A Walking Tour of the Boston Theatre Districts

Conducted by Fredric Woodbridge Wilson
Curator of the Harvard Theatre Collection

Itinerary

This tour begins and ends at Harvard Square, but it can easily be adapted to other points of departure and arrival. We will pass by about half of the sixty or so theatre locations in central Boston, including the sites of more than twenty theatres that no longer stand. Without any interior theatre tours, and including time for transportation, the tour takes roughly four hours.

You will need passes for the subway (two fares, currently $2.00 each) and bus (one fare, currently $1.50). Please be sure to wear comfortable walking shoes. You may find an umbrella, a camera, and a bottle of water to be useful.

The Historic Downtown Theatre District

.... From the Harvard Square T station, take the Red Line Inbound (that is, toward central Boston) to the Park Street T station (where the Red and Green Lines intersect) ....

.... Exit the Park Street T Station, at Tremont and Park Streets; walk to the street corner and look around ....

[Places of Interest]

St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral, the Massachusetts State House, the Park Street Church, Boston Common, and Temple Place can all be seen from the corner of Park Street and Tremont Street, near the entrance to the T station.

Upper Tremont Street

.... staying on the west side of Tremont Street, turn left and walk north along Tremont Street to Hamilton Place ....

Orpheum Theatre, and site of the first Boston Music Hall

(1 Hamilton Place, east of Tremont Street)

Boston Music Hall. Hamilton Street entrance. Photograph, ca. 1890.

The site of the first Boston Music Hall, which was for fifty years the primary concert hall in Boston, and the first home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra from the time of its founding in 1881. The Music Hall, which opened in 1852, was designed by George Snell and had a capacity of 2,800 seats. This was also the location of concerts by most of Boston’s orchestras and musical organizations, including the Handel and Haydn Society chorus, the Apollo Society men’s chorus, and the Boston Cecilia chorus. This was also an early home of the New England Conservatory and the Boston Conservatory. For many years this theatre was owned by Harvard University.

In 1905 the Music Hall was renamed the Empire, and began presenting vaudeville shows. Soon afterward it became the Orpheum, still a vaudeville theatre, under the management of the United Booking Co., with a smaller capacity of 1,975. In 1915 it was renamed Loew’s Orpheum, used for vaudeville and movies. Now, as the Orpheum Theatre, it is mostly a venue for rock concerts.

Organ note:
The first concert hall organ in the United States was installed in the Music Hall, dedicated on November 2, 1863. The organ of 5,474 pipes was at that time the second largest organ in the world. It was built by the German maker Walcker, and the casework was executed by Hammatt Billings in New York in a German gothic style. The organ’s last performance in the Music Hall was on May 14, 1884, after which it was, sadly, removed and put into storage. After a brief residence at the New England Conservatory it remained unused for many years. But happily, the organ is now installed in Methuen, Massachusetts, very much renovated and increased in size, in the Methuen Music Hall, which was built specially for the organ.

Gilbert and Sullivan note:
Arthur Sullivan conducted the Handel and Haydn Society here in a performance of his oratorio The Prodigal Son on November 23, 1879.

Site of the first Boston Museum and the second Horticultural Hall

(Tremont Street, on the east side, between Hamilton Place and Bromfield Street)

First Boston Museum. Handbill, ca. 1941.

The Boston Museum opened on June 14, 1841, and the first dramatic performance took place on August 4, 1843. The last dramatic performance was held on August 6, 1846. It was closed on September 12, 1846, when the new, larger Boston Museum opened.

Earlier this building had housed the Columbian Museum, and later the Massachusetts Historical Society. The Boston Museum was founded by Moses Kimball, who had earlier been associated with Phineas T. Barnum, originally under the name Boston Museum and Gallery of Fine Arts. The upper hall was a “concert saloon,” used for music and variety “exhibitions.”

When the Boston Museum moved up Tremont Street, the former building was occupied by the Massachusetts Horticultural Society and was renamed Horticultural Hall. Inside were two public halls that were used for lectures and recitals.

Actually, there were at least four sites called Horticultural Hall; earlier the society had its hall on School Street, and later it moved a short distance up Tremont Street. Its present location is at the corner of Huntington Avenue and Massachusetts Avenue, directly across from Symphony Hall.

It was the Massachusetts Horticultural Society that in 1835 established the famous Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, the first park cemetery in the United States.

The site is presently occupied by the Suffolk University Law School.

Gilbert and Sullivan note:
In 1886, during the production of The Mikado in the United States, the whole building became the site of a Japanese Village. At that time this building was called Horticultural Hall.

New Dime Museum. Handbill. Horticultural Hall, formerly first Boston Museum.

[Places of Interest]

Old Granary Burial Ground

(Tremont Street, on the west side, across from Bromfield Street)

This is one of the oldest burial grounds in Boston, fenced off from Boston Common about 1840. Paul Revere, Samuel Adams, John Hancock, victims of the Boston Massacre, and many other noteworthy Bostonians of the eighteenth century are buried here. The most prominent monument here is the one erected by Benjamin Franklin in memory of his parents.

Tremont Temple, and the site of the first Tremont Theatre

(78–88 Tremont Street, on the east side, between Bosworth and School Streets)

Tremont Theatre, designed by Isaiah Rogers. Engraving.

Originally on the site of the Tremont Temple was the Tremont Theatre, which was designed by Isaiah Rogers in response to a competition for a design for a theatre to compete with the poorly-managed Boston Theatre on Federal Street. The Tremont Theatre, which had a capacity of 1,500, opened on September 24, 1827, with the play Wives as they Were and Maids as they Are.

The theatre was first managed by Boston-born William Pelby, who had been dismissed from the British-managed Boston Theatre; but Pelby was a failure, and from September 1, 1828 this theatre was managed by the actor Junius Brutus Booth, the father of the actor John Wilkes Booth and his elder brother, the great tragedian Edwin Booth. The original Tremont Theatre was widely considered the most beautiful building in the city. In 1832 the stage was fitted with gas light, the first use of gas in a Boston theatre.

The famous American actress Charlotte Cushman, who was for many years a presence in Boston, made her début here on April 8, 1935, as Count Almaviva in the play The Marriage of Figaro. She is buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery, as is Edwin Booth, who also appeared at this theatre.

After two years of competition with the Boston Theatre (that is, the Federal Street Theatre), the proprietors of the Tremont Theatre paid an annual fee to their competitors to keep the Boston Theatre closed. But the competition of two new theatres, the Amphitheatre and the Lion, proved to be too strong. The last performance at the Tremont theatre was on June 23, 1843, after which time the building was sold to Nathaniel Colver’s Tremont Street Baptist Society and was renamed Tremont Temple.

Even after the building was dedicated as a church, it was rented for use as a public hall during the week. The Tremont Temple was destroyed by fire on March 31, 1852, at about the time the Boston Music Hall opened to serve much the same place in Boston’s cultural life that had been held by the Tremont Theatre. The structure was rebuilt, with a large main hall on the second floor and a second, smaller auditorium (called the Meionaon) on the ground floor, surrounded by shops on the street-front. The early elegance of the theatre was completely lost in this renovation. George Henschel, the first conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, gave vocal recitals at the the Meionaon, in 1887, 1889, and 1892.

The second Tremont Temple was also destroyed by fire, on August 11, 1879, and it was reconstructed immediately. The present 1894 building, with a capacity of 1,850, was designed by Clarence H. Blackall, who was responsible for designing more than twenty of Boston’s theatres. It is the fourth structure, built after a third fire in 1893. The present Blackall design, with the mosaic motif on the façade, though very different from the original Tremont Theatre, restores much of the distinctive character that was lost in earlier reconstructions.

The congregation that worshipped here was established in 1839 as a free church (not requiring payment for seats). Originally it was nonsectarian, but with Baptist connections. Strongly abolitionist in principle, this was the first integrated congregation in America. Among the countless speakers and preachers who appeared here were Dwight Moody, Evangeline Booth, Abraham Lincoln, Charles Dickens, Billy Sunday, Gypsy Smith, and Billy Graham.

Tremont Temple, Tremont Street, as rebuilt after the first fire.

A portion of upper Tremont Street, showing the Tremont Temple.
At the right is the original Boston Museum theatre.

[Places of Interest]

Parker House

(60 School Street, at Tremont Street, on the southeast corner)

One of the venerable Boston hotels and restaurants, the Parker House was founded in 1854 by Henry D. Parker. Boston cream pie, Parker House rolls, and “scrod” were first introduced here. The famous Saturday Club, whose members included Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, James Russell Lowell, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and John Greenleaf Whittier, met here. The hotel is now called the Omni Parker House.

“Parker’s is one of the great institutions of Boston; and at times of popular excitement the focus of interest is here, where the telegrams come in rapidly, and the political leaders of the people congregate to exchange views” (King’s Handbook of Boston, 1883).

Site of the Tremont House

(Tremont Street, at Beacon Street, on the southwest corner, across from the Parker House)

Built in 1830, Tremont House was the pioneer first-class hotel in America. The main entrance was on Tremont Street.

Gilbert and Sullivan note:
Arthur Sullivan stayed here when he came to Boston to conduct the Handel & Haydn Society in his oratorio The Prodigal Son in 1879.

Alfred Mudge and Son

(34 School Street, on the south side, between Tremont and Washington Streets)

Alfred Mudge was a commercial printer who did much of the job printing for Boston theatres and music publishers in the late nineteenth century.

Gilbert and Sullivan note:
Mudge was the printer of several of the Gilbert and Sullivan librettos printed in Boston.

King’s Chapel and King’s Chapel Burial Ground

(58 Tremont Street, at School Street, on the northeast corner).

Built in 1794, designed by Peter Harrison, this was the first Anglican church in Boston, built at the instruction of King James II. Later it became the first Unitarian church. It has also been called Stone Chapel. The King’s Chapel is known for its musical program. For many years the late composer Daniel Pinkham was the director of music.

The burial ground on the north side is the oldest churchyard cemetery in America. The first burial here took place in 1630.

[Designated Boston Landmark]

Site of the second Boston Museum

(18 Tremont Street, on the east side, between School and Court Streets)

Second Boston Museum, seen from across Tremont Street.
The first Boston Museum can be seen at the extreme right of the photograph.

The new, second Boston Museum building opened on November 2, 1846. The entire interior was rebuilt and reopened on August 28, 1880. The last performance was Mrs. Dane’s Defense, on June 1, 1903, after which the theatre was closed and demolished. The site is now occupied by the Kimball Building.

One of the most beloved and unusual Boston theatres, the Museum was home of several important theatrical companies. R. M. Field assumed the management of the theatre on February 15, 1864. Under Field, this was the home of a famous stock company starring William Warren, who acted here for 36 years. Among the prominent actors who appeared at the Boston Museum were Edwin Booth, Annie Clark, and E. H. Sothern. The English-born actress Mrs. J. R. Vincent (Mary Ann Farley) made her career at the Museum for 35 years, until her death in 1887. It was Mrs. Vincent’s charities that led to the founding of the Vincent Memorial Hospital and the socialite Vincent Club, whose members still put on a show regularly for the benefit of the hospital.

The famous production of Uncle Tom’s Cabin opened here on November 15, 1852, for 107 performances. In 1887, Richard Mansfield played the lead in the Museum’s first American production of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. John Wilkes Booth last appeared here in 1863.

Exhibitions of fine art and curiosities were also popular attractions at this theatre. When the theatre was closed, the collection was sold to the Boston Society of Natural History.

Gilbert and Sullivan note:
This was where the first American performance of any Gilbert and Sullivan opera took place, an unauthorized but highly successful production of H.M.S. Pinafore, which opened on November 25, 1878.

Second Boston Museum. Grand gallery.
Photograph, ca. 1903, at the time of the closing of the theatre.

Second Boston Museum. Seating plan.

.... Proceed north along the west side of Tremont Street, until the street curves to the left, at the intersection of Court Street ....

Urban Renewal

As in many cities, certain sections of Boston have been cleared to make way for large redevelopment projects. The largest urban renewal project in Boston took place in the Scollay Square area, beginning in the 1950’s, to construct Government Center, a large complex of state, county, and city municipal office buildings. For all the obvious advantages of urban renewal, much of an area’s history is inevitably wiped away with such massive undertakings, and so no trace is left of some Boston theatres of character and significance.

It is also possible to see from this vantage point some vestiges of the old Central Artery, the elevated highway that ran through Boston. This has been replaced by the remarkable underground highway referred to as “the big dig,” one of the largest and most complex engineering projects in history.

Scollay Square

At the top of Tremont Street is located Scollay Square, an area that only survives in memory. Scollay Square was once a rich, and later a seedy, locus of city life, always beloved of tourists and residents, which was replaced in the 1950’s by urban redevelopment that resulted in the modern, brutal Government Center. The area was named in 1795 for Frank Scollay, the owner of an unassuming building at the intersection of Tremont and Cambridge Streets, at the border of Boston’s North End and West End.

Site of Austin and Stone’s Museum

(4 Tremont Row, past Court Street, on the north side)

This was one of the many “dime museums” or nickelodeons (nickel museums) that appeared in Boston in the middle and late nineteenth century. Invariably these museums also had an auditorium where plays or variety acts were performed.

Site of the first and second Howard Athenæum

(36 Howard Street, on the south side, north of Scollay Square)

Howard Athenaeum. Photograph, early 20th century.
As the "Old Howard," the home of burlesque in Boston.

Howard Street was a continuation of Tremont Street as it curved west above Scollay Square. The Howard Athenæum was near the present State Office Building.

Originally the building was called the Boston Advent Temple, a Millerite congregation—followers of William Miller, the “ecstatic millenialist” prophet—which closed after its “Great Disappointment” of 1844, when the expected Armageddon did not arrive. The group dissolved and the building was sold to theatrical entrepreneurs named Boyd and Beard, who converted it to a theatre, though externally it continued to resemble a church in appearance.

