Harvard Square Crowds Enjoy An Automobile-Free Morning

For about 12 hours yesterday, Harvard Square belonged to the pedestrians.

The Boston area's most chaotic then was closed off to traffic from 4 a.m. until shortly after 3 p.m., in order to repave a cluster of streets that have been chopped up by five years of construction work.

It was the first time during the project to extend the subway through Harvard Square that the Square was shut down.

Traffic was backed up along Massachusetts Avenue for most of the half-day, at times reaching Central Square, according to one police officer. The only way to penetrate the Square was through the narrow lane that runs along Johnston Gate, at the west end of Harvard Yard.

But for the students and shoppers who filled the Square on a cloudless autumn Sunday, the change was welcome. "The Square is usually such a zoo, but this is great," said William N. Thorndike Jr. '86. "It should always be an automobile free zone here," said area resident Paul Hoare.

The shutdown was originally scheduled for two Sundays ago but was postponed because of rain. "We picked Sunday because we knew it would have the best traffic and also be the least harmful for store owners," said Garry P. Balboni, the project manager for the Perini Construction Co. which is working on the subway extension. The project is expected to end in 1985.