Named for its proximity to Harvard University, Harvard Square has been a cultural and commercial center for almost four hundred years. When visiting, be sure to visit the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute, named after the first African American awarded a Ph.D. from Harvard, the Gothic Harvard Memorial Hall, the Harvard Divinity School campus, the Harvard Crimson and Harvard Lampoon offices, the Widener Memorial Library, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and, of course, Harvard Yard.

A variety of literary figures called Harvard Square their home at one time or another. These include Anne Bradstreet (poet), Conrad Aiken (novelist and Pulitzer Prize-winning poet), Malcolm Lowry (novelist), Richard Wilbur (poet and translator), Henry James Jr. and Alice James (novelist and diarist), and Horatio Alger (novelist). The Lowell House, a Harvard undergraduate residence hall, was also home to John Updike, who later moved to live in Ipswich on the North Shore. Finally, E.E. Cummings was born at 104A Irving Street.

Other attractions include the home of Stephen Day, who established the first printing press in America in 1638, the location of Harvard's original University Book Store, operated by John Bartlett, and the Grolier Poetry Book Shop, a gathering place for literary figures since 1927. Harvard Square is also home to almost two-thirds of Cambridge's two to three dozen bookstores.

Website: www.harvardsquare.com