Harvard Square

Pole stops drunk driver's jaunt through the Harvard Square bus tunnel, police say

By adamg - 6/23/23 - 11:50 am

Photo by TPD.

Transit Police report arresting a man they say was drunk when he drove into the Harvard Square bus tunnel and then crashed his SUV into a pole, around 12:30 this morning. Read more.

Harvard makes admission to its art museums free

By adamg - 6/23/23 - 10:51 am

The Harvard Art Museums announced today they've ended admission fees for the general public, even if they don't live in Cambridge (Cantabrigians already had free access). Read more.

Harvard's other connection to preserved human skin

By adamg - 6/15/23 - 10:18 am

In addition to the newly revealed unpleasantries at Harvard Medical School, Harvard's Houghton Library has a 19th-century French book bound in human skin - Des destinées de l'ame (Destinies of the Soul). Read more.

Harvard Square losing a bookstore

By adamg - 5/12/23 - 2:04 pm

The owner of Raven Used Books announced today he's shutting down his Church Street store this summer - and re-opening in Shelburne Falls, which is somewhat west (and north) of Worcester. Read more.

Woman hit by collapsing, forgotten biowarfare sensor at Harvard station to sue

By adamg - 5/10/23 - 11:12 am

Boston.com reports the Harvard PhD student who suffered a detached collarbone when hit by rigging for a biowarfare sensor installed for a test in 2012 and then forgotten about plans to sue the MBTA for negligence.

Somebody trying to extort money from Harvard used a Craigslist ad to find a patsy to deliver explosives in a threatening package to campus last month, FBI says

By adamg - 5/2/23 - 5:00 pm

FBI says image shows Giordani about to deliver package that shut part of Harvard last month.

A man who claims he was only answering a Craigslist ad from somebody seeking to arrange delivery of a package to his son at Harvard was arrested today on federal charges of aiding and abetting an extortion attempt and conspiracy for an incident that shut down part of the Harvard campus last month after police discovered a bag containing a box full of Roman candles, bottle rockets and wires, following a series of threatening extortion phone calls that day. Read more.

200-lb thing that fell on woman at Harvard Red Line stop was meant to detect biological-warfare agents in test that ended 10 years ago

By adamg - 5/2/23 - 2:58 pm

Sera Congi reports that the 200-lb. frame and device that fell on a woman at Harvard yesterday was a leftover from tests conducted by the T, the state and the federal Department of Homeland Security to see if sensors could provide early warnings of a biological attack on a subway system. Read more.

New Hampshire and Vermont have falling-rock zones; we have falling-equipment zones on the T

By adamg - 5/2/23 - 12:29 pm

Area at Harvard taped off because of that equipment fall

Roving UHub photographer Raymond A. snapped the newest falling-equipment zone, at Harvard Square station, where a utility box disassociated from the column it was attached to yesterday, hitting a woman who had to be taken to a local hospital for observation, a couple months after a ceiling tile almost beaned another rider at the station.

Piece of Harvard Square station falls on rider

By adamg - 5/1/23 - 7:21 pm

WCVB reports she was taken to a local hospital for observation. Photo of the aftermath.

It comes after another rider was almost beaned by a falling ceiling tile at the station in March.

Police at Harvard order four students into hallway at gunpoint over what turned out to be a fake 911 call

By adamg - 4/4/23 - 11:16 am

The Harvard Crimson reports on a swatting attack that involved four black students being awoken by campus police in riot gear pointing rifles at them and ordering them to raise their hands and walk out of their rooms.

The false report was an apparent example of “swatting” — the act of placing a false emergency call with the intention of harassing a target by provoking a forceful police response.

Cop forced to hospital after alleged subway perv bites him at Harvard Square station, police say

By adamg - 4/3/23 - 12:51 pm

Transit Police report arresting a Belmont man they say bit an officer hard enough to break his skin in a failed attempt to escape arrest on charges he was harassing and exposing himself to other passengers at the Harvard Square Red Line station around 3 p.m. yesterday. Read more.

Cambridge bookstore employee uses bear hug to subdue shoplifter who'd just threatened to shoot the place up, police say

By adamg - 3/24/23 - 10:06 am

Cambridge Police report arresting a local man on unarmed robbery charges at a Harvard Square bookstore yesterday - after first getting him up from the floor where employees were keeping him pinned. Read more.

Fun Red Line fact

By adamg - 3/8/23 - 9:40 am

Christopher Schmidt reports that when the Red Line opened in 1912, some MIT students took measurements of how long a train took to get from Harvard to Park Street (then four total stops, since Charles/MGH hadn't been built): 7.3 minutes. Read more.

More ceiling tiles removed at Harvard

By adamg - 3/7/23 - 1:29 pm

The MBTA reports that over the weekend it inspected ceiling tiles between Central and Andrew this weekend to make sure none are about to fall on riders' heads. Meanwhile, the removed ceiling-tile count at Harvard, where a rustily connected, water-filled tile nearly did conk one rider, is now up around 100, the T says.

MBTA begins removing ceiling panels at Harvard station, like the one that almost beaned a rider

By adamg - 3/3/23 - 4:34 pm

Panels fall inches from woman's head at Harvard

Panel falls in a cloud of dust in front of woman, who then looks up, in T surveillance video.

The MBTA has begun removing ceiling panels at the Harvard Red Line station after one of the 20-to-25-pound panels fell ten feet to the platform, narrowly missing a rider - and plans inspections of all its ceiling panels at all its stations to reduce the need for riders to worry about getting hit in the head with one, interim MBTA General Manager Jeff Gonneville said today. Read more.

Man avoids getting beaned by large falling ceiling tile at Harvard Red Line station

By adamg - 3/1/23 - 4:03 pm

It's not just the trains you have to worry about.

Man barricaded self inside Harvard Square apartment after pulling gun on health-care worker, police say

By adamg - 2/25/23 - 4:51 pm

Cambridge Police report successfully taking into custody a man they say "pulled a weapon on his health-care worker and then barricaded himself inside his large, multi-unit Massachusetts Avenue residential building apartment" this afternoon. Read more.

Harvard Law student with a baseball bat charged with homophobic attack on fellow student, going after hospital workers

By adamg - 2/13/23 - 9:26 am

The Harvard Crimson reports.

Police responded to a burning bush in Cambridge, but the bush did not speak to them and there was a guy standing next to it with a lighter

By adamg - 1/31/23 - 1:39 pm

Cambridge Police report arresting a man who set a bush on fire in the 1000 block of Massachusetts Avenue early yesterday - and also charged him for a dumpster fire in an alley off Mount Auburn and Athens streets the day before. Read more.

It takes a lot to ruffle Remy the Cat's feathers, marauding turkey flock learns

By adamg - 11/30/22 - 12:20 pm

Turkeys trying to intimidate Harvard's most famous cat

Joshua Lupkin shows us the scene this morning outside Harvard's Barker Center, where some of Harvard Square's tougher toms tried intimidating Remy the Cat, but Remy stood, or sat, his ground. Read more.

Harvard Square

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