Harvard Square - Transformation

Transformation

Discussions of how the Square has changed in recent years usually center on the perceived 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. 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.