hey’re sprouting locally, small yet official-looking signs that proclaim an otherwise anonymous intersection is the ThomasF. Coughlin, or Wilfred ‘‘Freddie’’ Suozzo, or Edward Everett square. ‘‘Who are they?’’ you might ask. We toured them andothers to find out.

Cambridge seems to have more squares than nearby towns, with some intersections accommodating two squares andone corner. The one thing they all have in common is that they commemorate someone who made a difference to the com-

munity, no matter how small. Behind every name is a story, whether it’s that of a governor or a grocer. The next time you’re wonderingabout a square’s namesake, ask a local merchant or neighborhood resident and you might hear a surprising tale.

Wilfred ‘‘Freddie’’ Suozzo SquareHampshire and Bristol streets, Cambridge

Suozzo was in the taxi business for over 40years, so it’s no coincidence that the white signhonoring his memory is planted in front of Am-bassador Brattle Cab. ‘‘He passed away about 10years ago,’’ said Tony Guariglia, a Cambridge na-tive who has worked for the company ‘‘off and on’’for decades. ‘‘There’s a lot of these signs around,usually named for a local. They’re put up as a signof respect. In this case, we work here.’’

Mayor Alfred E. Vellucci SquareHampshire Street and Cardinal Medeiros Avenue,Cambridge

Named for the city’s four-time mayor, VellucciSquare is in front of the Dante Alighieri Society ofItalian Culture, an organization Vellucci onceserved as a governor. Known as a colorful spokes-man for Cambridge’s working class, Vellucci diedin 2002 at 87. ‘‘He was one of the last grass-rootspoliticians,’’ said Guariglia. ‘‘If you wanted some-

thing done, people said, ‘Go see Al V.’ ’’ Not to con-fuse things, but you’ll find a granite bust of ‘‘Al V.’’in Inman Square, too.

Reverend Larry Love SquareMassachusetts Avenue and Inman Street,Cambridge

‘‘Baby, Stop Your Crying,’’ reads a plaque in the1369 Coffeehouse in memory of Love, a Cam-bridge-born musician, roller-skating street per-son, self-appointed policeman, and periodicallyhomeless man who was a fixture along this stretchof Mass. Ave. ‘‘He was a beautiful man with a hugeego,’’ said Gerry Wolf, co-owner of the coffeehouse.Love’s square is adjacent to the establishmentwhere he sometimes stored his possessions. ‘‘Headopted us and we adopted him,’’ said Wolf. ‘‘Hewould change clothes five times a day, and worethe most wild costumes — feather boas and bootslaced up to his knees. He was a flirt with the la-dies. This is the most colorful man any square wasnamed after.’’

Little Joe Cook SquareMass. Ave. and Pleasant Street, Cambridge

Cook, an R&B do-wop singer, belted out his sig-nature song, ‘‘Peanuts,’’ at the Cantab Lounge forover 30 years. ‘‘He was the pillar of entertainmenthere and a stepping stone for the Cantab doinglive music seven nights a week,’’ said StephenRamsey, manager and bartender. Cook, who willbe 90 next month, still shows up for an occasionalguest appearance. ‘‘After three heart attacks andtwo mild strokes he’s still going strong,’’ said Ram-sey, who met his wife at the bar 30 years ago. ‘‘Joeis responsible for a lot of marriages here. I’m stillglad he comes to visit once in a while.’’

Mark Sandman SquareMass. Ave. and Brookline Street, Cambridge

A musician and songwriter best known as thebassist and lead singer of the indie rock band Mor-phine, Sandman is memorialized outside the Mid-dle East, a restaurant and club he frequented. Per-

Celebrated on the squareB Y N E C E E R E G I S | G L O B E C O R R E S P O N D E N T

SQUARES, Page M6

Anonymous orfamous, theirlives are markedin city squares.(Clockwise from the top:)

Edward EverettSquare inDorchester

Reverend LarryLove Square inCambridge

Mark SandmanSquare inCambridge

Wilfred ‘‘Freddie’’Suozzo Square inCambridge

Professor WillStackman Squarein Cambridge

PHOTOS BY DINA RUDICK/GLOBE STAFF

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bridge son.’’‘‘A lot of the people who are

memorialized were first- or sec-ond-generation immigrants whocame to Cambridge and stayed inCambridge,’’ said Lyons. ‘‘Theyoften were people who gavesomething back to the communi-ty.’’ Lyons, who grew up in NorthCambridge, describes her child-hood as a time when everyoneknew everyone. ‘‘If you didn’tknow a person, you’d knowsomeone in their family.’’

