TELLS OF HARVARD SQUARE EVOLUTION FROM COUNTRY LANE TO CITY'S CENTER

The days when Harvard Square was a village centre--with the town pump and the hay scales in the middle of the square, with a small common used for tethering cattle where the present subway station is, were called out of the past by Mr. G. G. Wright of 20 Mellon Street, Cambridge, in an interview yesterday. Mr. Wright, President Emeritus of the Havard Square Business Men's Association, is the oldest business man in the Square. He is famous for his collection of old books, prints, and directories. Mr. Wright related to the CRIMSON representative yesterday his impressions of the Square as it was over half a century ago, together with a number of interesting facts concerning its early history.

"Harvard Square," he said, "was originally a crossroad, marking the intersection of the Brighton, Arlington, and Cambridgeport highways. It had a small grass plot in the center that was called a common, but was used most frequently as a parking space by farmers trying to sell loads of hay.

"The West India Goods store near the corner specialized in salt fish, rum, molasses, vinegar, farm produce, grain, tea and coffee, hardware, paint, lard oils and a hundred other general commodities. The local jail occupied the property now the site of the Pi Eta clubhouse near the corner of Mt. Auburn and Boylston Streets. The community was small and everybody knew everybody else and all about them.

"People came to the Square on market days with large baskets on their arms and bought produce from the local farmers. The well-cultivated acres of these farmers were a source of great pride to the Cambridge people of those days.

"One of the greatest problems of the Square was then, as now, the proper control of traffic. However, in 1857, the trouble was due to the herds of cattle that were driven through daily on their way to the Brighton market. Several hundred steers, direct from the fields, would be driven into the Square each day by a few herdsmen. There they would promptly start milling around to the danger of all citizens nearby. For the better part of an hour, their custodians would yell and crack whips in an attempt to straighten out the cavalcade and herd it on to the Brighton road.

'As frequently as not, the cattle owners would fail to sell their steers' at the market and would return about sundown with the whole contingent again. They would return about sundown with the whole contingent again.. They would held them through on to the Arlington road, only to eappear the next morning with undiminished vigor. The steers were a constant source of excitement, better than a big fire, if one of happened to enter a mercantile shop.

"Fifty years ago, there was an omnibus horse-car leaving Brattle Streetor Boston every 15 minutes during the day. "The fare was 15 cents a trip. They were tretty friaid affaris in the winter, and had the floors covered with rushes to keep the passengers from freezing their feet during the long jolting through the Square out to Watertown.

"Among the stores near the Square at that time, was the firm of George Nichols, 'Bookseller to the University', who offered a hint to the stores of today by advertising his literary ware as 'for sale at the lowest Boston prices.' Nichols was located at the corner of Holyoke Street, and was later succeeded by John Bartlett, of the firm of Little and Brown, Boston publishers. The business has been transferred from place to place since then, but is still being run today by G. H. Kent on Massachusetts Avenue.

Mrs. Hyde Supplied Gowns by the Week

"Little's Building, or Little Hall as it is now called, was constructed in 1848. The land next to it was occupied by a variety store, run by Mrs. Prudence Hyde. Mrs. Hyde specialized in renting out graduating gowns in the spring. She had several dozens of these gowns which were cleaned annually and rented to class after class.

"In these days, the Temperance House, kept by John Wyeth in Brattle Square, where the University Press was located later, was the only public house near Harvard Square. There were six others required to keep the rest of Cambridge spirituosly supplied, but they were not near the University.

"When Holyoke House was constucted in 1870 on the site of Mrs. Hyde's little shop, it was originaly intended to be a hotel, but this plan was not carried through by the college. Holyoke House was built on tax exempt property, but the six inches of land that supports the party wall between it and Little Hall is not tax free, and the city collected revenue on this strip for some time, and as far as I know, it still does.

"The business men of Harvard Square in those days were known for their strict