Alaska Employment Law

Remember Cronin’s? The Tasty? The Wursthaus? Tommy’s Lunch? Elsie’s? How about the Oxford Ale House, the original Club Casablanca, King’s Tavern, the Swiss Alps, the Ha’Penny Lounge or the Blue Parrot? The train yards? The giant Gulf Station near Bow and Arrow Streets?

If you remember these things, or at least some of them, you were a denizen, perhaps even a citizen, of Harvard Square during a wonderful era, a time when the Square was a village, not a mall. Revisit those times in Harvard Square: An Illustrated History Since 1950, a new book by Mo Lotman, a writer from Somerville who spent many years researching his facts and collecting some amazing photos. Once upon a time there was a Woolworth’s on Brattle Street, and the giant Harvard Square Theatre, not yet chopped into mini-theatres, opened on the Massachusetts Avenue side, instead of onto Church Street. Bruce Springsteen played there, the Clash played there. Got a question? Ask Mo. I sent him an e-mail wondering if there had been, as I thought I remembered, an A&P Market on Brattle Street, right near Woolworth’s. Mo kindly reminded me that it was an IGA.

It was a mere 37 years ago this New Year’s Eve that I had my most enjoyable New Year’s Eve ever at the Ha’Penny Lounge. To me, when the Wursthaus closed and Abercrombie & Fitch opened in the same space, that was the end of the village of Harvard Square. Still, you can reminisce with this really cool book.

Happy New Year, everybody