Archives: Media Room

By Globe staffUpdated June 18, 2025, 1:46 p.m.

MUSIC

Pop, Etc.

SAVAK “SQUAWK!,” the sharp-elbowed new album from these post-punk all-stars, pairs punchy cuts like the biting “Casual Cruelty” with meditative, yet no less urgent offerings like “American Vernacular.” June 21, 7 p.m. O’Brien’s Pub. 617-782-6245, obrienspubboston.com

NATALIA LAFOURCADE: CANCIONERA TOUR The versatile Mexican singer and composer’s latest album, “Cancionera,” celebrates the Golden Age of Mexican cinema with surrealistic lyrics and a live-to-tape recording technique that highlights her strong, yet supple vocals and her 18-piece accompanying ensemble’s crisp playing. June 21 and 22, 8 p.m. Shubert Theatre. 866-348-9738, bochcenter.org

GIGI PEREZ Last year, this Jersey-born, Florida-raised singer-songwriter had a left-field hit with the dreamy cut “Sailor Song,” which expresses deep yearning in high-resolution imagery and haunting wails. She possesses a robust alto that will likely sound majestic at Fenway Park, where she, along with the modern Irish folk act Amble, will open for the brooding belter Hozier. June 23 and 24, 6:30 p.m. Fenway Park. 877-733-7699, redsox.com/concerts

MAURA JOHNSTON

Folk, World & Country

BLUE CACTUS North Carolina duo Steph Stewart and Mario Arnez perform as Blue Cactus and play what they characterize as “modern cosmic country music.” They’ve just released their third record, “Believer,” and come to the area in support of the new album. Lloyd Thayer will also perform. June 25, 7 p.m. $25. The Burren, 247 Elm St., Somerville. 617-776-6896. www.burren.com/music.html

FIREFALL Apparently it’s ’70s country-rock week at the Center for Arts in Natick. Richie Furay, cofounder of Buffalo Springfield and then Poco, visits on Friday, but his show is sold out. Firefall, the mellow, harmonizing epigone of the Flying Burrito Brothers, is still going strong (although the original iteration is long gone), and tickets are still available for that show. June 26, 8 p.m. $67. TCAN, 14 Summer St., Natick. 508-647-0097. https://tcan.org

BARBARA ZAMORA AND JUAN RUIZ It’s “a night of boleros”; singer Zamora, now residing in Boston but originally from Cuba, and Colombian clarinetist and saxophonist Ruiz are joined by some friends to present a selection of iconic Cuban boleros Thursday evening. June 26, 8 p.m. $35. The Lilypad, 1353 Cambridge St., Cambridge. 617-955-7729. www.lilypadinman.com

STUART MUNRO

Jazz & Blues

4th ANNUAL MAYNARD JAZZ FEST This year’s free musical jamboree features, on its main stage, the dueling tenor saxophones of Tucker Antell and Mike Tucker, the quartet of compelling vocalist and trumpeter Christine Fawson, and eclectic, groove-oriented sextet Bluedog. Appearing on the educational stage will be the Maynard Jazz Bands and the Marlborough High School Jazz Band. June 21, 12:30-5 p.m. Free. Memorial Park, 35 Summer St., Maynard. facebook.com/maynardjazzfest

DIANE BLUE ALL-STARS The soulful singer and hot harmonica player, who’s currently a key member of Ronnie Earl and the Broadcasters, also fronts her own powerhouse outfit — guitarist Chris Vitarello, organist Dave Limina, and drummer Chris Anzalone — this time with special guest guitar slinger Laura Chavez. June 21. 8 p.m. $20-$25. Chan’s Fine Oriental Dining, 267 Main St., Woonsocket, R.I. chanseggrollsjazz.com

THE RHYTHM FUTURE QUARTET Bringing Django Reinhardt’s gypsy jazz into the 21st century, the virtuosic string band welcomes special guest clarinetist, saxophonist, and singer Evan Arntzen to the fold. June 26, 7:30 p.m. $30.15-$41.79. Regattabar, Cambridge. regattabarjazz.com

KEVIN LOWENTHAL

Classical

FREDERICK DOUGLASS Black American composer Ulysses Kay considered his opera “Frederick Douglass” his greatest work; however, it has not been performed in full since its 1991 premiere. This changes this weekend, as local powerhouse conductor and impresario Gil Rose unites his two projects (Odyssey Opera and Boston Modern Orchestra Project) to bring the piece to the stage. Bass Kenneth Kellogg plays the title role in the semi-fictionalized chronicle of Douglass’s final years, when he refused to advance American territorial and financial claims as consul-general in Haiti. June 20, 7:30 p.m. NEC’s Jordan Hall. www.bmop.org

