We Love The Nightlife

In 1636, the Puritans established Harvard College to train clergymen for the young Massachusetts Bay Colony. Since then, the College has modified its religious flavor (Henry Ware, a Unitarian, became Hollis Chair of Divinity in 1805) as well as its religious fervor—the school we attend today is a secular institution. But the puritanical zeal of the men for whom our Houses and streets are named appears not to have loosed its grip on Cambridge culture: Harvard Square nightlife leaves a lot to be desired.

That, at least, was true until recently. The arrival of national chains in the Square marked the beginning of a process of gentrification. Eateries with extended hours, like Tasty Burger and Insomnia Cookies, have increased the variety of dining options available to residents after dark. And as The Boston Globe reports, hangouts like the Beat Hotel on Brattle Street and The Sinclair on Church Street (also a concert venue) have animated the area. Restaurant openings, liquor licenses, long hours, and live entertainment can mean only good things for fun and culture around Harvard.

Cambridge’s historically lackluster nightlife is in line with that of the Boston area as a whole. Boston is held back, at least in some measure, by institutionalized temperance: Legally, last calls must be made before 2 a.m.; buses and the MBTA stop running at 12:45 a.m.; and anyone who has tried to return to the Square in the early hours of the morning knows how hard it can be to get a cab. A 1984 law (coincidentally Orwellian, we think) that outlawed happy hours throughout the Commonwealth is also partially to blame.

Given such obstacles, it is easy to see why nightlife in Boston, even with its hordes of young people, lags behind a city like New York’s: Boston lacks the infrastructure to facilitate intoxication and transportation (responsible intoxication and transportation, of course). We hope the transformation of the late night scene in Cambridge is both lasting and effective, and that it can serve as an example—perhaps, of a shining city upon a hill—to the rest of the metropolitan area.

Harvard’s orthodox Calvinist forebears might not have been pleased with this development; they’d likely have condemned the trend toward after-hours fun as illustrative of the debauched nature of human character. To that we say—fine. If we are predestined for hell, so be it. But we are stopping at Shake Shack along the way.