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Nameless Coffeehouse

Buildings and structures in Cambridge, MassachusettsFolk music venuesHarvard SquareMusic venues in MassachusettsNightclubs in Massachusetts
Tourist attractions in Cambridge, Massachusetts
First parish Cambridge MA
First parish Cambridge MA

The Nameless Coffeehouse, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, opened in 1967 and is now New England's oldest all-volunteer coffeehouse. Located in the First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church in Harvard Square, the Nameless currently presents a six-concert schedule showcasing acoustic music and comedy for a moderate suggested donation ($8–$15 for the 2011 season).From its birth during the folk revival in the 1960s, The Nameless has been influential in the local folk music scene, nurturing performers in the early stages of their careers, encouraging them to hone their craft, and providing a receptive audience. The Nameless continues to highlight performances by local original singer-songwriters. Performers who have played the Nameless include Mary Chapin Carpenter, Tracy Chapman, Patty Larkin, The Story (Jonatha Brooke and Jennifer Kimball), Ellis Paul, Dar Williams, John Gorka, Bob Franke, Ric Ocasek, James "Hutch" Hutchinson, Geoff Bartley, and Greg Greenway, as well as comedians Andy Kaufman and Jay Leno. Fred Small, as of 2009 the minister of the First Parish, also has performed at the Coffeehouse.When it first opened, the Nameless was managed by Harvard students, who were joined, by the early 1970s, by students from MIT and later Tufts University as well. Through 1982, the Coffeehouse was open Friday and Saturday evenings during the school year, and both music and refreshments were provided free of charge, although donations were encouraged and accepted.The Nameless has weathered many changes over the years, and confronted many challenges to stay open and viable. Its minimal costs are now met by door proceeds and donated goods and services. The present volunteer crew are veteran volunteers and supporters of the local music scene. Sound man Doug Scott has been running sound since the 1980s. The Coffeehouse still offers a limited number of free admissions to concerts for volunteers, arranged in advance through the volunteer coordinator. Information on volunteer opportunities is available at The Nameless website.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Nameless Coffeehouse (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Nameless Coffeehouse
Church Street, Cambridge

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N 42.374536111111 ° E -71.119280555556 °
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The First Parish in Cambridge

Church Street 3
02138 Cambridge
Massachusetts, United States
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firstparishcambridge.org

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First parish Cambridge MA
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Harvard/MIT Cooperative Society
Harvard/MIT Cooperative Society

The Harvard/MIT Cooperative Society (or The Coop, pronounced as a single syllable) is a Cambridge, Massachusetts retail cooperative for the Harvard University and MIT campuses. The general public is encouraged to freely enter and make purchases in all the Coop stores, but membership discounts and certain other benefits are restricted to Coop members. As of 2020, there are three store locations at Harvard, and two at MIT. The main store is located in the heart of Harvard Square, across the street from the Harvard subway station headhouse. The Coop was founded as the Harvard Cooperative in 1882 to supply books, school supplies, and wood and coal for winter heating. MIT, following its move from Boston to Cambridge in 1916, invited the Coop to open a branch of the store at the Institute, where it has been present ever since.Today, the store is one of the largest college campus bookstores, an important resource for local students and their families to purchase textbooks, college logo merchandise, dorm room necessities, and so on. The store also offers the framing of diplomas, the ordering of class rings and engraved rocking chairs, and the rental of graduation gowns. The Coop has a regular program of talks and book signings focused on local authors, but also including speakers from around the world. Only students, faculty, alumni and employees of MIT, Harvard, and the personnel of the hospitals affiliated with the Harvard Medical School are eligible to join. Membership cost $1 annually in 1882, and this fee has not been increased. Members may also purchase a Coop Diary, a little black combination pocket diary, academic year calendar, and address book. The Coop traditionally has disbursed its annual profits as a rebate to members in October of each year. As of July 1, 2014, the rebate program has been replaced with an automatic additional discount of 10% at the registers, for Coop members in good standing.The Coop stores are managed by Barnes & Noble College Booksellers, under supervision of a 23-person Board of Directors including 11 students elected by the student membership. Faculty, alumni, or officers of MIT or Harvard fill 11 seats, and the Coop's president serves ex officio.In 2014, the MIT branch announced that it was the first campus bookstore in the US to accept bitcoin payments.The MIT branch has for decades operated a modest department store and general bookstore at 325 Main Street, as Kendall Square's largest retailer. In February 2019, this store moved to smaller temporary quarters at 80 Broadway, to allow for demolition of the building housing its former location. A new, taller 16-story building will be constructed on the site, and the Coop is expected to move into a space larger than its temporary quarters, but possibly smaller than its previous space at that location.