ROCKPORT CHAMBER MUSIC FESTIVAL This weekend at Rockport puts the cello in the spotlight, starting with the brother-sister piano and cello Cheng² Duo — it’s pronounced Cheng Squared — on a program encompassing Debussy, Beethoven, and Sri Lankan-Canadian composer Dinuk Wijeratne (June 20). The next day brings the London-based Marmen Quartet with a special guest, Colombian cellist Santiago Cañón-Valencia (June 21). Sunday offers an adventurous program by the Galvin Cello Quartet, including a Mozart four-hand sonata, some Paganini variations, and Boston Symphony Orchestra principal cellist Blaise Déjardin’s arrangement of Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition” (June 22). Shalin Liu Performance Center, Rockport. 978.546.7391, www.rockportmusic.org

SEVEN TIMES SALT BEMF’s marathon week may be over with Aston Magna’s month of programs still a ways away, but if you’re craving ancient music for modern times, tide yourself over with Seven Times Salt’s musical tour of early New England, featuring rounds, psalms, hymns, dance tunes, and musical indictments of tyranny. Presented by the Society for Historically Informed Performance. June 24, Lincoln; June 25, Andover; June 26, Boston. www.sohipboston.org

A.Z. MADONNA

ARTS

Theater

OUR CLASS Inspired by a real-life massacre in 1941, “Our Class” moves inexorably toward the moment when the Jewish residents of a small Polish village are rounded up by Catholic townspeople, forced into a barn, and burned alive. Polish playwright Tadeusz Slobodzianek tells this horrific story by focusing on the relationships among 10 Polish classmates — five Jewish, five Catholic — over time. Directed by Igor Golyak, “Our Class’’ is a haunting illustration of what Hannah Arendt called “the banality of evil.” Through June 23. (An additional performance has been scheduled for June 22.)Production by Arlekin Players Theatre. At Wimberly Theatre, Calderwood Pavilion, Boston Center for the Arts. Recommended for ages 16 and up. www.bostontheatrescene.com

HELLO, DOLLY! Nobody goes to see this Jerry Herman-Michael Stewart musical in the expectation of a life-changing experience. They go to have some frivolous, escapist fun. (There’s a lot to escape from at the moment.) And that’s what director Maurice Emmanuel Parent delivers in his delightful production, with matchmaker and “marriage broker” Dolly Gallagher Levi winningly portrayed by Aimee Doherty, and an entertainingly stuffy Joshua Wolf Coleman as Horace Vandergelder, “the Yonkers half-a-millionaire” whom Dolly is trying to reel in for herself. Through June 22. Lyric Stage Company of Boston. 617-585-5678, lyricstage.com

BLUES FOR AN ALABAMA SKY In this drama by Springfield, Mass.-born Pearl Cleage, five friends negotiate the cross-currents of the Harlem Renaissance and the Great Depression in the summer of 1930; Angel, a singer who’s just been fired by the Cotton Club; Leland, a widower newly arrived in New York from Alabama, who is smitten with Angel; Guy, a gay costume designer who harbors dreams of Paris; Delia, a staff member at Margaret Sanger’s new family planning clinic in Harlem; and Sam, a jazz-loving physician. Directed by Jackie Davis. Through June 29. Trinity Repertory Company, Providence. 401-351-4242, www.trinityrep.com/blues

DON AUCOIN

Dance

ASIAN AMERICAN BALLET PROJECT With a mission to present productions danced solely by Asian Americans, the company focuses on stories that illuminate their distinct cultural and personal perspectives. The six original ballets in the upcoming program “Receding and Reemerging” revive ancient Asian folktales, confront historical injustices, and explore the complexities of Asian American identity. June 21-22. $15-$35. Arrow Street Arts, Cambridge. https://asianamericanballetproject.org/

BOSTON DANCE THEATER The company continues its mission to use dance to call attention to environmental concerns with this special performance of excerpts at the Crane Estate. “SURGE” examines the human impact on our oceans and coastlines. “The PLANTS Project” uses movement to illuminate the complexity and resilience of plant life. Created in collaboration with Larry J. Pratt (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute) and Gloucester-based visual artist Kim Radochia, the works will unfold within the estate’s historic Italianate barn. June 26. $25. The Barn at Castle Hill, Ipswich. www.bostondancetheater.com

