The excursion across the Charles River to Cambridge
merits at least half a day, starting with a fifteen-minute ride on
the Red "T" line from Park Street to Harvard Square . This
is not so much a square as a number of interlocking streets, filled
with small shopping malls and bookstores, at the point where
Massachusetts Avenue runs into JFK and Brattle streets. It's an
exceptionally lively area, filled with students from nearby Harvard
University and MIT; the café terrace at Au Bon Pain makes
for enjoyable people-watching, and in summer street musicians are a
common sight. The Cambridge Visitor Information Booth here
(Mon-Sat 9am-5pm; tel 617/497-1630) sporadically organizes walking
tours in summer, and sells local maps and guides. More thorough
information is available from the Harvard Events &
Information Center , Holyoke Center, 1350 Massachusetts Ave
(Mon-Fri 9am-5pm; tel 617/495-1573, ), which also arranges
student-led tours.
Feel free to wander into Harvard Yard and around the core
of the university, founded in 1636; its enormous Widener Library
(named for a victim of the Titanic ) boasts a Gutenberg
Bible and a first folio of Shakespeare. Five minutes' walk west
along Brattle Street is the imposing yellow-fronted mansion at no.
105, known as Longfellow House , after the author of
Hiawatha , who lived here until 1882. A century earlier it
was briefly the headquarters of General George Washington. The site
has been undergoing extensive renovation. Call 617/876-4491 or
visit to check hours and admission fee. Dexter Pratt, immortalized
in Longfellow's Under the spreading chestnut tree, the village
smithy stands , lived at 56 Brattle St, now a popular bakery
and café.
Cambridge has several first-class art museums on offer, along
with more specialized science museums with a few engaging exhibits
of note. The Harvard University Art Museums (Mon-Sat
10am-5pm, Sun 1-5pm; $5, free on Wed; tel 617/495-9400) encompasses
over 150,000 works of art across three museums. Highlights of
Harvard's substantial collection of Western art are showcased in
the Fogg Art Museum , at 32 Quincy St, while the
Busch-Reisinger Museum on the second floor has a small but
excellent selection focusing on German Expressionists and the work
of the Bauhaus. Just steps away at 485 Broadway, the Arthur M.
Sackler Museum is devoted to classical, Asian and Islamic art.
The Harvard Museum of Natural History , at 26 Oxford St
(daily 9am-5pm; $6.50), operates three museums devoted to botany,
zoology, and minerals and geology respectively.
A couple of miles southeast of Harvard Square is the
Massuchusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), whose List
Visual Arts Center , 20 Ames St (Tues-Thurs, Sat & Sun
noon-6pm, Fri noon-8pm; tel 617/253-4680), exhibits contemporary
art in all media, including photography and video, and often has
accompanying lectures.