When he graduated from Harvard 62 years ago, Howard F. Gillette '35 thought he was headed for bigger, faraway places.

Little did he know that he would one day work just across the street from campus in what may be the area's smallest building.

The Harvard Square Information Center--nestled inside the octagonally-shaped, faded wooden booth in front of the main entrance to the T--is not a resource that passing tourists or long-time Cambridge residents can afford to overlook.

Inside the tiny structure are friendly faces, like Gillette, who can provide you with more than just a 25-cent Cambridge street map.

Directions to obscure Cambridge landmarks, advice on the quickest way to Kirkland Avenue and references to the best hotels and restaurants in the area are only some of the tips one can obtain by visiting the booth.

And if you knock on the sliding window each Tuesday morning, chances are that Gillette will be there to greet you.

"I've worked here for the past 10 years, and the [Cambridge] Chamber of Commerce opened up this booth 11 years ago," said Gillette as he directed a tourist in search of a Harvard T-shirt to the Coop.

"I help people find places and help get them where they want to go," he says.

Gillette says he fields anywhere between 50 and 150 questions during one four-hour shift.

"I sometimes get asked where Harvard Square is," Gillette says with a laugh, adding that British tourists are usually most confused since the squares in London are actually shaped as squares, and are usually adorned with a statue. "But Harvard Square is not a square; it's not even a triangle," says Gillette. "It's a state of mind."

Despite the large number of questions Gillette answers in a day, he says he rarely gets questions from Harvard students.

"In fact, I'm more surprised when I do," says Gillette. "[Harvard students] have access to so many other resources--professors, other students, the University's information center--that they shouldn't have to ask me."

Gillette, a native of Lake Forest, Ill., who now lives in the Boston suburb of Chestnut Hill, says that as an undergraduate, he never imagined he would one day be the Square's center attraction.

"When I went to Harvard, I'm not sure I even knew where Harvard Square was," Gillette says, jokingly.

Instead, Gillette, who lived in Mower Hall and Eliot House, concentrated in romance languages and worked as the hockey team manager.