MY BODY MY DANCE: REIMAGINING DUNCAN FOR THE 21ST CENTURY Founded by Boston dance artists Kelli Edwards and Sandra Zarotney Keldsen, the New Duncan Dance Project makes its debut with this provocative program, which uses beauty, humor, and defiance to choreographically explore different perspectives on the pressing issue of women’s autonomy over their own bodies. The company pairs original choreography with reimagined works by ground-breaking feminist and modern dance pioneer Isadora Duncan. June 21-22. $15-$50. (The June 22 performance is also available to stream.) Dance Complex, Cambridge. www.dancecomplex.org

SAVING GRACE DANCE ENSEMBLE Led by artistic director Robyn Movsessian, the company presents a collaborative evening of dance featuring Douglas Davis Ballet (New Hampshire), Maine Dance Company (Maine), NSquared Dance Company (N.H./New York City), Russian Ballet Academy (N.H.), Safe Haven Ballet (N.H.), Speaking in Taps (Greater New England), and others. Saving Grace Dance Ensemble will perform several new works on the program, including one dedicated to Movsessian’s nephew, who died of fentanyl poisoning in 2023. June 25. $25-$35. Windhover Center for the Performing Arts, Rockport. www.windhover.org

KAREN CAMPBELL

Visual art

ANN CRAVEN: PAINTED TIME (2020-24) Craven, a contemporary Maine-based painter, is enjoying statewide recognition this summer, honored with several showcases as celebration of her 2025 Maine in America Award for lifetime achievement. The hub of all this, though, is a significant exhibition at the Farnsworth Art Museum, where dozens of her vibrant, expressively-painted meditations on the state’s rich natural realm are on view. With their electric color palettes and exuberant brushwork, they might best be described as landscapes of the heart and mind. Through Jan. 4. Farnsworth Art Museum, 16 Museum St., Rockland, Maine. 207-596-6457, www.farnsworthmuseum.org

EDVARD MUNCH: TECHNICALLY SPEAKING I know, I know: “The Scream.” There’s no getting around the cultural oversaturation of Munch’s most famous work, but recent efforts have done much to broaden our understanding of Norway’s most-loved artist beyond his all-time smash hit. In the summer of 2023, “Edvard Munch: Trembling Earth,” the Clark Art Institute’s voluminous presentation of the artist’s deep affinities with — and anxieties for — the natural world opened a universe of difference for all but the most devoted Munch fan. “Technically Speaking,” at Harvard, takes a different tack, exploring the artist’s material genius and almost manic enthusiasm for media across painting, drawing, and every manner of printing. With it, a view of an artist too long seen as one-note broadens. Through July 27. Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy St., Cambridge. 617-495-9400,harvardartmuseums.org

CHRISTIAN MARCLAY: DOORS Marclay is likely best known for “The Clock,” his 2010 magnum opus: a 24-hour-long film that actually tells the time using 60-second clips from decades of movie history that track, minute by minute, real time in the real world. “Doors,” made in 2022, follows similar logic, though not so rigorous temporal demands. An amalgam of movie scenes of doors opening and closing, the piece leaves the viewer forever on the tortured edge of unknowing — an in-between world of what was and what’s next. Through Sept. 1. Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, 25 Harbor Shore Drive. 617-478-3100,www.icaboston.org

MURRAY WHYTE

BOSTON YOUNG CONTEMPORARIES 2025 More than 20 years ago, art students at Boston University, the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, and Massachusetts College of Art and Design started organizing a summer show of their best work. The exhibition is more formal now, and slimmed down, with an official juror — Selby Nimrod, director of exhibitions and commons at MIT’s School of Architecture + Planning. Through July 26. Faye G., Jo, and James Stone Gallery, Boston University, 855 Commonwealth Ave.www.bu.edu/cfa/featured-work/boston-young-contemporaries-2025/

CATE McQUAID

EVENTS

Comedy

DREW DUNN Dunn, a New England comic, is tired of people trying to scare him with the prospect of microplastics in his food. “I’m a product of the ’90s,” he says. “My favorite fruit flavor when I was a kid was blue.” June 20 at 7 p.m. and June 21 at 6:30 p.m. and 9 p.m. $40.46. Laugh Boston, 425 Summer St. 617-725-2844, www.laughboston.com

