Central Square is an area in
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, ...
centered on the junction of
Massachusetts Avenue, Prospect Street and Western Avenue. , formed by the junction of Massachusetts Avenue, Columbia Street, Sidney Street and Main Street, is also considered a part of the Central Square area.
Harvard Square
Harvard Square is a triangular plaza at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue (Boston), Massachusetts Avenue, Brattle Street (Cambridge, Massachusetts), Brattle Street and John F. Kennedy Street near the center of Cambridge, Massachusetts, C ...
is to the northwest along Massachusetts Avenue,
Inman Square
Inman Square is a neighborhood and historic district in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It lies north of Central Square, at the junction of Cambridge, Hampshire, and Inman Streets near the Cambridge– Somerville border.
Location
Like many squa ...
is to the north along Prospect Street and
Kendall Square
Kendall Square is a neighborhood in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. The square itself is at the intersection of the Main Street and Broadway. It also refers to the broad business district east of Portland Street, northwest of the Charl ...
is to the east along Main Street. The section of Central Square along Massachusetts Avenue between Clinton Street and Main Street is designated the Central Square Historic District, and was added to the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
in 1990.
Culture
Central Square was designated an official Cultural District in the state of Massachusetts by the Mass Cultural Council in October 2012. Central Square is known for its wide variety of ethnic restaurants, churches, bars, and live music and theatre venues. Richard B.
Modica Way, aka "Graffiti Alley", has been described as a "hallmark of Central Square." It is gentrifying rapidly, and a number of upscale restaurants have opened in the Square. Many startups, including pharmaceutical, videogame and Internet companies, have moved research and office operations into the Square to take advantage of the proximity to
MIT
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...
, Boston medical resources and relatively low costs. Some critics have claimed that the recent changes have diminished the Square's edge, as some of the older Square businesses such as
Manray have closed. There is also a diverse array of houses of worship in the area, with
Christ the King Presbyterian Church,
First Baptist Church, Sts. Constantine & Helen Greek Orthodox Church, St. Paul's
African Methodist Episcopal Church
The African Methodist Episcopal Church, usually called the AME Church or AME, is a Methodist denomination based in the United States. It adheres to Wesleyan theology, Wesleyan–Arminian theology and has a connexionalism, connexional polity. It ...
and other large historic congregations meeting near the Square.
History

Central Square's history has been marked by several waves of immigration. The original population of the Square included people of English and Canadian ancestry. Between 1850 and 1890, the Square attracted many Irish immigrants, and in the late Nineteenth Century also became home to many others from throughout Europe. Later waves of immigration included people from the West Indies, South America and Africa.
Central Square is also the original home of actor
Ben Affleck
Benjamin Géza Affleck (born August 15, 1972) is an American actor and filmmaker. His accolades include two Academy Awards, two BAFTA Awards, and three Golden Globes. Affleck began his career as a child when he starred in the PBS educatio ...
and, from 1927 to 2003, the
Necco factory. The old Necco factory building in Cambridge is now used for labs by
Novartis
Novartis AG is a Swiss multinational corporation, multinational pharmaceutical company, pharmaceutical corporation based in Basel, Switzerland. Novartis is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world and was the eighth largest by re ...
.
Geography and transportation
Several Cambridge neighborhoods meet at Central Square. To the east,
Area 4 lies on the north side of Massachusetts Avenue (aka "Mass Ave.") and
Cambridgeport on the south side between Massachusetts Avenue and the
Charles River
The Charles River (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ), sometimes called the River Charles or simply the Charles, is an river in eastern Massachusetts. It flows northeast from Hopkinton, Massachusetts, Hopkinton to Boston along a highly me ...
. Both of these neighborhoods were once known as The Port or Old Port region of Cambridge. The area to the west and northwest of Central Square is known as Mid-Cambridge.
Central Square is accessible from
Central station on the
MBTA Red Line, as well as Buses 1, 64, 70, 83, and 91.
The intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and
Brookline
Brookline may refer to:
Places in the United States
* Brookline, Massachusetts, a town near Boston
* Brookline, Missouri, a village
* Brookline, New Hampshire, a town
* Brookline (Pittsburgh), a neighborhood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
* Brookl ...
in front of
The Middle East
The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq.
The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...
in Central Square is named in honor of the late
indie rock
Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand in the early to mid-1980s. Although the term was originally used to describe rock music released through independent reco ...
musician
Mark Sandman
Mark Sandman (September 24, 1952 – July 3, 1999) was an American singer, songwriter, musical instrument inventor, multi-instrumentalist and comic writer. Sandman possessed a distinctive, deep bass-baritone voice and a mysterious demeanour. He w ...
, who often played there.
Central Square serves as the commercial center for the surrounding neighborhoods of Cambridgeport, Riverside, Mid Cambridge, Area 4 and MIT.
Local government services
Central Square is the seat of government in Cambridge.
Cambridge City Hall, and the main branch of the
Cambridge Post Office are located in this area. The
Cambridge Police Department
The Cambridge Police Department is the municipal police department for the city of Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the United States. Formally organized in 1859. with the appointment of John C. Willey as the first chief of police, the Cambridge P ...
headquarters was formerly at 5 Western Avenue in the Central Square area; however, between November 2008 and March 2009
City of Cambridge: Police Department new Headquarters updates
it completed a relocation to a new facility at 125 Sixth Street, near Kendall Square.
Notable residents
*Ben Affleck
Benjamin Géza Affleck (born August 15, 1972) is an American actor and filmmaker. His accolades include two Academy Awards, two BAFTA Awards, and three Golden Globes. Affleck began his career as a child when he starred in the PBS educatio ...
, actor
*Casey Affleck
Casey Affleck (born Caleb Casey McGuire Affleck-Boldt; August 12, 1975) is an American actor. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Casey Affleck, various accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film ...
, actor
* Ken Brown, filmmaker
* Lisa Crafts, animator
*Patrick Ewing
Patrick Aloysius Ewing Sr. (born August 5, 1962) is a Jamaican-American basketball coach and former professional player who is a basketball ambassador for the New York Knicks of the National Basketball Association (NBA), where he played most o ...
, athlete
* Vernon Grant, cartoonist
*John Forbes Nash
John Forbes Nash Jr. (June 13, 1928 – May 23, 2015), known and published as John Nash, was an American mathematician who made fundamental contributions to game theory, real algebraic geometry, differential geometry, and partial differenti ...
, mathematician
* Margaret Hamilton, scientist and engineer
Notable businesses
* Central Square Theater
Central Square Theater is a non-profit theater located at 450 Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge, Massachusetts in the United States of America. It features a 200-seat black box main stage and a 50-seat studio theater.
Development of the theater ...
* The Middle East (nightclub)
The Middle East is an entertainment complex consisting of five adjacent dining and live music venues in the Central Square (Cambridge), Central Square neighborhood of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Its three dedicated concert spaces, Upstairs, Downst ...
* Toscanini's
* T.T. the Bear's Place
Fiction about Central Square
* Central Square (1998), by George Packer
George Packer (born August 13, 1960) is an American journalist, novelist, and playwright. He is best known for his writings about U.S. foreign policy for ''The New Yorker'' and ''The Atlantic'' and for his book '' The Assassins' Gate: America in ...
. Graywolf Press
See also
* Carl Barron Plaza
*
References
External links
CentralSquare.com
Photo comparison of Central Square in 1998 and 2002
www.c2culture.com
www.centralsquarecambridge.com]/ http://centralsquarecambridge.com/
{{Authority control
Squares in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Neighborhoods in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Historic districts in Middlesex County, Massachusetts
Entertainment districts in the United States
National Register of Historic Places in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts