That Was Then

Kenmore Square, 1999. Photograph by Kalman Zabarsky

This Is Now

Kenmore Square, 2004. Photograph by Michael Hamilton

Early in the twentieth century, well-heeled travelers had their pick of deluxe accommodations around Kenmore Square; the Somerset, the Sheraton, the Myles Standish, and the Kenmore were among the area’s stately hotels. But by the sixties and seventies, most of the hotels were gone (the Sheraton, which later became the Shelton, and the Myles Standish are now BU dorms), and the real estate wasn’t exactly choice. Kenmore Square had begun a slow decline, although the students who flocked to the seedy bars and greasy spoons at the time would have disputed that assessment. The south side of Commonwealth Avenue, for example, was home to the punk-rock bar the Rathskeller, better known as the Rat. Musical groups like the Cars, the Screaming Blue Messiahs, and the Dead Kennedys played the Rat’s basement room. Deli Haus was open until three a.m. and served Guinness floats — a pint of Guinness with a scoop of ice cream. There were pizza shops, a karate school, an International House of Pancakes, and of all things, a discount sock and T-shirt store.

Now Kenmore Square is returning to its more genteel roots. One of BU’s priorities for more than two decades has been to transform the campus’s eastern gateway, and the opening in 1983 of the Boston University Bookstore, now Barnes & Noble at Boston University, was a major step in that revitalization.

The latest improvement is the upscale Hotel Commonwealth, which opened in May 2003 (BU is a partner). The hotel is well appointed — the lobby is outfitted with dark wood furnishings; rooms feature Italian linens and marble bathrooms — but it’s hardly a throwback. The 150 rooms offer high-speed Internet access and dual-line wireless phones, digital cable, and CD/DVD players. The first and second floors house retail shops, including independently owned boutiques. One shop sells handmade jewelry, another vintage and rare books.

Those long-ago well-heeled travelers would likely feel at home in the transformed Kenmore Square. Denizens of the Rat, on the other hand — they must be pulling out their Mohawks.