Edward Everett SquareMass. Ave., Columbia Road, EastCottage and Boston streets,Dorchester

Named after a congressmanand Massachusetts governor, thisbusy intersection has more re-cently become known for itslarge bronze pear sculpture. Atthe New Market Farm Stand,there was some confusion amongpatrons as to who Everett was. ‘‘Ithink he was a farmer,’’ was oneguess. ‘‘He imported pears,’’ wasanother.

In fact, the pear and the manhave separate histories. The Dor-chester Clapp pear was firstgrown here in the 1840s. Acrossthe street from the sculpture, abronze plaque details the historyof Everett, born in 1745 in ahouse on the site (since demol-ished). There’s plenty of newsignage that identifies the tangleof street names; however, thesign marking the spot EdwardEverett Square seems to have dis-appeared in the upgrade.

forming with his band in Italy, in1999, Sandman collapsed on-stage and passed away from aheart attack at 46. Shortly afterthat, the memorial was erected.‘‘Mark used to hang out here allthe time,’’ said Joseph Sater, own-er of the Middle East. ‘‘His wasone of the first bands to play atthe Central Square World’s Fair.God bless his soul.’’

Medal of Honor SquareSummer Street and CutterAvenue, Somerville

The small squares of Somer-ville are most often named forveterans. Located outside VFWPost 529, this square honorsthree Medal of Honor recipients:George Dilboy, an Army privatefirst class in World War I; GeorgeLevick Street III, a Navy com-mander in World War II; andThomas G. Kelley, a Navy captain

in the Vietnam War. VFW Post 529 will be 90 years

old next year, and is named forDilboy. ‘‘I had a thought one day,that it would be nice to havesomething else in memory ofhim,’’ said Bob Hardy Jr., postcommander. ‘‘Dilboy wasn’t anAmerican citizen. He was aGreek immigrant who joined themilitary during the war. There’salso a football stadium named af-ter him, over on Route 16.’’

Thomas F. Coughlin SquareCambridge and Hampshirestreets, Cambridge

This small square in the heartof Inman Square is named forCoughlin, who ran an insurancebusiness here for over 50 years.Donna Coughlin Lyons, his niecewho works at the agency’s cur-rent location, has a decree fromthe city when the square wasdedicated in 1997, ‘‘in recogni-tion of the life of this native Cam-

Charles and Mary KaragozianSquareBroadway and West Place,Cambridge

Alice Karagozian is a lively 82-year-old who lives beside thesquare dedicated to her parents.‘‘My dad was a schoolteacher inArmenia,’’ said Karagozian. ‘‘Hemarried my mother in Greece,and they came here to escape the

genocide. I was born here.’’The Karagozians purchased

two buildings across the streetfrom one another. One was asmall grocery store, opened in1927. They leased the other,which operated as a drugstore forfour decades (and now is home to20th Century Provenance).

‘‘In World War II, the grocerystore was a center of activity,’’

said Karagozian. ‘‘Soldiers offamilies we knew wrote letters tomy parents. We sent them pack-ages filled with cookies.’’ A neigh-bor told Mayor Ken Reeves aboutthe family, and he facilitated thesquare’s dedication. ‘‘I was sopleased it happened.’’

Professor Will Stackman SquareMemorial Drive and DeWolfeStreet, Cambridge

Theater director, puppeteer,writer, and educator, Stackman ismemorialized along MemorialDrive across from the banks ofthe Charles River. The location isapt, as Stackman was the techni-cal director for the CambridgeRiver Festival while working forthe Cambridge Arts Council. A2007 online obituary refers toStackman as, ‘‘a tireless advocatefor good work under Spartanconditions in obscure venues.’’