The Howard Athenæum, which opened as a theatre on October 13, 1844, was partly supported by a bottle works in the basement. It was destroyed by fire but was destroyed by fire on February 25, 1845, just four months after its opening, during a fire effect during a performance of Pizarro. The theatre was immediately rebuilt, and reopened on October 5, 1846. The “Old Howard” closed in 1953 and was demolished in 1962.

The Howard was a premier location for starring performers and both touring and local companies. The first Italian opera given in Boston, Verdi’s Ernani, was presented here on April 23, 1847.

By 1880, the theatre had become a home for variety entertainment rather than opera and legitimate drama. By the early twentieth century, the “Old Howard” had descended to vaudeville, and then to burlesque, and the neighborhood became notorious for crime and prostitution. The long-beloved theatre was closed by the city in 1953 on morality charges, after Judge Elijah Adlow viewed a vice squad film of a performance featuring Irma “The Body” Goodneighbor.

In its later days of variety entertainment, many of the legends of burlesque and vaudeville appeared here, including Phil Silvers, Milton Berle, Ed Wynn, and Jack Benny. Legend has it that its audience regulars included many celebrities such as Oliver Wendell Holmes, Harvard Prof. George Lyman Kittredge, and John F. Kennedy, and it was famous for supplementing the curriculum of Harvard undergraduates.

.... Cross Tremont Street, walk east along Court Street to the top of Washington Street, and turn right ....

[Places of Interest]

Ames Building

(1 Court Street, on the north side, at the top of Washington Street)

Ames Building. Color picture postcard.

The Ames Building, a thirteen-floor office building designed by Shepley, Rutan, and Coolidge, was completed in 1893. For 26 years it was the tallest building in Boston, and one of the tallest buildings in the world with load-bearing walls.

Recently the building has been renovated for luxury residential use.

[Designated Boston Landmark]

Old State House

(Washington Street at State Street, on the southeast corner)

Built in 1713, the Old State House was the early center of political life in colonial Boston. It was here that the Declaration of Independence was read on July 18, 1776, to the citizens gathered in the street below. The Royal Governor presided here until the new State House was built on Beacon Hill in 1798. Now it functions as a historical museum.

[Designated Boston Landmark and National Register of Historic Places]

Washington Street (Publishing and Shopping District)

In the nineteenth century, Washington Street was the center of Boston’s retail commercial district. The northern section of the street was the home of all of the Boston newspapers, most book publishers, and several printers. Many theatres were situated in the lower section. In this sense Washington Street bore very much the same relationship to Boston that The Strand and Fleet Street bore to London.

The Great Boston Fire and street numbering

On November 9, 1872, a massive fire broke out in Boston, devastating 65 acres of the eastern and northern sections of the city. The western border of the fire was at Washington Street. In all, nearly 800 buildings were destroyed. The city was rebuilt with surprising speed, and the burnt areas became the heart of Boston’s business and financial districts.

After the fire, it was decided to change the course of some streets. Washington Street was truncated at the north, and its street numbers were altered to reflect the change. Hence, some buildings on this street had higher street numbers in the years up to and slightly after the fire than after the renumbering took place around 1880. Now, after the creation of Government Center, Washington Street begins at Court Street, but the numbering begins with no. 200. The earlier sites on this tour along Washington Street had “pre-fire” street numbers that are higher than those of the corresponding present locations.

[Places of Interest]

Winthrop Building

(276–278 Washington Street, on the east side, between Water Street and Spring Lane)

This was first steel frame building in Boston, originally called the Carter Building. It was designed by Clarence H. Blackall, the architect of many of Boston’s theatres, in 1893.

In the seventeenth century, Spring Lane was the path to the main source of fresh water in the city. This was one of the original reasons for choosing to settle in Boston.

[National Register of Historic Places]

Site of the Old Corner Book Store

(211 Washington Street, at School Street, on the northwest corner)

Old Corner Book Store, and Ticknor and Fields Publishers, at the corner of
School Street and Washington Street.

This legendary focus of literary life in Boston was built by Thomas Crease in 1718 as an apothecary shop. A book shop was established here by Timothy Carter in 1829. The music publisher Oliver Ditson established his business here in 1833, selling from a corner of the shop. The renowned publishing house of Ticknor and Fields was at this location from 1845 to 1865. It was considered the literary center of Boston, even of the United States, frequented by Longfellow, Emerson, Hawthorne, Thoreau, Holmes, and Harriet Beecher Stowe.

[National Register of Historic Places]

Old South Meeting House

(310 Washington Street, at Milk Street, south of School Street, on the northeast corner)

This was the home of Governor John Winthrop, who died here in 1649. Benjamin Franklin was baptized here. It was the location of many of the town meetings during the Revolution. It was used as barracks for both armies in the War of Independence. In 1872 the congregation moved to its new edifice (the “New Old South Church”) on Boylston Street. The Meeting House now functions as a historical museum.

[Designated Boston Landmark and National Register of Historic Places]

.... Turn right onto School Street to Province Street on the left. Turn left and follow Province Street to an alley called Province Court ....

[Places of Interest]

Old City Hall

(45 School Street, at the top of Province Street)

Built in 1862–1865, this famous building served as the third City Hall for Boston until 1969, when the current City Hall opened at Government Center, Since then, the building has been occupied by a succession of commercial tenants and non-profit organizations.

This is a famous example of French Second Empire architecture, designed by Gridley J. F. Bryand and Arthur Gilman. Earlier on this site had been the Suffolk County Courthouse (1810) and the second City Hall (1841).

[designated national historic landmark]

Site of the Old Province House, and the site of Ordway Hall

(315 Washington Street, on the west side, at Ordway Place)

Ordway Hall, home of Ordway's Aeolians minstrel company. Playbill.

On this site once stood the Old Province House, the residence of the Royal governors in Colonial days. The original building was destroyed by fire in 1864.

The Province House could also be reached by way of Province Street, which runs between and parallel to Tremont and Washington Streets.

Ordway Place was a narrow alley that led from Washington Street to Province Court, where the building was situated. Ordway Place was nearer to Bromfield Place than to School Street, now directly across Washington Street from the H&M store. It still exists, although it is now barricaded. The Washington Street entrance was approximately opposite the Old South Meeting House.

A portion of the Old Province House was fashioned as a theatre. J. P. Ordway specialized in the minstrel entertainments that were so popular in the mid-nineteenth century. He named this theatre Ordway Hall, and it was later known as Morris Brothers, Pell and Trowbridge’s Opera House, or the Opera House, for short, and then as the second Odeon. In 1870 it was renamed the Lyceum.

The Morris Brothers, with various partners, located their perennially popular minstrel entertainments in a number of Boston halls and theatres. Among these were the Horticultural Hall on School Street, the Melodeon on Washington Street, and their own Opera House here on the Old Province House site.

In 1920, under the management of Nathan H. Gordon, the theatre was coverted to a cinema and named the Old South Theatre, reflecting its proximity to the Old South Meeting House.

