Click on thumbnails below for full-sized images.

Tas-T Shop Note:

Sorry we are closing
Due to the demolition of
the Property.
Thank you for all your
bussiness.
                            Thank you
                            management

Surman's note:

   This store will close in April. On behalf of my two partners, Bud Carter and Robert McLennon and myself, we wish to thank our thousands of customers past and present who have supported us over the years.
   As one lived in Cambridge and went to school in Cambridge and worked here since 1923, I can only say that it's a great city and will become greater.
   Also a a special thanks to the Holmes Realty Co. (our landlord) who extended every courtesy to us.
   Otherwise how could this store be in business for ninety years?

                                                Best wishes
                                                to all.
                                                Philip Surman

Note in dry cleaners' window:

CLOSING IN JANUARY

Not Responsible For
Articles Left

All Articles Will Be
Discarded!

Two notes in the window of Emily Rose:

THANK YOU!!! for all the 59 years of WONDERFUL friendships — Hope to see you in the future!

PLEASE MAIL PAYMENTS: Emily Rose Shoppe 1 Central Square Cambridge, Mass. 02139 (Return envelopes provided)                      Thank you -

 

Phoenix Coffeehouse window sign (diagonally across the square from all the preceding photos)

The Phoenix closed at the beginning of May, 1998. I suspect this was due to the coinciding smoking ban in Cambridge restaurants lacking a bar. The Phoenix was one of the last of the area's smoke-friendly coffeehouses, something unheard of today.

 

Phoenix Coffeehouse interior
The former Phoenix is now a cell-phone store, the scavenger of upscale retail space in a slow market. The locations of several of the stores in the preceding photos are also occupied by cell phone stores.

Outside the Phoenix Coffeehouse
After taking this picture, the security guard at the entrance to the building above came out and asked what I was doing (most of these original photos were taken at 6 a.m.). I told him I was documenting all this change, and he started telling me about his hopes to become a graphic designer. He asked if these pictures were going on the internet. I said I hoped so, not knowing it would take me four years. He suggested we go to work together.

 

Arglo Electric Supply Co.
My friend Joe sent me this recently. It was halfway between Central and Harvard Squares, and apparently was there for decades until sometime in the past couple of years (2000 or so). The only way I can narrow the time down that much is the fact that Mass Ave. Restaurant was the Cora Penny Cafe before that.

Arglo's space is now occupied by Mojo Records.

 

The following are in nearby Harvard Square, also in mid-1998, in a building which housed, among other things, legendary diner The Tasty (Cambridge's last 24-hour eatery, to my knowledge). It closed at the end of 1997, just before my arrival in Boston.

 

The Tasty building undergoing construction, Harvard Square (now Abercrombie & Fitch, Finagle-a-Bagel, etc.)

 

A broadside taped to the outside wall of the building:

DEMOLITION RENOVATION

    After having torn the TASTY out of the heart of Harvard Square, despite numerous protests by Cambridge residents and City Councillors, Cambridge Savings Bank has the gall to erect a sign proclaiming their "historic renovation". A quick glance behind the sheetrock wall reveals that there is essentially NOTHING LEFT! At first it appeared that the facade might be saved, but even that was an illusion: most of the facade has beed DESTROYED, especially on the first floor.
    For those of you still hoping that the TASTY might somehow return, FORGET IT! A well-placed source reports that while the Bank did make an offfer to the Tasty ownership, the terms were so outlandish that they couldn't even be considered.
   In addition, the ongoing construction (noise, diesel fumes) has made it all but impossible for residents of JFK St. to live and work in their apartments from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. during the week, and from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturdays.
   If you have any funds in the Cambridge Savings Bank, please consider withdrawing them in protest of the bank's shameful disregard for the historic value of the building they have destroyed.