Unique Look at Harvard Square – Great Weekend Getaway

By Rachel Rome
copyright to RRome

THE INN AT HARVARD is a terrific place to stay and dine when touring Harvard Yard and Cambridge. The trip’s itinerary focuses on unique activities both in and around Harvard Square, including lunch at the Harvard Faculty Club, museum tours, a Charles Riverboat tour, and dinner at Upstairs on the Square, one of the area’s most acclaimed restaurants and a Saturday performance of the avante garde performance of Orpheus X at A.R.T. satellite theatre.
The Inn It’s close to the Red Line T Stop, a block from the Charles River, and within walking distance of museums, shops, funky sidewalk performers (weather permitting), and a vibrant street life, not to mention just across from Harvard University.
When a guest enters The Inn at Harvard, it feels as if one has entered an old-world, classic, European inn. Graham Gund, famed architect, created an ambience so relaxing, it’s hard to believe that outside the front and back entrances lies the hustle and bustle of Harvard Square and Harvard Yard, with the Charles River a few blocks away. At least that’s how I felt two weeks ago, when I took a three-day break from my Mexican painting sojourn to rediscover my own delightful favorite nearby town. For Cambridge has so many qualities I love in San Miguel de Allende, I wonder why I don’t just spend a month there next March. Oh, yeah, the winter. But enough summer, spring and fall motifs and happenings beckon for any artist, photographer, explorer or tourist.
I am busy rediscovering my own hometown area now, and find it more delightful than ever. Traveling, of course, serves to stimulate us three separate times: the before hand packing, deciding; the actual visit and the return as if to a foreign land.
The charming arched four-story atrium is an inspired Venetian piazza and provides an elegant, yet comfortable, atmosphere reminiscent of days-gone-by. This boutique hotel, located on the Harvard University campus, is a unique blend of old-world beauty and modern-day conveniences. The Inn has recently completed a two million dollar renovation of its spacious guest rooms. Harvard University owns the hotel, and Collegiate Hospitality manages the property. INNKEEPER Richard Carbone, CEO of Collegiate Hospitality. The Inn is affiliated with Harvard University and The Harvard Square Hotel, and one of the perks of staying here is that any guest can book a table at the venerated Harvard Faculty Club, which is just across the street, behind a few Harvard buildings.
Our tour began on Friday night, and we dined in the Atrium restaurant at The Inn at Harvard. Service and food was excellent, four-star. We had filet mignon and an outrageously scrumptious chocolate mouse cake topped with whipped cream. They serve a lovely Sunday brunch, including fresh Nova salmon, eggs and other standard items. We also ate breakfast here, and tea at 3 p.m.
Location is everything, and staying here is a delight because you are smack in the middle of everything, or just a few blocks away. The American Repertory Theater is a few blocks away, and their new off-shoot smaller space, A.R.T., is one f block away. The Yard is across Mass Ave; the Fogg Museum and the Sackler Art Museum, just across Mass Ave and half way up the block.
The FOGG Art Museum is another Harvard University gem, and my favorite art museum in the Boston-Cambridge area for several reasons. One is that the exhibits are chosen, usually, to supplement Harvard art professors’ lectures. The other, is the permanent collection is superb. The Fogg Art Museum, opened to the public in 1895, just outside Harvard Yard, and is Harvard's oldest art museum. Around its Italian Renaissance courtyard, based on a sixteenth-century façade in Montepulciano, Italy, are galleries illustrating the history of Western art from the Middle Ages to the present, with particular strengths in Italian early Renaissance, British pre-Raphaelite, and nineteenth-century French art. I am always awestruck when I go there because the quality of the permanent and temporary collections is world-class. Incidentally, there is a terrific though small gift shop there. Admission is $7.50, adults.
A HIGHLIGHT WAS Visit to the world renowned Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, founded in 1866, is one of the oldest museums in the world devoted to anthropology and houses one of the most comprehensive records of human cultural history in the Western Hemisphere. In a room celebrating Northwest Native Peoples tribes, I saw a totem pole carved by my Ketchikan, Alaska carver-friend, Nathan Jackson.