.... Follow Province Street to the end at Bromfield Street. On the right side note the Littlest Bar (47 Province Street, the smallest bar in Boston, which closed in the summer of 2005 but was scheduled to reopen in the fall of 2008) and the Marliave (10 Bosworth Street, a restaurant that opened on this site in 1885). Turn left onto Bromfield Street and return to Washington Street. Turn right on Washington Street and continue south ....

Site of the first and second Boston Theatre (the “Federal Street Theatre")

(Federal Street at Franklin Street, several blocks east of Washington Street)

Second Boston Theatre, as rebuilt after the fire. Engraving.

The Boston Theatre, the first theatre erected in the United States, opened on February 3, 1794, with the play Gustavus Vasa. It was designed by Charles Bulfinch, Boston’s most famous Federal period architect, who also designed several Harvard buildings, including University Hall. The capacity of the theatre was 1,000.

For the first two seasons the theatre was managed by Charles Stuart Powell. The original theatre burned down on February 2, 1798, and was immediately rebuilt in a simplified form, reopening on October 29, 1798. It was renamed the Odeon in 1835, when it was used as a lecture and music hall. It reopened as the Boston Theatre in 1846. It finally closed on May 8, 1852 and was demolished.

The British actor Edmund Kean first appeared in Boston at this theatre on February 12, 1821, in Shakespeare’s Richard III. Junius Brutus Booth first appeared in Boston at this theatre on May 6, 1822, in the same role.

Franklin Street curves around past Washington Street as a continuation of Bromfield Street. The John Hancock Building was erected on the site. (Several other theatres were located along Franklin Street, including the New Exhibition Room and Washington Hall, later the Olympic Theatre.)

Downtown Crossing

Today the central section of Washington Street is mostly a retail shopping district. Beneath the intersection of Washington Street with Summer and Winter Streets is the Downtown Crossing T station, where the Red and Orange lines intersect. This is where the former Filene’s (and Filene’s Basement) and the present Macy’s department stores are located. Macy’s is on the site of the famous former Jordan Marsh department store, which has a particular theatrical connection.

[Places of Interest]

Site of Filene’s Department Store

(426 Washington Street, at Summer Street, on the northeast corner)

A long-lived Boston institution founded in 1881, Filene’s was a large department store with mostly clothing and some household goods. Originally it catered to the “carriage trade,” but later became a run-of-the-mill retailer, though it retained a loyal customer base. The legendary Filene’s Basement (instituted in 1909, and later run as a separate business) occupied two underground floors, where already discounted clothing and accessories were further discounted the longer they remain unsold. The store closed and the site is being redeveloped as a high-rise office and commercial building.

[Designated Boston Landmark and National Register of Historic Places]

Locke-Ober Café

(3 Winter Place, on the west side, off Winter Street)

Established by Louis P. Ober in 1875, this was Boston’s finest French restaurant on a site that had been a restaurant for at least twenty-five years before Ober took it over. It remains a Boston institution known as much for its traditional clientele as for its traditional menu and decor.

Winter Place is located off Winter Street, between Washington and Tremont Streets.

[National Register of Historic Places]

Macy's Department Store, the site of the former Jordan Marsh Department Store, and the Boston Aquarial and Zoological Gardens, Adelphi Theatre, Andrews Hall, and Theatre Comique

(Central Court, 450 Washington Street, at Summer Street, on the southeast corner)

Boston Aquarial and Zoological Gardens, Central Court.
Catalogue of the animals, ca. 1860.

Designed in 1948 by Perry, Shaw, and Hepburn, this is a modern building of an old established Boston dry goods firm that was founded in 1841. One of the partners was Eben Dyer Jordan, Jr., who succeeded his father, the founder, as president of the company in 1895. Jordan financed the Majestic Theatre, the Boston Opera House, and the present New England Conservatory, including Jordan Hall. (The Jordan family also provided the funds that enabled the Harvard Theatre Collection to take residence in the Pusey Library in 1976.) Since 1996 the building has been occupied by Macy’s, which took over the Jordan Marsh chain.

The Boston Aquarial and Zoological Garden opened on this site in 1860. In 1862 the enterprise was taken over by P. T. Barnum, who provided a lecture hall and a “professor.” By the end of the season the hall had been renamed Andrews Hall. The aquarial gardens were at some point moved to another part of this large city block. By 1863 the venue was called Buckley’s New Minstrel Hall.

The Theatre Comique, which opened on October 2, 1865, also stood on this site. It reopened on September 6, 1869 as the Adelphi Theatre, managed by William Horace Lingard. The theatre, which only held 500 seats, was destroyed by fire.

Gilbert and Sullivan note:
Mr. and Mrs. Howard Paul presented their popular entertainment here.

Site of Oliver Ditson and Co.

(449–451 Washington Street, on the west side, south of Summer Street)

Oliver Ditson Building on Washington Street, at the end of the nineteenth century.

This is a narrow, tall building across Washington Street from Macy’s. Oliver Ditson was the most successful music publisher in America in the late nineteenth century. The firm was founded in 1833, at first from a corner stand in the Old Corner Book Store (see above). From this location Ditson published all manner of sheet music and sold pianos and other musical instruments. Ditson also published the most popular series of opera librettos and scores in America. The present building is dated 1900 on its façade, which also displays the Oliver Ditson name. Earlier the firm was located at 277 Washington Street.

Gilbert and Sullivan note:
Oliver Ditson published vocal scores, libretti, and sheet music selections (mostly unauthorized editions) for a number of Gilbert and Sullivan operas.

[Places of Interest]

Brattle Book Shop

(9 West Street, on the north side, between Washington and Tremont Streets)

This is one of the most venerable and best antiquarian book shops in Boston, established in 1825.

Bigelow, Kennard and Co.

(Washington Street, at West Street, on the southwest corner)

A few doors to the north of the Modern Theatre, Bigelow, Kennard and Co. were well-known purveyors of luxury decorative goods such as silver and crystal.

Site of the former Jordan Marsh Department Store and the Boston Aquarial and Zoological Gardens, Adelphi Theatre, Andrews Hall, and Theatre Comique

(Central Court, 450 Washington Street, at Summer Street, on the southeast corner)

Designed in 1948 by Perry, Shaw, and Hepburn, this is a modern building of an old established Boston dry goods firm that was founded in 1841. One of the partners was Eben Dyer Jordan, Jr., who succeeded his father, the founder, as president of the company in 1895. Jordan financed a theatre, an opera house, and the present New England Conservatory, including Jordan Hall. (The Jordan family also provided the funds that enabled the Harvard Theatre Collection to take residence in the Pusey Library in 1976.) Since 1996 the building has been occupied by Macy’s, which took over the Jordan Marsh chain.

The Boston Aquarial and Zoological Garden opened on this site in 1860. In 1862 the enterprise was taken over by P. T. Barnum, who provided a lecture hall and a “professor.” By the end of the season the hall had been renamed Andrews Hall. The aquarial gardens were at some point moved to another part of this large city block. By 1863 the venue was called Buckley’s New Minstrel Hall.

