Harvard Square kiosk to reopen early 2025 as community space

By Molly Farrar

The Harvard Square Kiosk, which has sat in the heart of the square at the mouth of the MBTA stop for nearly 100 years, is set to reopen early next year, the City of Cambridge announced Thursday.

The Kiosk, which has been “recently restored,” will open in partnership with the Cambridge Office for Tourism and Somerville-based nonprofit CultureHouse, the city announced. The landmark will be renamed the Cambridge Kiosk to be a “cultural incubator, community gathering space, and visitor information center.”

“The activation of the Cambridge Kiosk represents a significant milestone for our community,” Cambridge City Manager Yi-An Huang said in a statement. “By transforming this historic landmark into a dynamic public space, we will provide greater opportunities for creativity, connection, and collaboration in the center of Harvard Square.”

The historic kiosk has been vacant since before the pandemic, when longtime Cambridge landmark Out of Town News closed in 2019. The newsstand was the natural center of the square, providing global news since 1978, when the Kiosk was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It was registered as a Cambridge Landmark in 2017.

Since 2019, the kiosk has been under seemingly perpetual construction, surrounded by a chain link fence, in the middle of Cambridge’s biggest tourist spot. The Boston Globe reported last week that the construction cost $3.3 million, or about $6,600 per square foot.

Now, Cambridge is looking for community members to join the Cambridge Kiosk Advisory Committee and for local partners to host events at the Kiosk. CultureHouse will hold community meetings and do surveys to discuss how to use the space moving forward.

“Programming at the Cambridge Kiosk will continuously evolve to meet the needs of the community and turn the space into a dynamic hub where people from all places and backgrounds can come together to experience culture and to build relationships,” said Aaron Greiner, the executive director of CultureHouse.

Applications for the advisory committee are due Dec. 9.

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Molly Farrar is a general assignment reporter for Boston.com, focusing on education, politics, crime, and more.

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