/O THOMAS HADLEY TRUST
59 HUNTER LANE
LANCASTER, MA 01523

37 Brattle
AP BRATTLE SQUARE, LP
C/O ASANA PARTNERS,LP
1616 CAMDEN RD. SUITE #210
CHARLOTTE, NC 28203

39-41 Brattle
AP BRATTLE SQUARE LP.
C/O ASANA PARTNERS, LP
1616 CAMDEN ROAD. SUITE #210
CHARLOTTE, NC 28203

21 Dunster
DANA CHAMBERS ALLIANCE
P.O. BOX 650043
NEWTON, MA 02465

45 Dunster
45 DUNSTER STREET LLC
2 HOLYOKE PLACE
CAMBRIDGE, MA 02138
(2 Holyoke Place is the address of a Finals Club for Harvard; these are not affiliated with the university)
 
DBM said:
the quintessential "great good place" if there ever was one.
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Punter's was a dump. The nail in its coffin occurred when they had to stop ordering UHOP pizza through a literal hole in the wall. Even before then, it was considered far worse than Conor's and OHE (now Two Saints) by everyone I knew at Northeastern. I just graduated this past May.
 
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Punter’s was great. And, that was a rare strip of genuine, “natural” commercial activity. If we’re lucky enough to get retail returned after construction, it’s just going to be the same bland bullshit… Probably a Pavement, Regina’s, and Yard House.
 
FK4 said:
Punter’s was great. And, that was a rare strip of genuine, “natural” commercial activity. If we’re lucky enough to get retail returned after construction, it’s just going to be the same bland bullshit… Probably a Pavement, Regina’s, and Yard House.
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It really wasn't. And it's not like Conor's, Amelia's, Shawarma, etc. make Huntington feel like a corporate wasteland. I mean sure, there's also Starbucks, 5 Guys and Panera, but I think the area has a good mix of major corporate vs more local offerings.

Anyway, maybe this convo could continue in a Northeastern-centric thread.
 
Blackbird said:
Punter's was a dump. The nail in its coffin occurred when they had to stop ordering UHOP pizza through a literal hole in the wall. Even before then, it was considered far worse than Conor's and OHE (now Two Saints) by everyone I knew at Northeastern. I just graduated this past May.
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Punter's absolutely was great. Once the pizza hole closed, I knew they weren't long for the world.

I graduated from NU a few years ago. It absolutely was NOT considered far worse than Conor's. Groups either naturally went to the dive-ier Punter's or the more bro-ey Conor's. Maybe while you were there Punter's was considered "worse" for whatever reason (probably because it didn't have darts in the corner or the pizza window closed), but your recent five year experience doesn't define Punter's.
 
Harvard Square, circa 1966: I'd walk home from my after school evening job at the old Stop and Shop, about a mile down the river, arrive in Harvard Square about 9:20 pm, stop off at a small hole-in-the-wall diner/coffee shop where CVS is now, pop a nickel in the juke box to hear the latest folk rock song, sip a coke, and then catch the trackless trolley home to the shithole apartment on Mass Ave above a seedy low-end bar, where my family lived, just beyond Cameron Ave in North Cambridge. Those were the bittersweet days....

Harvard Square was the greatest.
 
Not to sidetrack this thread too much, but Ferlinghetti is 100 years old, though blind.
https://www.npr.org/2019/03/20/7049...-100-poet-and-publisher-lawrence-ferlinghetti

As for the City Lights bookstore, it is landmarked. For a brief history:
https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/2339-celebrating-years-city-lights-cultural-and-historical-landmark

Influencers of a different era, but with substance.
_____________________________
As the brief history of City Lights notes, the bookstore survives (and presumably will) because it bought the building 20 years ago. When the tenant owns the building, that introduces some measure of stability and longevity, and a business district doesn't succumb to landlords' avaricious pursuit of ever-higher rents.
 
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That's great and thank you for the info. I've been to City Lights. Ferlinghetti pretty much sums it all up for me.