The Theatre Comique, which opened on October 2, 1865, also stood on this site. It reopened on September 6, 1869 as the Adelphi Theatre, managed by William Horace Lingard. The theatre, which only held 500 seats, was destroyed by fire.

Gilbert and Sullivan note:
Mr. and Mrs. Howard Paul presented their popular entertainment here.

[Places of Interest]

Oliver Ditson and Co.

(449–451 Washington Street, on the west side, south of Summer Street)

This is a narrow, tall building across Washington Street from Macy’s. Oliver Ditson was the most successful music publisher in America in the late nineteenth century. The firm was founded in 1833, at first from a corner stand in the Old Corner Book Store (see above). From this location Ditson published all manner of sheet music and sold pianos and other musical instruments. Ditson also published the most popular series of opera librettos and scores in America. The present building is dated 1900 on its façade, which also displays the Oliver Ditson name. Earlier the firm was located at 277 Washington Street.

Gilbert and Sullivan note:
Oliver Ditson published vocal scores, libretti, and sheet music selections for a number of Gilbert and Sullivan operas.

Brattle Book Shop

(9 West Street, on the north side, between Washington and Tremont Streets).

This is one of the most venerable and best antiquarian book shops in Boston, established in 1825.

Bigelow, Kennard and Co.

(Washington Street, at West Street, on the southwest corner)

A few doors to the north of the Modern Theatre, Bigelow, Kennard and Co. were well-known purveyors of luxury decorative goods such as silver and crystal.

The Old Washington Street Theatre District

.... during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, along both sides of Washington Street for several blocks was an almost unbroken row of theatres, many of which have long since been replaced by uninteresting commercial buildings and parking lots ....

Modern Theatre

(523–525 Washington Street, on the west side, between West and Avery Streets)

The Modern Theatre was designed by Clarence H. Blackall in 1913, with a seating capacity of 800. The theatre was inserted upstairs in an existing building, originally known as the Dobson Building, which was designed in 1876 by Levi Newcomb & Son, in the Ruskin Gothic style. John and James Dobson were the largest carpet manufacturers in the world, and this was their Boston warehouse and showroom.

The Modern Theatre was financed by George R. White. It was one of Boston’s first movie theatres, designed to show “high class photo plays,” which were silent films accompanied by live organ music. Its pipe organ was made by the Estey Company of Brattleboro, Vermont (Opus 1241, 1914). The pioneering Harvard acoustician Wallace Clement Sabine was engaged for the theatre’s acoustic design—that is, for the benefit of the organ. The first popular talking film, Al Jolson’s The Jazz Singer, was first seen here in 1927. It was later known as the Mayflower Theatre, showing adult films.

For a short time in the 1970’s the theatre was used for live dramatic and jazz performances. Long disused, the theatre is now badly deteriorated and the building has long been in danger of being demolished. However, in October 2007 it was announced that Suffolk University would redevelop the site as a high-rise dormitory, with a black box theatre on the ground floor.

[Designated Boston Landmark]

Site of the third Boston Theatre

(539 Washington Street, on the west side, between West and Avery Streets)

Street front along Washington Street, showing the entrances to the
Bijou Theatre and the third Boston Theatre. Photograph, ca. 1880.

The third Boston Theatre opened on September 11, 1854, with Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s play The Rivals, starring John Gilbert, who was long associated with this theatre. It was designed by Edward and James Cabot and Jonathan Preston from plans by Henri Noury. Its first manager was Thomas Barry. With a capacity of 3,100, the Boston Theatre was at the time the largest theatre in the country.

The Washington Street entrance to the theatre is now occupied by Felt, a seedy night club specializing in billiards. It is separated from the Modern Theatre (see above) by an alley.

The Boston Theatre was renamed the Boston Academy of Music in 1860, reflecting an emphasis on opera and musical performances, and then its original name was restored on March 23, 1863.

At this theatre Edwin Booth first appeared in 1857 and Joseph Jefferson played in Rip Van Winkle in 1869. Edwin Forrest played King Lear and Lillie Langry starred in The Lady of Lyons. The first Boston performances of Beethoven’s Fidelio (1854) and Bizet’s Carmen (1879) were presented here. Charlotte Cushman, Henry Irving, Ellen Terry, Sarah Bernhardt, and Dion Boucicault (who proclaimed this the finest theatre in the world) performed here. A grand ball in honor of Albert Edward, the Prince of Wales, was held here in 1860. Geraldine Farrar made her debut here on April 1, 1907, in Faust, with the Metropolitan Opera Co.

On September 2, 1907, the management of the theatre was assumed by Lindsay Morison, for use by a stock company. In 1913, Benjamin Franklin Keith bought the Boston Theatre and opened it as the Keith Boston Theatre for vaudeville and films. The last performance was on October 3, 1925, when it was torn down to make way for the new B. F. Keith Memorial Theatre. Another Keith-Albee Boston Theatre was opened across Washington Street, at the corner of Essex Street. The original purpose of this theatre was to provide a temporary location for vaudeville performances to continue through the period of construction of the new Keith Memorial Theatre. That theatre later became the Essex Theatre.

The shell of the auditorium is still visible from Mason Street, a narrow access street that runs between Tremont Street and Washington Street.

Gilbert and Sullivan note:
This was where Richard D’Oyly Carte’s production of The Pirates of Penzance was seen in Boston in 1880.

The second Opera House

(539 Washington Street, on the west side, between West and Avery Streets)

The successor to the B. F. Keith Memorial Theatre, this theatre was built on the site of the third Boston Theatre (see above), using the entrance of B. F. Keith’s Theatre (see below). It was designed by Thomas Lamb, his only theatre in Boston. It has a Beaux Arts style exterior and a French Baroque style interior. (The best view of the interior of this beautiful theatre is from the front rows of the balcony.)

The Keith Memorial Theatre opened on October 29, 1928. It was built by Edward Franklin Albee in honor of his partner, Benjamin Franklin Keith, who had introduced the term “vaudeville” to refer to variety performances. The Keith-Albee partnership produced continuous variety entertainment for family audiences (sometimes called the “Sunday School Circuit”), presented in opulent theatres.

The Keith Memorial had a medium-sized Wurlitzer pipe organ (Opus 1115, 1925, Model 260, 3 manuals, 15 ranks).

B. F. Keith’s son Andrew bequeathed the theatre to Harvard University upon his death in 1918. The university in turn sold it in 1939 to the B. F. Keith Corporation, which had merged with the Orpheum Circuit.

Later the theatre was called the Savoy Theatre, after it was purchased by the Ben Sack chain of movie houses. It was renamed the Opera House in 1978, when the theatre was purchased by Sarah Caldwell for her Opera Company of Boston. After the closing of the Opera Company in 1991, the theatre (whose condition had badly deteriorated) was derelict until recently.

