No news in Harvard Square - a visit to Leavitt & Peirce

You can no longer buy a newspaper in Harvard Square. Imagine that! Of all the places in the continental United States, you might expect to be able to find a Boston Globe or a New York Times here. But many of the old newsstands have long since closed — Nini’s Corner, Out of Town News, to name two — and the ones that still exist, the Coop for example, now focus on selling sweatshirts and other swag to visitors.

unPlanned ventured into the Square to confirm this fact, and ended up in one of the oldest establishments in the Square — Leavitt & Peirce. After 140 years of continuous services, hawking their odd mix of tobacco, pipes, chess sets and shaving kits, it’s one of the most iconic locations in one of the most iconic squares in the U.S. We talk with Sean Matthew McGann about what it means that there are no more newspapers in the Square, and we also ask him to show us some of the funky things that his store still has for sale. Everything old is new again?