Here are some commercial establishments that used to be in Harvard and Central Squares. I took these in the early 80's. I was just documenting a walking tour. I had no idea so many of these places would go the way of the dinosaur.

• America's Game, a.k.a. 1001 Plays. The street address was 1001 Mass. Ave.
• Accessories Plus. Long before anyone dreamed of a CompUSA. Moved a couple of blocks away, then went out of business.
• Bel Canto. Deep-dish pizza.
• Ben and Jerry's.

  Note from Rich, who's a much better Harvard Square historian than I: The Ben and Jerry's wasn't an ice cream place- it was a cookie place! It was a "David's cookies" which was a revolutionary concept at the time- a super high quality homemade quality cookie with chocolate chunks instead of chips. If I remember right they were the first to coin the term "chocolate chunk". In their heyday they had a steady stream of people going through the place with a line that went down the street at least 2 storefronts! The ice cream came in the declining days when David's was replaced by chains like "Mrs Fields" and the crappy "Otis Spunkmeyer" greaseball cookies.

• Brigham's. Open 24/7, as I recall. Seedy characters late at night. Cheap, generous portions of ice cream.
• Chi-Chi's. Lost to fire.
• Ching Hua Garden. A business anomaly: a lousy location in the heart of Harvard Square. Besides being an unsuccessful Chinese restaurant, has been an unsuccessful Malaysian restaurant, two unsuccessful Indian restaurants, and I don't know what else.
• Elsie's. A great institution lost to yuppification. Burgers, knockwurst, brisket, pastrami. M&M cookies. In other words, brain food.
• Gulf Station. Torn down and replaced by an upscale hotel. Nice lobby in that hotel.
• Harvard Coop. Okay, the Coop is actually still there, but they're sure not selling that model Macintosh any more.
• Mug 'n' Muffin. Huge muffins and omelets. It was to restaurants what comfort food is to food.
• Orson Welles Theater. Lost to fire.
• Paperback Booksmith. Went out of business.
• Penguin Bookshop. Went out of business.
• Pizzeria Regina. Went out of business. An excellent place to study, due to slow service, occasionally cute waitresses, and large wooden tables to spread your books and papers on, even if you were only a party of one.
• Reading International.
• Softwaire Center. Became an Egghead, then something else.
• Ta Chien. Lost to fire. Used to have good Mongolian Beef.
• The Tasty. Went out of business. You may recognize it from the "how do you like them apples" scene in Good Will Hunting.

  Correction from Rich (thanks, Rich!): The Tasty didn't go out of business- they lost their lease as the building was torn down and replaced (after 2 years of noisy and dirty construction) by another building that looked almost identical to the first one!

• Uncle Bunny's. Lost to fire.
• Wursthaus. A cholesterol brothel. Awesome steaks and rich desserts. Their menu used to include "Spaghetti mit meatballs" and "Macaroni mit cheese." As a Harvard guy, I was pretty darned upset about that until somebody explained that "mit" is German for "with."