LIZ GLAZER In her new YouTube special, “Do You Know Who I’m Not?,” the Boston Comedy Festival stand-up competition winner explains why she’s suspicious of the updates her day care gives her about her baby. “Because they’ll say, you know, ‘Violet can hold her bottle all by herself, Lulu rolled over, Harry wrote an op-ed,’” she says. “They’re busy.” June 20 at 7 p.m., June 21 at 7 p.m., 9 p.m., and 11 p.m., and June 22 at 9 p.m. and 11 p.m. $25-$65. Goofs Comedy Club, 432 McGrath Highway, Somerville. 617-718-7200,www.goofscomedy.com

BIG GAY VARIETY EXTRAVAGANZA Zach Stewart hosts this stand-up and drag showcase featuring Candace Persuasion, Cam Ohh, Connor Doherty, Lizzie Sivitz, and Shruti Datari, plus some audience participation games and prizes like Off Cabot tickets. June 20, 7 p.m. $33. Off Cabot Comedy and Events, 9 Wallis St., Beverly. www.offcabot.org

NICK A. ZAINO III

Family

HARVARD SQUARE BOOKISH BALL Celebrate revolutionary reading at Harvard Square’s multiple bookstore locations. Browse books, munch on snacks, enjoy live music, and visit with special guest Elizabeth Glover, the first colonial printer, portrayed by Linda Peck. Featured bookstores include Lovestruck Books, Harvard Book Store, Harvard COOP, Grolier’s Poetry Book Shop, and Rodney’s Bookstore. Organized tours of the square led by American lawyer Richard Henry Dana Jr., portrayed by historian Daniel Berger Jones, are available at 11 a.m., 1 p.m., and 3 p.m. June 21, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Free admission. Harvard Square, various locations. harvardsquare.com

ARLINGTON PORCHFEST Head to the annual Arlington Porchfest and trek across town to watch a slew of musical performances. From roots to rock, Scottish to soul, classical to hip-hop, and everything in between, the festivities will feature more than 300 porches, bands, and artists. Stop by the finale dance party, Garage Band, featuring Americana group the Squeezebox Stompers playing zydeco and Cajun beats at 6 p.m. at 334 Mass. Ave. June 21, noon-6 p.m. Free admission. Locations vary, print maps and event info available at 611 Mass. Ave., Arlington. arlingtonporchfest.org

BOSTON PIZZA FESTIVAL Try slices from more than 30 restaurants and vendors at this year’s Boston Pizza Festival. Highlights include Sally’s Apizza from New Haven, Eataly’s Rossopomodoro, and “Pizza a Vico” from Vico Equense, Italy. Attendees can also enjoy refreshments as well as boozier options for adults. June 21-22, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Admission is $10, and includes event entry and two pizza slice tickets. City Hall Plaza, 1 City Hall Square. bostonpizzafestival.com

HALEY CLOUGH

A Cambridge resident for 40 years, Child explored her neighborhood dining scene in Harvard Square, and one spot was among her most frequented.

 Ameera Hammouda – Senior Staff Writer • June 13, 2025

Julia Child was born in Pasadena, California, but spent some of her most formative years in New England. The culinary icon graduated from Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts in 1934.

She took up permanent residence in Cambridge from 1961 until 2001. Her Cambridge home, located at 103 Irving Street in Harvard Square, became the set for three of her television shows.

The home kitchen became so synonymous with American culinary culture that the real kitchen is now on display at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, in Washington, DC. Child donated it upon moving out of the house and back to California in the 2000s. Today, the Harvard Square home is an occupied private residence.

Child lived in one of Cambridge’s most exciting neighborhoods with evolving gastronomy, so she indulged in the local food scene, becoming a regular at Harvest. The restaurant, hidden behind an unnamed brick walkway that adopted the name “The Architects’ Corner,” opened in 1975. The spot drew in visitors with its neon sign and vibrant Marimekko prints. The restaurant is rumored to have been Julia Child’s favorite dining destination, regularly visiting Harvest.

In 1997, Harvest reopened under new management but remains one of the area’s most historic restaurants. Several prominent chefs trained at Harvest before opening their own restaurants.

This year, Harvest celebrates its 50th anniversary with special menus and a “Julia Burger” that celebrates the relationship shared between the restaurant and culinary legend, Julia Child.

Find Harvest at 44 Brattle Street

By Spencer Buell Globe Staff,Updated May 29, 2025, 4:04 a.m.

CAMBRIDGE — There is a damp dustiness down here, in the abandoned tunnel underneath Harvard Square.

Aside from the thin rays filtering through a sidewalk grate, there isn’t much light where we’re standing, 20 feet below the beer taps of Charlie’s Kitchen and the Harvard grads snapping pictures in front of the Kennedy School of Government. Only the sound of traffic overhead occasionally breaks the subterranean silence. There are no signs of life, not even rats.

