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Harvard Square is a triangular plaza at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue, Brattle Street and John F. Kennedy Street near the center of Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. The term "Harvard Square" is also used to delineate the business district and Harvard University surrounding that intersection, which is the historic center of Cambridge. Adjacent to Harvard Yard, the historic heart of Harvard University, the Square (as it is sometimes called, locally) functions as a commercial center for Harvard students, as well as residents of western Cambridge, the western and northern neighborhoods and the inner suburbs of Boston. The Square is served by Harvard station, a major MBTA Red Line Rapid transit station and a bus transportation hub.
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.
The main building of the Harvard/MIT Cooperative Society forms part of the western side of the intersection, along with a bank and several retail shops; on the eastern side is the walled enclosure of Harvard Yard
Other institutions in the surrounding area include the Cambridge Public Library, Lesley University, the Longy School of Music, the Episcopal Divinity School, the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, the American Repertory Theater, the Cooper-Frost-Austin House, the Hooper-Lee-Nichols House, and the Longfellow House–Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site.
Due to its high pedestrian traffic, Harvard Square and nearby Brattle Square (the intersection of Brattle St. and Mt. Auburn St.) serve as gathering places for street musicians and . Singer-songwriter Tracy Chapman, who attended nearby Tufts University, performed there during her college years. Amanda Palmer, a member of the Dresden Dolls, also performed in the square as a "living statue". Other performers who have appeared there include indie rock guitarist Mary Lou Lord and the juggling troupe The Flying Karamazov Brothers.Justine Sutton, "Review: Flying Karamazov Brothers Take Act to New Heights", Noozhawk, October 27, 2009
A small bronze statue of "Doo Doo," a puppet created by Igor Fokin, stands at the corner of Brattle Street and Eliot Street. The memorial honors Fokin and other street performers who have performed in the square. The statue was created by Konstantin Simun.
The tunnel was originally constructed for Tram, which last operated there in 1958, and is now used by trackless trolleys and buses. It helps reduce surface traffic in Harvard Square and allows buses to cross the area without encountering automobile traffic. The tunnel also provides covered access between subway and bus services.
At the center of the square is the historic Harvard Square Subway Kiosk, which housed the Out of Town News newsstand until its closure in 2020. The kiosk now hosts a public motion-art installation, Lumen Eclipse, which features rotating exhibitions by local, national, and international artists.
Several smaller public squares are located along nearby streets, including Brattle Square and Winthrop Square,Brattle Square, Harvard Square, and Winthrop Square occupy the three corners of the triangular block formed by Brattle Street, John F. Kennedy Street, and Mount Auburn Street. and frequently host street performers throughout the year. Brattle Street is also home to the Brattle Theatre and the American Repertory Theater. John F. Kennedy Memorial Park lies one block down John F. Kennedy Street along the Charles River, while Cambridge Common is located two blocks to the north.
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. 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, 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, Leo's Place, closed in December 2013, after 64 years in business, when the landlord of the property terminated their lease. newsstand, which opened in 1955, occupied the Harvard Square subway kiosk from 1984 to 2019.]]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. WordsWorth Books at 30 Brattle Street closed in 2004, after 29 years as a fixture in the Square. 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 Bank of America through a series of mergers. Several establishments remain as longstanding, locally-run businesses with unique styles. Examples include Leavitt & Peirce 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), Mr. Bartley's Burger Cottage (est. 1960), Million Year Picnic comics (est. 1970), Algiers Coffee House (est. 1970), and Grendel's Den (est. 1971).
A small sunken seating area next to the subway headhouse, known as "the Pit", became a performance space for street performers and a gathering place for punk subculture and other alternative subcultures in the 1980s and 1990s; the area was demolished in 2025 in order to improve Harvard Square's accessibility.
The 1970 film Love Story, by the late Harvard University alumnus and Yale University professor of classics Erich Segal, takes place almost entirely in and around Harvard Square during its first two-thirds, while Harvard undergraduates Oliver Barrett and Jenny Cavalieri meet; finish college; get married; and Oliver goes to Harvard Law School while Jenny teaches school, living in a second-story walk-up in Baldwin. The film continues to be screened annually to incoming freshmen at Harvard College during orientation week.
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.
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.
The 2015 game Fallout 4 features Harvard Square as an in-game location. Though the layout of the surrounding area is not accurate, the subway kiosk is present.
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