After a complete renovation and an expansion of the stage house, the Opera House reopened on July 16, 2004, under the ownership of Clear Channel Entertainment, managed (with other Boston Theatres) by Broadway in Boston (Live Nation). The initial production was a long run by a touring production of The Lion King. Now the theatre is run in tandem with the Colonial Theatre by Broadway Across America (the theatres having been divested by Live Nation). It is a venue for touring productions, generally post-Broadway national tours, alternating with periods when the theatre remains dark.

[Designated Boston Landmark]

Site of B. F. Keith’s Theatre

(537–541 Washington Street, on the west side, between West and Avery Streets)

Keith’s Theatre was built in 1892, adjacent to the third Boston Theatre. This was the first vaudeville theatre, and the flagship of Benjamin Franklin Keith’s theatrical empire, which would eventually include 400 houses. It was always one of the most popular and successful of all vaudeville theatres. Continuous performances were held daily from 1:00 to 10:30 p.m.

It closed as a Keith theatre in 1928, when it was replaced by the B. F. Keith Memorial Theatre next door. It was renamed the Shubert Apollo Theatre, 1929–1930, and the Shubert Lyric Theatre, 1930–1934. The building then became the Normandie movie house, the Normandy Ballroom, and later the Laff Movie. The theatre was finally demolished in 1952.

Another, more ornate, entrance to the theatre was created in 1897 at 163 Tremont Street. The two narrow, though highly decorative, street entrances led to the auditorium, which was set back behind the retail street-front buildings.

B. F. Keith's Theatre. Tremont Street entrance. Color picture postcard.

Bijou Theatre and the site of the the Lion Theatre, the Melodeon, and the first Gaiety Theatre

(543–547 Washington Street, on the west side, between West and Avery Streets)

Boston Bijou Theatre. Color lithograph program for the opening production, December 1882.

The present building, or more accurately the most recent building, was constructed in 1858. Originally it was the Adams House Annex, a commercial building connected to the former Adams House hotel. The building was most recently occupied by the High Voltage Urban Gear store and by a video arcade; the theatre entrance was in the center of the storefront. The upper floors of the building, where the theatre and offices were located, have been removed, and all that is left above the ground floor is the façade.

As the result of a partnership between Frederick Vokes (of the famous theatrical family) and George H. Tyler (manager of the Park Theatre) to renovate the theatre, the Boston Bijou Theatre opened in 1882. The theatre’s capacity was 900 seats. It was designed by Jonathan Preston, and the original façade (which has long since lost its character) was designed by William R. Emerson.

The Boston Bijou Theatre opened on the second floor of the building on December 18, 1882, under the management of E. H. Hastings, with Gilbert and Sullivan’s opera Iolanthe. The Bijou was the first theatre in America to be lit throughout by electric light, which was furnished by Edison’s company. The theatre interior, in an Egyptian style, had a remarkable round proscenium, which was squared off within a few years because of obstructed sight lines from the extreme sides. The theatre was small, with no stage house (fly space) or wing space, so only painted cloth drops could be used. Instead of footlights, electric lights circled the inside of the proscenium.

This is the site of more theatre buildings and more theatre names than any other in Boston’s rich history. Originally it was the Lion Theatre, an equestrian theatre that opened on January 11, 1836. The Lion Theatre took its name from the Lion Tavern, which had stood on the same spot from 1789. It was next known as the Mechanics Institute. In 1839 the building was leased to the Handel and Haydn Society, when it was renamed the Melodeon Theatre. It was used as a concert hall, where the Handel and Haydn Society performed and musicians including Jenny Lind gave recitals. In 1857 it was renamed Melodeon Varieties, the home of minstrel troupes, the New Melodeon in 1859, and the Melodeon Billiard Hall from 1866.

It reopened, after renovations, as the Gaiety Theatre on October 15, 1870, the opening performance consisting of an operetta and a farce. It closed in 1878, and again became a billiard hall. In 1882 it was reopened as the Boston Bijou Theatre, later the Bijou Theatre and the Bijou Opera House. In 1886, ownership of the theatre transferred to Benjamin Franklin Keith and George R. Batcheller. The lower floor was converted to a dime museum, and a single admission covered both the Gaiety Musee and Bijou Theatre. In 1908 it was converted to a motion picture theatre, called the Bijou Dream, one of Boston’s first movie houses. Later, still as a cinema, it was known as the Intown Theatre.

The theatre was finally closed after a city law that required additional exits for fire safety reasons came into effect on January 1, 1944. This regulation followed the tragic Cocoanut Grove nightclub fire in Bay Village, Boston, on November 28, 1942, when 492 people died, owing to inadequate fire exits. (Bay Village is a small neighborhood adjoining the present Theatre District.)

The façade of the building was originally more decorative than the present nondescript street-front. Behind the foor-floor-high front is now only a single story structure, the present roof of which is actually the floor of the second-floor theatre auditorium. The windows were boarded and the entrance was reconstructed in 1992.

In the spring of 2005 an announcement was made by the Boston Redevelopment Authority that this building was to be sold to Emerson College for use in conjunction with the Paramount Theatre (see below). It had been hoped that the storefront would become a permanent museum devoted to Boston’s theatre history, but what remains of the Bijou building has recently been demolished to make way for an Emerson College building that will support the renovated Paramount Theatre nearby. As of 2008, the site is boarded up for construction and closed to view from Washington Street.

Organ note:
In 1926 a small Wurlitzer pipe organ was installed in the Bijou Theatre (Opus 1514, a popular model “E,” with 7 ranks and 2 manuals), which was removed by 1950.

Gilbert and Sullivan note:
After the success of the theatre’s opening production, Iolanthe, more than twenty productions of Gilbert and Sullivan operas appeared here during the years 1882–1905, mostly presented by the resident opera company.

Boston Bijou Theatre. Souvenir of the play "Lend Me a Dollar," showing the audience, 1885.

Boston Bijou Theatre building street front, ca. 2005, before redevelopment by
Emerson College. (Photograph by F. W. Wilson.)

Paramount Theatre

(549–563 Washington Street, on the west side, between West and Avery Streets)

Designed in 1930 by Arthur Bowditch, the theatre was decorated in an Art Deco style, which was the main reason that led to its landmark status. With a capacity of 1,800, the theatre opened on February 25, 1932.

On the site of this theatre once stood the Adams House, a favorite hotel, until 1882. Earlier the site was occupied by the Lamb Tavern, which opened in 1738.

The theatre was built by Paramount Studios as a member of its Publix Theatre chain, Publix being the exhibiting organization of the Paramount film empire. It was designed for movies without stage shows, thus making possible more showings during the day.

Although the theatre has no real character inside, or indeed any history of stage performance, the city had for a long time hoped that the theatre would renovated as a 700-seat theatre for drama, music, and dance. Finally, in the spring of 2005, an announcement was made by the Boston Redevelopment Authority that this building was to be sold to Emerson College for use as one or two stage theatres, in conjunction with the Bijou Theatre redevelopment (see above). As of the fall of 2008, the site is under construction and boarded up from the street.

