Bring Back the Out of Town News Sign. Cambridge Got This One Right
The council voted 8-0 to ask for the neon and the name to come back to the Harvard Square kiosk. A visitor center is fine. A landmark is better.
By Dez Marlowe ·
Monday night the Cambridge City Council voted 8-0 to ask the city manager to bring back the restored Out of Town News neon and the official name 'Out of Town News Kiosk,' and to review how the Harvard Square Kiosk is run, according to the Cambridge Civic Journal's record of the meeting.
Quick history from the order itself: the kiosk opened in January 1928, Out of Town News moved in in 1984 and stayed until Oct. 31, 2019, and after a long renovation the kiosk reopened May 30, 2025, built mostly around visitor information.
Look, visitor info is useful. But nobody ever said 'meet me at the visitor information center.' People said 'meet me at Out of Town.' That's the name that means something to the Square.
My opinion: a name and a neon sign won't fix Harvard Square's rents, but they're a cheap way to remind people the place has a memory. Put it back.
Sources
Dez Marlowe is a Boston Uncut reporter covering Boston, Massachusetts, national and world news.