Could this space, which few people have laid eyes on in more than 40 years, come alive with music and be the newest — and most unusual — addition to Boston nightlife? An under-the-ground, over-the-top, idea, for sure. But through the light of our flashlights, the possibilities seem to expand.

A local real estate mogul has long argued the music venue is not as far-fetched as it sounds on the surface. And now, he’s found a receiving audience among elected officials in Cambridge, who are exploringwhether it is, in fact, possible, and, if so, what it all might cost.

Although hidden from people driving or walking atop it, the tunnel runs between Brattle Square and the Kennedy School.

One section is used by the T for storage and for housing exhaust ducts and a high-voltage power station.

Another, a long straightaway under Eliot Street, is unused altogether.

When Denise Jillson, executive director of the Harvard Square Business Association, first saw that abandoned section on a tour in 2019, she couldn’t believe her eyes. Descending down a utility stairwell, she expected to find it falling apart, or marred by a jumble of view-obstructing columns.

What she saw instead was a sturdy rectangle of wide open space that was, by her count, about 300 feet long, 22 feet high, and 58 across at its widest.

“It was pristine,” said Jillson, “as far as tunnels go.”

John DiGiovanni, the real estate mogul who brought music venue The Sinclair to Harvard Square, said his jaw dropped.

“Whoa!” he remembers thinking. “Where do you put the stage?”

Ever since, the two have been boosters of a live entertainment venue in the tunnel, showing it off to developers, officials, and business leaders. They even paid for a 3D scan of the space and hired a designer to create mockups of how concerts, TED talks, Harvard speaking engagements, art exhibits, and all kinds of events here might look.

Let us here state the obvious:Turning a century-old underground tunnel, currently without utilities, into a space fit for hundreds in a partying mood, would be no easy feat. It certainly wasn’t designed with that in mind when it was built in 1909 for trains and buses to access a now-removed transit yard, nor when it was sealed shut long ago in 1980 during the extension of the Red Line. Right now, the only access is through narrow corridors and down utility hatches or through a gap between a pair of exhaust fans the size of jet engines.

Even building above ground in Harvard Square seems to take forever. The renovation of the small plaza atop the Harvard MBTA stop has taken years, and millions of dollars, to complete.

But DiGiovanni and Jillson believe turning this unused portion of the decommissioned tunnel complex into something wondrousis too good an opportunity to pass up in a neighborhood they believe needs more live events to draw in visitors.

“It would be preposterous for me to say, ‘dig a tunnel under these streets and create a venue.’ But it’s equally preposterous that you wouldn’t study how you can transform this one,” DiGiovanni said. “It’s already excavated!”

Cambridge is starting that process now. Earlier in May, the City Council voted in favor of spending $72,000 to get a formal estimate for an engineering study.

How much a study of that kind would cost is unknown, but it is expected to be many hundreds of thousands more.

Who will pay for it is also an open question.

The tunnel is still owned by the MBTA, and Cambridge officials have expressed reluctance to invest large sums without buy-in from the T or other private investment.

Would the transit agency even be interested in becoming landlord to a nightclub or paying to have it refurbished so it can be sold? The T wouldn’t say.

But DiGiovanni believes there is good reason to do so, including that it could be a revenue source for the T at a time when it could use the money.

Much of the work of turning the tunnel into an entertainment destination would ultimately be done by a venue operator. Asked about the viability of a tunnel-based music venue, a spokesperson for AEG, which operates live event venues across the country, said it was “a little premature” to weigh in.

Still, the idea has some allure to people with experience in live events.

Ed Kane, owner of Boston nightclub and music venue company Big Night Entertainment and a Harvard alum who grew up locally, said it sounded on paper like a dream come true.

“It’s been a fantasy of mine forever,” he said. “Ever since I started nightlife I’ve dreamed of opening a place in an underground station.”

It wouldn’t necessarily be the first of its kind, according to the Harvard Square Business Association. In Washington, D.C., an abandoned subway tunnel in Dupont Circle was repurposed into an arts venue called Dupont Underground. A similar project repurposed a drinking water reservoir in Houston into a venue called The Cistern.

The primary question, according to DiGiovanni, is how many people a subterranean venue in Harvard Square could fit. Capacity would depend on the size of the usable space, and the points of egress that would need to be built into the Harvard Square streetscape to get people in and out quickly, he said.