Club Passim
Club Passim

Club Passim is an American folk music club in the Harvard Square area of Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was opened by Joyce Kalina (now Chopra) and Paula Kelley in 1958, when it was known as Club 47 (based on its then address, 47 Mount Auburn Street, also in Cambridge; it moved to its present location on Palmer Street in 1963), and changed its name to simply Passim in 1969. The Donlins who ran the club during the 1970s pronounced the name PASSim. Bob Donlin said this pronunciation as he welcomed people to the shows with the always-out-of-adjustment mic stand microphone, but those who were unaware often said PassEEM. It adopted the present name in 1994; a combination of the earlier two names. At its inception, it was mainly a jazz and blues club, but soon branched out to include ethnic folk, then singer-songwriter folk.Artists who have performed there include Joan Baez, Shawn Colvin, Bob Dylan, Tom Rush, Joni Mitchell, Suzanne Vega, Muddy Waters, Jimmy Buffett, John Mayer, Matt Nathanson, and Brian Webb. At times the Club was a place for blues musicians like Paul Butterfield and Elvin Bishop to play as well. In the 1960s, the club (when known as Club 47) played a role in the rise of folk-rock music, when it began to book folk-rock bands whose music was unrelated to traditional folk, such as the Lovin' Spoonful. The club's importance to the 1960s Cambridge folk scene is documented extensively in Eric Von Schmidt's Baby, Let Me Follow You Down: The Illustrated Story of the Cambridge Folk Years. Scott Alarik described Club 47 as being "the hangout of choice for the new folkies" during that time.Today there is a Passim School of Music program, which offers workshops and classes to teens and adults.

Massachusetts Hall (Harvard University)
Massachusetts Hall (Harvard University)

Massachusetts Hall is the oldest surviving building at Harvard College, the first institution of higher learning in the British colonies in America, and second oldest academic building in the United States after the Wren Building at the College of William & Mary. As such, it possesses great significance not only in the history of American education but also in the story of the developing English Colonies of the 18th century. Massachusetts Hall was designed by Harvard Presidents John Leverett and his successor Benjamin Wadsworth. It was erected between 1718 and 1720 in Harvard Yard. It was originally a dormitory containing 32 chambers and 64 small private studies for the 64 students it was designed to house. During the siege of Boston, 640 American soldiers took quarters in the hall. Much of the interior woodwork and hardware, including brass doorknobs, disappeared at this time. While designed as a residence for students, the building has served many purposes through the years. After Thomas Hollis donated a quadrant and a 24-foot telescope in 1722, for example, the building housed an informal observatory. Currently, the President of the University, Provost, Treasurer, and Vice Presidents have offices that occupy the first two floors and half of the third. Freshmen reside in the fourth floor. Massachusetts Hall, as Harvard's oldest extant dormitory, has housed many influential people. Founding fathers who lived in Massachusetts Hall include John Adams, John Hancock, Samuel Adams, Elbridge Gerry, and James Otis. Members of the Wigglesworth, Weld, Thayer, Eliot, and Lowell families (among others), whose names now grace other dormitories, also lived in Massachusetts Hall. More recent notable residents of Massachusetts Hall include Alan Jay Lerner, Elliot Richardson, John Harbison, and Jeff Schaffer.