A triangular brick plaza against Harvard Yard's wall, and the newsstand kiosk The Social Network used as itself.
What Harvard Square looks like
Massachusetts Avenue, Brattle Street and John F. Kennedy Street converge on a triangular brick plaza over the subway entrance. A green domed kiosk sits at the center of it, lettered HARVARD SQUARE, with a newsstand still open under its awning. Buses share the tunnel below the plaza with the MBTA Red Line, and both surface through the same entrance.
The blocks around the plaza run two to four storeys, red brick with Colonial Revival and Greek Revival details, shops at street level and apartments above. Buildings taller than three storeys are rare here. 's storefront on Massachusetts Avenue has ornate window casings in the same red brick, and J. August Company a few doors up keeps its original bay display windows.
The is a four storey Georgian Revival apartment block where University Road meets Mount Auburn and Bennett Streets. Its red brick matches the storefronts closer to the plaza. A block from the kiosk, the building flies a maroon flag and an H banner either side of its columned entrance.
Harvard Yard runs along the north side of the square behind a low brick wall, its gates opening onto Massachusetts Avenue. 's Gothic tower and rose window rise above the trees inside, banded in red, cream and grey slate.
Shot in Harvard Square
Harvard Square's own storefronts and gates have stood in for themselves across three decades of films set at or near the university. The plaza's kiosk and the Yard's brick wall both appear on screen as themselves in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Good Will Hunting, 1997
Will tries to explain his photographic memory to Skylar over coffee at the Au Bon Pain on Brattle Street. The two share a pickle afterward at the Tasty, a lunch counter a few doors down that has since closed.
The Firm, 1993
Tom Cruise filmed the first scenes of The Firm running into the street outside Harvard Yard's south gates on Massachusetts Avenue. About a hundred people gathered along the sidewalk to watch.
The Social Network, 2010
The production filmed on the roof of the Cambridge Savings Bank building for the film's opening shots of Harvard Square, since Harvard's own policy against commercial filming ruled out the real campus. In the same sequence, Mark Zuckerberg walks past the Out of Town News kiosk on the plaza below.
What Harvard Square can double for
Main Street in Hanover, New Hampshire
Main Street sits directly across a green from Dartmouth College the way Harvard Square's storefronts face the Yard's brick wall, both low red brick blocks reading as one continuous college town street. The triangular Dartmouth Green reads close to Harvard Square's own plaza in a wide shot. Hanover's Main Street runs straight rather than converging at an angle, so a wide establishing shot gives the difference away. Try searching brick college town street now.
Thayer Street in Providence, Rhode Island
Thayer Street runs along Brown University's campus edge with the same run of two to four storey brick storefronts under apartments that Harvard Square has around its own plaza. Look toward the Brown Street corner for the closest match in scale. Thayer Street's storefronts read more collegiate casual than Harvard Square's Colonial Revival brick, so tighter framing on the plainer blocks holds the illusion better. Try searching brick campus storefronts now.
Broadway in New Haven, Connecticut
Broadway runs along Yale University's edge through New Haven's university district, with a similar run of brick and stone storefronts meeting a walled campus, though the surrounding downtown is larger and denser than Cambridge's square. A tight frame on the storefronts nearest the Yale wall is the closest match. New Haven's Gothic Revival stonework on the Yale side is heavier than Harvard's brick, so a tighter shot that leaves the stone buildings out reads truer. Try searching university district storefronts now.
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