He has crunched the numbers and believes it would need to host at least 800 in order to be worth it for the millions of dollars of investment required to get it up and running.

“What would be spectacular is a 1500-capacity venue,” he said.

There is certainly plenty of room down here in this big, long, dark tunnel under Harvard Square.

For now, there’s nothing but.

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May 28, 2025

• Nik DeCosta-Klipa

Editor’s Note: This is an excerpt from WBUR’s daily morning newsletter, WBUR Today. If you like what you read and want it in your inbox, sign up here. 

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Pop in your headphones and listen to our critics’ roundup of the best local music released this month. But first, let’s get through the news:

Tunnel vision: With limited opportunities to build up or out, some civic leaders in Harvard Square are looking to build down. Earlier this month, the Cambridge City Council advanced a plan to study the possibility of creating an entertainment venue in an MBTA tunnel that’s been abandoned for 40 years. While the idea sounds outlandish, “it would be equally sort of insane not to take a look at what the potential is,” Denise Jillson, the executive director of the Harvard Square Business Association, told WBUR’s Amy Sokolow. “It could be an important asset to Harvard Square that’s been sitting fallow.”

• Where is it? The tunnel dates back to the T’s pre-Red Line extension days, when trains terminated and turned around at Harvard Square. According to Jillson, who’s been in the tunnel herself, it runs underground from Brattle Square to the Harvard Kennedy School: “ If you are on Elliot Street in front of like the Harvard Square Hotel or Charlie’s Kitchen, the tunnel would be directly under your feet.”
• Zoom in: Jillson says the tunnel has 22-foot-high arched ceilings, good acoustics and is relatively “pristine.” They’re hoping to get an engineering firm to test its structural integrity, air quality and other logistics. “You could envision a conference in the morning, a TED Talk in the afternoon and a concert in the evening,” she said. (Click here to see their renderings of what it could look like.)
• Zoom out: It wouldn’t be the first abandoned subterranean space to be revived as an events space. Jillson’s group takes inspiration from other cities, like Washington, D.C.’s Dupont Underground and London’s Bankside Vaults.
• The catch: While City Council approved $72,000 in funding to put out a request for proposals, Cambridge City Manager Yi-An Huang is leery about the costs of the feasibility study itself (not to mention any renovations). As Cambridge Day reported last week, Huang estimates an engineering firm could charge up to $1 million, and “who would fund that is unanswered.”
• What’s next: Jillson predicts it’s “easily” a five-to-six-year project. Her group plans to spend the coming year working with the MBTA, which still owns the tunnel, on an agreement to access the space for the potential study.

By Madison Lucchesi

Wednesday, May 28, 2025

RoadTrip N. via YelpGnomon Copy is closing in Harvard Square after more than 50 years.

After more than 50 years in business, Gnomon Copy closes its doors for good on Friday. A short walk from Gnomon Copy’s Harvard Square location is FlashPrint, which is acquiring the closing copy center.

Two MIT graduate students established Gnomon Copy in their dormitory in 1966, according to a 2006 profile in The Harvard Crimson, and went on to open nearly a dozen locations in college towns across New England and New York.

Gnomon Copy originally had two locations in Harvard Square: the location in operation until its closing this week at 1308 Massachusetts Ave. – for a time, it was at 1304 Massachusetts Ave., behind a storefront of large plate glass set into elaborately swirling art nouveau wood frames – and a second location at 99 Mount Auburn St. that was sold in the 1980s to Alan Shapiro.

Shapiro kept the space as a copy center and eventually renamed it FlashPrint.

“There were many copy centers in the area and as they went away, we acquired their business,” Shapiro said.

The owners of the final Gnomon Copy in Cambridge approached FlashPrint to see if Shapiro was interested in buying it too. Shapiro was not looking to buy – but made a deal to pay the Gnomon owners a commission for the business FlashPrint acquired from Gnomon clients over the next few years.

Beginning next week, the Gnomon Copy website, email, and phone number will forward to FlashPrint, and two employees will relocate there. Cambridge Day was unable to contact Gnomon Copy owners.

Gnomon Copy also has a location in Medford, which will shut at the end of the week.

Gnomon Copy played “an important role” in the community, but Harvard Square has “evolved and changed” a lot since the copy center was starting out, said Denise Jillson, executive director of the Harvard Square Business Association. “Copy centers are still relevant, but [without] the demand that [they] used to have.”

The Gnomon Copy storefront on Massachusetts Avenue is owned by Harvard University. It’s not known what business opens in the space next.