Organ note:
The theatre once had a medium-sized Wurlitzer organ (Opus 2173, 1931, the “Balaban and Katz Model 2,” a 3-manual, 14-rank organ) which was designed for the movie chain by the well-known theatre organist Jesse Crawford.

[Designated Boston Landmark]

Site of the Pastime Theatre

(581 Washington Street, at Avery Street, on the northwest corner)

Located adjacent to the Adams House hotel, this small playhouse opened on February 1, 1908, with a capacity of 359. It later became a cinema.

Site of the Park Theatre and Beethoven Hall

(619 Washington Street, at Boylston Street, on the northwest corner)

The Park Theatre opened on April 14, 1879, starring the popular actress Lotta Crabtree in La Cigale. It was reconstructed from Beethoven Hall, a concert hall that had opened on October 5, 1874. The interior design was by W. J. McPherson. Its capacity was 1,100. The theatre was remodeled in 1903 by Clarence H. Blackall.

Later it was managed by John Crabtree, John Stetson, and Eugene Tompkins. It became the New Park Theatre, after renovations and under the management of A. L. Erlanger, in 1924. In 1930 it became Minsky’s Park Burlesque. It became the Hub Theatre in 1937, owned by the Loew’s theatre organization, and later the Trans-Lux, the State Theatre, and the Modernistic Theatre, all movie houses. One of the last surviving nineteenth-century theatres in Boston (the other being the Tremont Theatre, on the site now occupied by a Loew‘s cinema), the building was finally demolished to make way for a modern office building.

The Park Theatre was owned by Charlotte M. Crabtree, Boston’s legendary actress known universally as “Lotta,” who also owned the Hotel Brewster next door at no. 627, and had a private tunnel constructed to connect the theatre and the hotel. Crabtree reputedly became the city’s largest taxpayer. At her death in 1924, she left more than $4 million to various charities which still are administered in Boston by the Lotta M. Crabtree Trusts. Among her benevolences are grants for released women convicts and several scholarships for music students at New England Conservatory.

Apart from Lotta herself, prominent actors at the Park Theatre included Mme. Janauschek, Edwin Booth, Laurence Barrett, and Richard Mansfield. During Minsky’s management, Gypsy Rose Lee appeared here as a striptease entertainer.

The three Globe Theatres, and other sources of confusion

Three succesive theatres were called the Globe, all on Washington Street, all located within a block of one another. This confusion was all too common in Boston, and it has confounded a number of theatre historians. There were, to give only a few examples, three theatres called Boston Theatre, three called the Gaiety Theatre, two called the Lyceum, two called the Tremont Theatre, two called the Odeon, two called the Hub Theatre, three called the Music Hall, and three called the Opera House.

Site of Selwyn’s Theatre, the first and second Globe Theatre, and the Keith Boston Theatre

(596 Washington Street, on the east side, between Hayward Place and Essex Street)

RKO Keith Boston Theatre, lower Washington Street, after the theatre
had become a cinema. The Gayety and Olympia Theatres are also
shown. Color picture postcard.

Selwyn’s Theatre, under the management of John H. Selwyn, opened on October 29, 1867. On September 12, 1870, it reopened as the Globe Theatre, under the management of Arthur Cheney. It was destroyed by fire on May 30, 1873. The second Globe Theatre opened on December 3, 1874, built by B. F. Dwight. It was again destroyed by fire in 1894, and rebuilt. Finally it closed in 1903.

There was another entrance to the theatre along Essex Street.

The capacity of the theatre was 2,200. Among the several managers of the theatre were Charles Fechter, Arthur Cheney, and John Stetson.

Programs at this theatre included drama and Italian and English opera, and artists included Adelaide Neilson, Sarah Bernhardt, and George Honey. Charlotte Cushman gave her farewell performance here, on May 15, 1871, as Lady Macbeth. James O’Neill played here in The Count of Monte Cristo. William Gillette made his debut here in 1875. In the early 1880’s, Helena Modjeska starred in several plays at the Globe, opposite Maurice Barrymore, the father of Lionel, Ethel, and John.

The Keith Boston Theatre, a motion picture and vaudeville theatre, opened on this site on October 3, 1925. This date was also the last night of the third Boston Theatre, across the street, which Albee was about to renovate as the Keith Memorial Theatre; the Keith Boston had been constructed as a temporary theatre during the construction of the great memorial.

The site of the Keith Boston Theatre is now occupied by the Washington Essex Building. The corner of Washington Street and Essex Street is now numbered 620.

Gilbert and Sullivan note:
One of the authorized Gilbert and Sullivan touring companies performed The Mikado at the second Globe Theatre in 1885, when it was under the management of John Stetson.

Chinatown and the Combat Zone

Washington Street forms the western border of Boston’s Chinatown. The Chinatown T station is located at the intersection of Washington Street and Essex (Boylston) Street.

Through the last half of the twentieth century, the lower portion of Washington Street below Essex Street became ever seedier, the home of strip clubs, porn shops, prostitutes, and drug addicts, an area with one of the highest crime rates in the country. This two-block strip of Washington Street is the only area of Boston where X-rated businesses can be established. As one approaches Kneeland Street, the signs of this seediness are still evident. Several strip clubs, including Centerfolds and the Glass Slipper, are still present on La Grange Street. The Naked i occupied the corner of Washington and Beach Streets. However, the stretch of Washington Street beyond Kneeland Street has been entirely renovated, now the site of the Tufts and New England Medical Centers.

The Lower Washington Street Theatre District

There were a number of theatres along the lower portion of Washington Street, below the major intersection with Boylston Street. Essex Street is a continuation of Boylston Street, which ends at Washington Street.

[Places of Interest]

Liberty Tree Block

(628 Washington Street).

The Liberty Tree, a venerable elm along Washington Street, is the place where the pro-independence “Sons of Liberty” organized in 1764. Meetings were signalled by hoisting a flag through its foliage. The tree was located at what is now the southeast corner of Washington and Essex Streets. It was cut down during the Siege of Boston by Tory sympathizers. The Liberty Tavern stood there until 1833. The surrounding area is now called the Liberty Tree Block.

[Designated Boston Landmark]

The Boylston Building, the site of Boylston Hall

(2 Boylston Street, at Washington Street, on the southwest corner)

This masonry and iron frame building, constructed in 1887 by Carl Fehmer, preceded the steel skyscrapers of Boston.

The present building replaced Charles Bulfinch’s Boylston Market, constructed in 1809, which was named for Ward Nicholas Boylston, a noted Harvard University benefactor. The Boylston Building is surrounded by Boylston Square.

Above the market was Boylston Hall, where a variety of musical, theatrical, and religious programs were held. The building is now called the China Trade Center.

[designated boston landmark] [National Register of Historic Places]

[Places of Interest]

Boston Young Men’s Christian Union

(48 Boylston Street, on the south side, between Washington and Tremont Streets)

Young Men's Christian Union, on Boylston Street near the corner of Tremont Street.

