Touring Cambridge, the country's original college town

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Touring CambridgeLeavitt & PeirceThe Charles RiverBiking through Harvard SquareHarvard SquareJohn Harvard statueMt. Auburn Street as it leads to the steeple of Lowell HouseMemorial HallDrew Gilpin Faust, Harvard's current presidentHarvard Museum of Natural HistoryA Van Gogh self-portrait inside Harvard Art Museum's Sackler buildingA George Washington painting by Gilbert StuartWashington TowerMr. Bartley's Gourmet BurgersBikers on MIT's campusKillian CourtFrank Gehry's Stata CenterMIT MuseumA class at MIT

<b>1. Everyone has an opinion in Harvard Square, and everyone has an opinion on Harvard Square.</b><br>
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This is where town and gown tangle. Old-timers bemoan the real estate boom that banished much of the neighborhood's Bohemian feel, but newcomers love bumping into big shots who were on CNN the night before. If you don't spot a human statue in a blue leotard striking poses for tips or a PETA activist in a chicken suit, you're looking too hard for Wolf Blitzer.<br>
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Harvard Book Store (since 1932) is a great independent bookshop. Leavitt & Peirce (since 1885) still furnishes tobacco and "gentlemen's accessories" (chess sets, for instance). And Out of Town News (1955), the magazine stand and paper peddler in the middle of it all, survived a closure scare in January and continues under new management.<br>
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You get folk music at Club Passim, jazz at Regattabar or Ryles Jazz Club, rock at the Middle East Restaurant & Nightclub near Central Square. On Wednesday, a wall notice announces, there's a Queer Town Hall meeting. On Thursday, a Korean martial arts class. On Saturday, choral auditions.

Leavitt & Peirce

( Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times )

1. Everyone has an opinion in Harvard Square, and everyone has an opinion on Harvard Square.

This is where town and gown tangle. Old-timers bemoan the real estate boom that banished much of the neighborhood's Bohemian feel, but newcomers love bumping into big shots who were on CNN the night before. If you don't spot a human statue in a blue leotard striking poses for tips or a PETA activist in a chicken suit, you're looking too hard for Wolf Blitzer.

Harvard Book Store (since 1932) is a great independent bookshop. Leavitt & Peirce (since 1885) still furnishes tobacco and "gentlemen's accessories" (chess sets, for instance). And Out of Town News (1955), the magazine stand and paper peddler in the middle of it all, survived a closure scare in January and continues under new management.

You get folk music at Club Passim, jazz at Regattabar or Ryles Jazz Club, rock at the Middle East Restaurant & Nightclub near Central Square. On Wednesday, a wall notice announces, there's a Queer Town Hall meeting. On Thursday, a Korean martial arts class. On Saturday, choral auditions.

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Touring Cambridge, the country's original college town

Leavitt & Peirce