Down to Earth

The Upper Story is not an art gallery, a coffee house, or a bargain bookstore. Whatever esoteric appeal the gift shop had while situated on an upper story was lost when it moved to a street-level, plate-glass window site on Church Street. According to Mrs. Howe, who runs The Upper Story with her husband, "We're eight years old, actually, and I guess you might say we've grown right along with Harvard Square. We were located on the second floor in that little alleyway where the Coop bookstore is. We were the first of several second floor shops there."

"My husband is an enamelist and we were looking for a place to set up his workshop. And, Harvard Square looked like an ideal place for us. So after his wholesale business was pretty well established we thought it might be interesting to try retailing. When we first moved down here to Church Street, the shop was just in this space. Then the people on either side of us moved out and we expanded."

The Upper Story spreads through two rooms. The larger contains glassware, cutlery, furniture, salt and pepper shakers of assorted shapes and sizes, and several unusual imported items. Part of the smaller room is used for a greeting card display shelf which features the bizarre humor of the popular intellectual sort. The area just inside the display window contains enamelware, lamps, and hand-turned bowls, while woodwork lines the walls and shelves. "This part of the store," says Mrs. Howe, "we keep to display local crafts. There are so many galleries in the area now, and this is a gallery in a sense too.

"Our glassware and furniture accessories are really our staples, but we devote as much space as we can to contemporary furniture and crafts. It's surprising how the interest in contemporary furniture has grown in the area--just since we've been here. You know, Harvard Square is one of the centers of contemporary furniture in New England now. Of course, business in the Square has always been here because of Harvard, but now it attracts people from all over. The art galleries, the theatres--there is so much more than when we came. I think it's wonderful, myself.

"And the most amazing thing about our customers--and people around the Square in general--is their taste. My husband and I thought we would really have to work to get customers interested in contemporary furniture--you think of Boston as being conservative and colonial--but the response has been wonderful. As a matter of fact, our customers are educating us now. We find out about the latest trends from them in many cases. We have to work hard to keep up with the people here, but it's a rewarding sort of work."