Necee Regis can be reached atnregis@gis.net.

Anonymous, overlooked,but beloved in the squareº SQUARESContinued from Page M5

PHOTOS BY DINA RUDICK/GLOBE STAFF

Little Joe Cook Square (above) and Thomas F. Coughlin Square, both in Cambridge.

WHAT’S IN A NAMEWhom do you recognize

on the squares to see atwww.boston.com/travel?

By Jane Roy BrownGLOBE CORRESPONDENT

WILLIAMSTOWN — The sur-prising thing about the Stone HillCenter at the Sterling and Fran-cine Clark Art Institute is notthat it keeps a humble profile toblend in with the fields and forestaround it, but that it puts thosenatural surroundings on display.In another time, this site, on anorth-facing hillside squeezedamong the Hoosac Mountains,the Taconic Range, the BerkshireHills, and the Green Mountains,might have been chosen for amonastery.

The gray wood-and-concretebuilding focuses on its northernpanorama, where a slopingmeadow, planted with scatteredtrees (by local landscape archi-tects Reed Hilderbrand Associ-ates), drops away, yielding centerstage to the rippling foothills ofthe Green Mountains. But stepout onto the terrace, climb theexterior staircase from the lowestelevation, or gaze down an interi-or corridor, and the buildingpresents abstract slices of sky,slope, and forest. I-beams, over-hangs, low walls, stairwells, andcutouts are among the devicesJapanese architect Tadao Andoemployed to draw these scenesinto the structure.

In short, the landscape is onpermanent exhibit here, whichmeans that, especially for out-door types, it is not a completeloss to find the center’s two inti-mate art galleries — well worthvisiting in season — closed forthe winter.

By longstanding tradition, theClark has welcomed visitors toroam its 140-acre campus free ofcharge. Since the Stone Hill Cen-ter opened last year, the museumhas invited year-round hikers,cross-country skiers, and snow-shoers to use it as a sort of high-end warming hut. The entry-lev-el floor offers restrooms, a drink-ing fountain, and lockers.

Nodding to the boom in geo-caching — a GPS-assisted huntfor a cache of trinkets hidden inthe landscape — the Clark evenloans out GPS units at the mainmuseum’s front desk. Like mu-seum admission, the devices arefree to use from Nov. 1 to May 31,along with a set of coordinates,which can also be downloadedfrom the museum’s website. (‘‘Iwent out with one of our GPSunits at lunchtime this fall, andour cache is very cool, one of thebest I’ve seen,’’ says Sarah Hoff-man, the Clark’s public relationsand marketing assistant.)

Whether or not they try geo-

caching, New Englanders willfind the entire Clark Art Institutecomplex to be a hidden treasure.Largely because of its summertheater festival, Williamstown,although almost equidistantfrom Boston and New York, isculturally part of the Berkshires.The elegant main museum build-ing, less than a quarter-mile fromthe new Stone Hill Center, housesthe Clark’s permanent collection,the core of which belonged toRobert Sterling Clark (1877-1956; heir to the Singer sewingmachine fortune) and his wife,Francine. The couple concentrat-ed on collecting mainly Ameri-can, French Impressionist, Ital-ian, and Northern Renaissancepaintings. They opened the mu-seum to the public in 1955.

Since 1972, the Clark haspartnered with Williams Collegeto offer a master’s degree pro-gram in art history, making itboth a public art museum and aresearch and academic center.The Stone Hill Center markedthe end of the first phase of an ex-pansion that will eventually in-clude an upgrade and internalexpansion of the Clark’s maingalleries and another building byAndo for special exhibits, class-rooms, and conferences.

The two small galleries atStone Hill Center occupy only afraction of the building, whichprovides new quarters for theWilliamstown Art ConservationCenter, the largest regional facil-ity of its kind in the country,which outgrew its old quarterson the museum campus. (Worksthat the conservation center hasrestored include Vincent vanGogh’s ‘‘Irises,’’ Thomas HartBenton’s ‘‘America Today’’ mu-rals, and ‘‘Number 2, 1949,’’ byJackson Pollock.) During theweek, visitors strolling outsidethe Stone Hill Center can peer inat conservators wielding long,dangling hoses and other myste-rious tools of their trade behindthe two-story glass walls on thenorth and east facades.

