Harvard Square Subway Kiosk

About this property

The Harvard Square Subway Kiosk is a historic kiosk and landmark located in Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was built in 1928 as the new main headhouse (entrance building) for the previously opened Harvard Square subway station. After the station closed in 1981 for major renovations, the kiosk was moved slightly and renovated. The Out of Town News newsstand, which opened in 1955, occupied the kiosk from 1984 to 2019. It was renovated from 2020 to 2025 for public use. After debate about running an elevated rapid transit line above business districts in Cambridge, the Boston Elevated Railway (BERy) agreed in late 1906 to build a subway line from Boston to Harvard Square. Construction began on May 24, 1909. The Cambridge subway opened from Harvard Square to Park Street Under on March 23, 1912. Early plans called for an upright stone entrance (headhouse) in the center of Harvard Square, similar to those at Scollay Square and Adams Square. The headhouse was ultimately constructed as a 40-by-60-foot (12 m × 18 m) oval-shaped brick-and-stone structure, with several smaller entrances and exits around the square. Although originally considered a worthy addition to the Square, the headhouse attracted criticism beginning in 1919. Its size meant that motorists could not see traffic approaching on other streets, and it left no room for sidewalks where passengers could wait for streetcars. In 1921, the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities (DPU) determined that it would not be feasible to completely replace the central headhouse with smaller headhouses located elsewhere in the Square. The DPU was not opposed to Cambridge constructing a smaller headhouse structure, but would not allow the state or the BERy to bear the costs. MIT civil engineering professor Charles B. Breed completed a study of the headhouse in February 1925, concluding that the headhouse could be reduced to 20% of its original size at a cost of $20,000 (equivalent to $284,000 in 2024). Breed proposed to have the 17-by-25-foot (5.2 m × 7.6 m) structure cover only the exit escalator and one of the two stairwells; the remaining stairwell would be covered with a hatch and only used on high-demand days. On April 30, 1925, the state legislature authorized the DPU to modify the headhouse at a cost up to $30,000. Cambridge was to pay half the cost; the state would loan the BERy the remaining half. That July, the DPU viewed models of Breed's proposal, as well as a larger proposal by the BERy that kept both stairwells. Public reaction to Breed's utilitarian design was "swift and overwhelmingly negative"; one state representative likened it to an outhouse. In November 1925, architect Clarence H. Blackall began advising the DPU on the headhouse design. Blackhall's design was eventually approved by the Cambridge City Council in February 1927, and the BERy began engineering work that February. The DPU awarded a $15,950 construction contraction on October 21, 1927; work began in November and was completed in January 1928. Despite his previous prominence as an architect, the contribution of Blackhall's firm (Blackall, Clapp & Whittemore) was largely ignored in the press.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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