Grafton Announces Impending Departure

Grafton Street, the three-and-a-half year-old bar and grille that had become a symbol of family entrepreneurship in Harvard Square, will vacate its prime location at 1280 Mass. Ave. by next June to make room for the expansion of the neighboring Cambridgeport Bank, owners of both institutions said yesterday.

Grafton's clientele, tending toward the upscale, seemed to make it immune to the changes that have forced many long-time, low-budget Square businesses--such as the Bow and Arrow Pub and Briggs & Briggs music--to close.

But building management decided not to extend Grafton's lease, forcing the bar to close its doors.

"We've known for three months that this would definitely happen," said Grafton owner Patrick Lee. "But when we came here we were under the impression that we'd be here for a long time."

15 years after the building's construction, reconfiguring of the tenants is only natural, said Stephen D. Mahoney, a principal with the building's owner, the T.H. Niles Real Estate Group.

"We now have to do a balancing act with different commitments that we have to all our various tenants," Mahoney said.

Grafton Street is located on Mass Ave. next to Bob Slate, a family-owned and operated stationery store and Harvard Square stalwart.

The bank's expansion will force Bob Slate to undergo serious remodeling, but the stationery store's lease has nevertheless been expanded.

Cambridgeport Bank President and CEO James B. Keegan '63 says he is unconcerned by the possible repercussions of his bank's expansion.

The stores next door are simply "none of our issue at all," Keegan says.

The only concern for Cambridgeport, Keegan says, is whether it has space to expand.

"Our business plan calls for us to increase business in the Square," Keegan says. "It's a heck of a market and we want the ability to serve our customers as well as we possibly can.

"If space is available, we'd love to have it," he continues.

Slate's owner Justin Slate says he wishes the restaurant and bank could just stay where they are.

"There's been a restaurant in that space for as long as I can remember," Slate says.

Having the family store on the same block as a restaurant is a part of Slate's earliest memories, he says.

"From the '50s on, I've heard stories about the restaurants that have been here from my father," he says. "It would just be nice if Grafton Street could remain our neighbors."

Grafton Street is particularly important to nearby storeowners, who fear that the restaurant's closing will adversely affect business in the area.

"This undermines the personal quality of the place," says Louisa Solano, owner of Grolier Poetry Bookshop.

"Grafton has always been one of the places I refer people to. It has humanized this area of the Square," she continues. It is yet another example of the slow "malling" of the Square, she says.

A restaurant with outdoor seating has invigorated the area in a way that an expanded bank never could, Solano says.

"I'm going to miss the people sitting in the window," she says. "The fact that this place is being forced out says a lot about the powers that be here."