Two new walking paths,called Howard and Nan, connectthe Stone Hill Center to theClark’s main building, bringingthe total length of the campustrail system to about 3 miles. Al-though the new paths are grad-ual in slope and wide enough forwalkers to stride side-by-side, afew shallow steps along the wayprevent wheelchair use. (Peoplewho have mobility issues shoulddrive to the parking lot and enterthe building through the accessi-ble main entrance, although theunusually tall glass doors therealso are unusually heavy.)

With a little snow cover, thesteps pose no obstacle to cross-country skiers and snowshoers,who will enjoy the bridges overbrooks and swales. The Howardpath traces the edge of thewoods, while the Nan passesthrough thicker woodland.

Anyone who wants to savorthe landscape and the building’splayful interaction with it shouldstart by taking in the northernpanorama from the open terraceoff the entry hall, opposite themain door. Outside, an architect-designed rack accommodatesbikes, skis, and snowshoes. Themain routes are the Pasture Trail(0.7 mile) and the Stone BenchTrail (1.5 miles), which share asegment through the stunninghilltop meadow. Older connectortrails link portions of all the maintrails.

The Pasture Trail cuts westacross the slope behind the cen-ter’s parking lot, following thecourse of least resistance for aneasy climb. The first several hun-dred feet pass through deciduoushardwoods sprinkled with hem-lock and white pine. It soon in-tersects the Stone Bench Trail,which traces a more precipitousnorth-south course up (or down)

the slope. Continuing west, thePasture Trail meets the pasture ata cattle fence. A gate here — witha sign asking hikers to close it be-hind them — signals the pres-ence of cattle and horses in thesummer and fall.

Before snow falls, the traverseto the top of the meadow passesthrough tall grass. At the crest ofthe hill, scattered picnic tablesoverlook the main museum andthe surrounding mountains. Sev-eral pairs of birches and maples,curiously entwined, seem todance down the western slope.From the tables, the trail makes a

right-angle turn and descendssteeply northeast through pas-ture before ending at the Clark’smain parking area. Or, hikers canfollow the opposite course, head-ing southwest on the StoneBench Trail on a looping routeback to the Stone Hill Center.

The Stone Bench Trail, afterclimbing south up a forestedslope, makes a sharp right turn atthe edge of a clearing. From hereit traces a wide southeast arcalong the property’s boundary.The stone bench stands in aclearing overlooking a forestedwestern hillside. After this, the

trail makes another sharp turneast, then swings south to crossthe meadow, leveling out andjoining the Pasture Trail at thestart of the northern slope toClark’s parking lot.

For those who didn’t pack alunch, this is a good place to endup, because the cafe in the mainmuseum serves salads, sand-wiches, and pastry. There’s someworld-class art here too, on viewat no charge through the end ofMay.

Jane Roy Brown can be reachedat regan-brown.com.

A museum shelter for art — and snowshoers

PHOTOS BY BILL REGAN/FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE

Tadao Ando designed the wood and concrete Stone Hill Center at the Sterling and FrancineClark Art Institute. The building frames the surrounding landscape — mountains on all sides —and walking trails (left) of varying difficulty cross the institute’s 140-acre campus.

Stone Hill CenterSterling and Francine ClarkArt Institute225 South St., Williamstown413-458-2303www.clarkart.eduMuseum winter hours: Tuesday-Sunday 10 a.m.-5 p.m. ClosedThanksgiving, Christmas, NewYear’s Day. Admission: Novem-ber-May free. June 1-Oct. 31$12.50 adults, free for studentsand children 18 and younger.

Galleries open June 1 to mid-October. Campus and trails openfree, year-round, dawn to dusk.Restrooms, lockers, and waterfountain open year-round. Trailmaps available at the admissiondesk at the museum’s mainentrance.

If you go . . .

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