Harvard Square by Images by Arden
10:20 am It’s a windy, bright Thursday morning when my friend drops me off near Harvard Square on her way to work. Before I explore the center of the oldest college town in America, I walk east along the paved path that hugs the Charles River, where bikers and joggers are enjoying the first warm days of the year.
Oonas by KRob2005
11:05 am It’s the last week of the semester and the only people walking the twisting cobble streets seem to be students weighed down with books. On Massachusetts Ave a purple vintage coat on a rack outside of Oona’s catches my eye. I step inside the thrift store to look through the vintage jewelry.
Harvard Yard by First Daffodils
11:40 am The expansive Harvard campus is the star of this nabe, so I make sure to walk through Harvard Yard and the adjacent Cambridge Common to tour some of the towering memorials and old buildings. Structures survive from almost every period since the early 18th century. Even the original street layout from 1631 is still in use today.
Old Burying Ground by Images by Arden
1:00 pm Thoroughly lost among the maze of academic buildings, I ask a hotel concierge for directions to the Harvard Coop (pronounce it “coop” or face humiliation), the famous bookstore in the center of the business district. Turns out I’m just a few blocks away, and once I pass the Old Burying Ground with its worn gravestones and lush, low trees, I hit the busy intersection of Peabody and Brattle Streets.
Harvard Coop by jean_qli
Brand name stores, little boutiques and funky looking bars line the wide streets. Earlier this morning I spoke with Leslie Morgan-Dwinell of ApartmentHub.com who told me that housing prices have gone up about 25% in the last three years, thanks to gentrification. Harvard Square used to have more artists and musicians, but it has taken a corporate turn and now attracts more of a corporate type crowd. “If people are looking for a more neighborhood vibe, then they will want to live in nearby Davis Square, as opposed to the eight minute radius of Harvard Square,”Leslie told me. Still, she adds, the young professional couples who are relocating here from Boston tend to have certain philosophical, creative and intellectual expectations.
Dado Tea by leapingazelle
2:05 pm I am finishing a yummy gingery tofu salad and a jasmine iced tea at Dado Tea, a small café nestled among other trendy restaurants on Church Street. After resting my feet I’ll head back to the far side of campus and visit the Sackler Museum. The Fogg Art Museum is under construction, so the Sackler has become the temporary home of several modern and classical art exhibits.
Sackler Museum by burt_frogblast
3:50 pm I leave the museum and easily find a bus to take me back to my friend’s apartment in Allston. The bus driver is shockingly friendly; he even gives me a student ticket even though I don’t have my ID. The signs are all easy to understand. To me, Harvard Square is the perfect combination of green tranquility and bustling mini-city, although Leslie is certainly right about the gentrification. In the springtime this collegiate hub is idyllic, but with wind like this I can’t imagine living here in the winter!
