Fuji Harvard Square at lunch

[KillRamsey]

Just strolling. It's 60-something and sunny out today, and we haven't had many of those days yet, so I split for an hour and took the X100 out.

Chalk on the sidewalk

Chess players

Blooms

Waiting for someone

Waiting on the light

 

[MBBINVT]

Nice pics. Reminds me that I need to get back down to Cambridge one of these days.

 

[KillRamsey]

Thank you. Cambridge is gorgeous right now, blooms everywhere.

 

[Lawrence A.]

I assume Au Bon Pain is still to the right of the chess players? It's been a while since I've been in Harvard Square. When I first started going, many years ago, Cronin's pub was still in business -- a lovely, grubby Irish pub for the serious imbiber (which I was at the time). I think the Swiss Alps or some such thing replaced it, or took its place. Nothing could replace it. I don't imagine Harvard Square any longer has any sawdust on the floor saloons. It the Wurthaus still there? I suppose not. Most of my favorite haunts were gone the last time I was there, though Harvard Book Store on Mass. Ave. was still going. I bought more cheap LP's at Reading International on Brattle St. than I can remember, though that's gone too, I think. My point of reference is the grubbier Harvard Square of the late sixties and early seventies. The new version seems so -- well -- tidy. But I lived in the pre-gentrified South End of Boston, a few blocks from Copley Square, and it's all changed and is much more upscale than it was back then. Good in some ways, I suppose, but I imagine more challenging for students as poor as I was.

Anyway, thanks for a trip down Memory Lane.

 

[KillRamsey]

ABPain is there, yes. The rest, I don't think so. A few old places have hung on, like Club Passim, but most of it is newer stuff. When we first moved to this part of town from the South End (Worcester Sq), I found a library book with pictures of the square arranged by decade. Each decade had aerial photos, street buskers, sidewalk shots, shops and stores, that stuff. It was fascinating when all you know of it is "now." Retail rents are outrageous there, so a lot of great places eventually can't generate enough $ to keep up, and only the chains can afford it. Grendell's Den is still around, and a few others have eked out some interesting bar/pub/food spaces, but you have to dig to find any dirt.

 

[Gary]

Your images makes regret, (at least for this very moment), living in a land sans classically distinct seasons.

Gary

 

[KillRamsey]

I grew up outside Atlanta, and have spent the last 13 years in Wisconsin or Boston. I vastly prefer 4 seasons to 2. Would be great to be able to motorcycle year-round, though.

 

[Krugman]

I assume Au Bon Pain is still to the right of the chess players? It's been a while since I've been in Harvard Square. When I first started going, many years ago, Cronin's pub was still in business -- a lovely, grubby Irish pub for the serious imbiber (which I was at the time). I think the Swiss Alps or some such thing replaced it, or took its place. Nothing could replace it. I don't imagine Harvard Square any longer has any sawdust on the floor saloons. It the Wurthaus still there? I suppose not. Most of my favorite haunts were gone the last time I was there, though Harvard Book Store on Mass. Ave. was still going. I bought more cheap LP's at Reading International on Brattle St. than I can remember, though that's gone too, I think. My point of reference is the grubbier Harvard Square of the late sixties and early seventies. The new version seems so -- well -- tidy. But I lived in the pre-gentrified South End of Boston, a few blocks from Copley Square, and it's all changed and is much more upscale than it was back then. Good in some ways, I suppose, but I imagine more challenging for students as poor as I was.

Anyway, thanks for a trip down Memory Lane.

I remember Cronin's fondly, it can never be replaced.Lots of great memories, a good place to take a date. Nor can Elsie's or the Wursthaus be replaced. Sad. I hear that Cafe Pamplona is still there, it is the only remanent of the early cluster of "pseudo-European coffee houses." Full of charm. Ferannte-Dege, a really good camera store is gone though.
The Harvard Barber Shop and the Cambridge Trust Co. and the Harvard Trust Co. are still there and of course the Coop is still there. I think Leavitt and Pearce is still there but pipe tobacco sales have been replaced with tea. And I think Cardullo's is still there. And Adams House and the Crimson. And the little poetry shop. So it is not all gone.
Krugman

 

[KillRamsey]

Cardullo's is alive and WELL. They have a girl curating the beer cooler section who GETS it. She carries pretty much the best stuff she can find and no crap. She knows which of the brand new micros / nanos are worth having, and gets everything they offer, as well as a great selection of US and Euro stuff. (I am a beer nerd). I love that place.