Harvard Square was a center for the Beat movement in the late 50's/early 60's, with several coffee shops hosting live folk music and poetry readings. My older sister hung out with some of the jazz and folk musicians who lived around Kinnaird Street. By the time I was 16, the Mod look had taken over, with a really great Mod clothing store on Mass Ave near Bow Street. Then by 1968 the hippies were prominent, hanging out in Holyoke Plaza. But all through these various fashions and movements, there was always this enduring intellectual and offbeat undercurrent, very exciting and inspirational. Harvard Square was really happening then, one of the national centers for the very active subcultures at the time.

Of course it's largely a corporate wasteland now, but Davis and Central Squares are pretty damn cool. The world changes but the human spirit still always prevails.
 
Charlie_mta said:
Of course it's largely a corporate wasteland now, but Davis and Central Squares are pretty damn cool. The world changes but the human spirit still always prevails.
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don't forget union square -- more happenin than either central or davis these days (the middle east complex being the exception, but once is hosting some kickass lineups and it's *kinda* in union. sorta...).
 
stellarfun said:
_____________________________
As the brief history of City Lights notes, the bookstore survives (and presumably will) because it bought the building 20 years ago. When the tenant owns the building, that introduces some measure of stability and longevity, and a business district doesn't succumb to landlords' avaricious pursuit of ever-higher rents.
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One of the worst losses i can remember was the Dover Country Store, which first moved to Medfield circa 1980, remained open a few years, but gradually devolved, and disappeared from its original form. In its heyday it was sublime treasure.
 
Charlie_mta said:
That's great and thank you for the info. I've been to City Lights. Ferlinghetti pretty much sums it all up for me.

Harvard Square was a center for the Beat movement in the late 50's/early 60's, with several coffee shops hosting live folk music and poetry readings. My older sister hung out with some of the jazz and folk musicians who lived around Kinnaird Street. By the time I was 16, the Mod look had taken over, with a really great Mod clothing store on Mass Ave near Bow Street. Then by 1968 the hippies were prominent, hanging out in Holyoke Plaza. But all through these various fashions and movements, there was always this enduring intellectual and offbeat undercurrent, very exciting and inspirational. Harvard Square was really happening then, one of the national centers for the very active subcultures at the time.

Of course it's largely a corporate wasteland now, but Davis and Central Squares are pretty damn cool. The world changes but the human spirit still always prevails.
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Don't get to maudlin on us Charlie

I remember the "Revolution Book Shop" next to the current and soon to be former home of the MIT Museum -- well today -- the people running and frequenting that shop now have at least one Presidential Candidate of a major party to root for -- who could have imagined that 45 to 50 years ago
 
Whighlander,

You're right about not verging too far into the maudlin. I have no complaints really. I'm pushing 70 but work out a lot, am in great health and have two young grand kids and a great wife.

The world is what we create of it, with other people.

The Revolution bookstore, I remember it well, and had a lot of very good friends of that political ilk.
 
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The owner of a lot of property in Harvard Square reconstructed this 'new' hotel outside of London.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/lifesty...glish-hotel/MtZhXTZqpO4VB5meExfzhK/story.html

Globe interview. No big or small announcement(s), simply an indication that however he redevelops the Cambridge properties, they will not be VE'd into mediocrity, and the re-development will take years. (Though the pace may be faster given that the owner is 68.)
 
Went through Saturday night. Central Square was fairly active; nice to see.
Harvard Square was deader than dead.
Labor Day weekend or not: wtf/ so sad.
 
odurandina said:
Went through Saturday night. Central Square was fairly active; nice to see.
Harvard Square was deader than dead.
Labor Day weekend or not: wtf/ so sad.
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At least I and thousands of others had many outstanding experiences there in the 1960's and 70's. Time moves on, and Central and Davis now carry the mantle.

Harvard Square itself has morphed into something corporate and dull, a sign of the times nationwide.
 
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