The Harvard Museum of Natural History - The Harvard Museum of Natural History (HMNH) is the public museum of Harvard University's three natural history institutions: the Harvard University Herbaria, the Museum of Comparative Zoology, and the Mineralogical and Geological Museum. Through exhibitions and an array of educational programs, the HMNH presents a historic and interdisciplinary exploration of science and nature, with an emphasis on evolutionary theory. Current exhibits include, The Miracle Bird: The Story of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker and The Ware Collection.
Upstairs on the Square restaurant is a gourmet restaurant and local favorite. Itshowcases New England ingredients prepared using traditional and innovative techniques. The restaurant;s two dining rooms, the more casual Monday Club Bar, and the more formal Soiree Room. Not to mention the Hong Kong Chinese Restaurant (and it plays dance music at night), the Upstairs at the Pudding Restaurant, with Grendel’s Den in the basement.
We toured Harvard Yard with sophomore Meghan, from the Midwest, who filled our heads with mucho facts (go the Harvard’s website for more info, including the three wrong facts about the John Harvard statue. I remember two – wrong date, wrong poser for the statue –but I do remember how busy the Yard was as students scurried across from one historic building to the next, including Lehman Library. We ended the tour at the Peabody Museum. of Glass Flowers. The famed Peabody Museum, two blocks away from The Inn at Harvard.
We lunched at The Harvard Faculty Club, just across from The Inn. On the edge of historic Harvard Yard, the Harvard Faculty Club offers an atmosphere of dignity, elegance and charm. Fine dining, decorative private dining rooms, reasonable prices, and personalized attention make it one of the most inviting establishments in the Boston area. Lunch buffet was terrific.
Later, we hopped a shuttle (you could walk, take a cab or get a ride from the hotel) to the Galleria Mall and canal for a 60 minute narrated boat ride up the Charles River Basin with the Charles River Boat Tour Company.
Captain Tom Culbertson told us the history about the bridges spanning the Charles, saw some scullers, early boaters, and passed lovely boathouses along the riverbank. Joggers whizzed by on Memorial Drive, and a few ducks tried t o scavenge some chips we threw overboard. Tom points out the most historic sights of Boston and Cambridge. View Beacon Hill, Esplanade Park, the Back Bay, Boston University, M.I.T. and Harvard as you cruise past countless sailboats and rowers. The tour boat sold liquor and snacks, and also does many private parties; day or night said our captain.
Other good “to do” suggestions in the Harvard Square area: see a movie at the Brattle Street Theater. Sightseeing/Shopping in Harvard Square, it’s de rigueur, and watch the street life. In the good months, the chess players, boards and arguments fill the sidewalks.
The Red Line is a block away from the Inn at Harvard, as is the Harvard Newsstand, with its worldwide newspaper selection.. A visit to the Mt. Auburn Cemetery is also a nice way to enjoy the nation’s first landscaped cemetery. I confess, I haven’t done that yet but it is on my list. Take an Historical Walking Tour of Harvard Square; get a map from the Inn’s front desk. Enjoy! During the spring and summer months, this village-like area hosts events ranging from River fairs to sculling races to picnics to international festivals.

Contact the following for More Information about
Cambridge and the Harvard Area:

Cambridge Office of Tourism: Robin Bell, Cambridge Office for Tourism, 4 Brattle Street, Cambridge, MA 800.862.5678.
The Inn at Harvard: 1201 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138, (617) 491-2222.
Harvard University Tour: Robin Parker, 1350 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, MA, 617-495-1061.
The Peabody Museum: Pamela Gerardi, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, 11 Divinity Ave.
Cambridge, MA (617) 496.0099.
The Harvard Faculty Club: 20 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA, (617) 495-5758.
Charles River Boat Tour: Tom Culbertson, 100 Cambridge Place, Cambridge, MA (617) 621-3001.
Upstairs on The Square: Mary-Catherine Deibel, 91 Winthrop Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 617-864-1933.
A.R.T.: Kati Mitchell, Director of Press and Public Relations, American Repertory Theatre, 64 Brattle Street, Cambridge, MA 617-495-2668.
Dining:
Cardullo’s (Upscale Deli in the Square), Border Café (Mexican, Local Favorite), Redbones BBQ (Davis Square) and Mr. Bartley’s Burgers.