This beautiful building was dedicated in 1876. The Christian Union was an organization to provide young men with facilities for healthful, instructive, and moral activities. There were a gymnasium, library, sitting rooms, and classrooms. At the time it was claimed that the gymnasium was the largest in the country, and the library reading room the largest in Boston. Lectures, classes, and religious services were held here. The building housed the Union Hall, with a capacity of 522, which was used for lectures, meetings, concerts, and amateur theatricals.
[designated boston landmark]

[National Register of Historic Places]

Site of the Olympia Theatre and the Pilgrim Theatre

(650–658 Washington Street, on the east side, at Beach Street)

The Naked i, originally Gordon's Olympia Theatre, Washington Street.
Newspaper photograph.

Gordon’s Olympia Theatre, designed by Clarence H. Blackall, opened as a film and vaudeville theatre on May 6, 1912. Its auditorium was located to the rear of the block, approached by a long series of vestibules, corridors, and lobbies.

The theatre was remodeled and under the name Pilgrim Theatre opened on Jamuary 5, 1949. It was a popular cinema, later converted to a strip club called the Naked i. After its closing it was demolished.

The site is now a parking lot, intended to be occupied by Liberty Place, a 439-unit, 332-foot-tall apartment building which was originally scheduled to open in 2006.

Museums and Theatres

It was a frequent occurrence in the nineteenth century for museums to be combined with halls for theatrical, musical, or oratorical presentations. Some of these establishments emphasized their art museums or curio halls, and in others, such as the larger and more dignified Boston Museum (see above), theatrical productions became the dominant feature of the institution.

Site of Burnell's Museum, the Boylston Museum, and the World's Museum

(667 Washington Street, on the west side, between Boylston and La Grange Streets)

World's Museum, lower Washington Street.

Along lower Washington Street were a number of less important theatres, many of which were storefronts situated within office buildings. Some of these changed name, ownership, and management frequently, and some went out of business after only a few seasons. Burnell’s Museum, the Boylston Museum, the World’s Museum, and the New York Museum, all located on the same site, almost next door to the Boylston Market, are examples of such minor establishments.

Burnell’s Museum by 1874 featured continuous theatrical performances in its “Theatrum.” Its successor, the Boylston Museum, with a capacity of 930, was owned and managed by G. E. Lothrop. It had afternoon and evening variety performances, and one evening each week amateurs were allowed to perform. After other changes of management, this establishment was later called the Olympic Theatre.

In 1892 a new structure on this site was opened as the second Lyceum Theatre, which in 1907 was replaced by the third Gaiety Theatre (see below).

Boylston Museum, lower Washington Street. Seating plan for the theatre.

Site of the third Gaiety Theatre and the second Lyceum Theatre

(659–663 Washington Street, on the west side, between Boylston and La Grange Streets)

The Lyceum Theatre opened on September 20, 1892, with a variety program, on the site of the old World’s Museum (see above), but in an entirely new structure except for the Washington Street façade. The building is just south of Boylston Square, which surrounds the Boylston Market.

On the same site the Gaiety Theatre (not to be confused with the first Gaiety, which preceded the Bijou Theatre, several blocks to the north, or the second Gaiety Theatre, in South Boston) was built by the Boylston Market Association. Designed by Clarence H. Blackall, the Gaiety opened on November 23, 1908. From the time of its opening the theatre was used for variety entertainment, and later for cinema, as the Publix Theatre, and (respelled Gayety Theatre) for burlesque.

For many years the Gaiety Theatre building was derelict, with some downscale retail businesses on the ground floor street-front. The entrance to the theatre (missing its original marquee) was at the center of the storefront. Ultimately the building was scheduled for demolition to make way for new housing to be erected by Millenium Partners . An unsuccessful attempt to preserve the theatre took place in 2002 and 2003. Finally the theatre was demolished in the spring and summer of 2005.

Site of the Novelty Theatre

(660 Washington Street, on the east side, at Dover Street)

The Novelty Theatre, designed by George H. Young, opened on December 15, 1879, with a production of T. W. Robertson’s play Home. Early bills described the establishment as a vaudeville theatre. It lasted only one season under this name.

Located over the Williams Market, it was originally known as Williams Hall, and later as Hooley’s Theatre, the Eagle Theatre and the Windsor Theatre, among other names. This address is now designated as the Park Essex Building, earlier called Liberty Place, planned as a 26-story housing development.

Gilbert and Sullivan note:
On February 13, 1882, a production of H.M.S. Pinafore appeared here (at that time called the Windsor Theatre), performed by the Boston Juvenile Opera Company.

[Places of Interest]

Hayden Building

(681–687 Washington Street, on the west side)

Built in 1875, this is the last surviving commercial building designed by Boston’s famed gothic revival style architect H. H. Richardson.

Among Richardson’s local masterpieces are Trinity Church at Copley Place, and Sever Hall and Austin Hall at Harvard University.

[Designated Boston Landmark and National Register of Historic Places]

Site of the Theatre Premier

(680 Washington Street, at Beach Street, on the southeast corner)

Adjacent to the third Globe Theatre. Now a Vietnamese restaurant.

The third Globe Theatre

(692 Washington Street, on the east side, between Essex and Beach Streets)

Designed by Arthur H. Vinal, this theatre opened in September, 1903.

After an initial period of legitimacy (that is, of presenting full-length plays), the third Globe Theatre became a notorious burlesque house in the 1930’s. It later became the Center Theatre movie house and then the Pagoda Theatre, showing Chinese films. The theatre still exists almost intact within the building, which is now occupied by a Chinese restaurant called Emperor's Garden. Part of the theatre’s proscenium and wall decorations can be seen from the restaurant tables on the orchestra level.

Site of the Continental Theatre

(Washington Street at Harvard Street)

The Continental Theatre was built by the Morris Brothers in 1866 for minstrel entertainments, in an out-of-the way location beyond the south and eastern boundaries of the established theatre district. Two years later it was renamed Willard’s Theatre, presenting a mixed program of variety acts and and dramas, Whitman’s Continental Theatre, then the Olympic Theatre, and the first St. James Theatre. The manager of the Olympic was none other than Junius Brutus Booth, Jr., the elder brother of Edwin Booth and John Wilkes Booth.

By 1873 the theatre had closed and the building became the Continental Clothing Factory. The theatre was situated in an area that was cleared for urban renewal and is now occupied by the New England Medical Center.

Site of the Unique Theatre and the Stuart Theatre

(700 Washington Street, at Kneeland Street, on the northeast corner)

The Unique Theatre, designed by Clarence H. Blackhall, with only 250 seats, opened in 1907 as a cinema. It became the Stuart Theatre, with 458 seats, so named because of its proximity to Stuart Street, which corresponds to Kneeland Street on the other side of Washington Street.

By the 1970’s the theatre had declined to a status appropriate to its new name, The Pussycat Cinema. The theatre was eventually closed and became a McDonald’s restaurant.

Boston South End Theatre District

This walking tour will not include several other theatres and theatre sites farther down Washington and Tremont Streets, in the South Boston area. These include the Boston Center for the Arts, which is the present home of the SpeakEasy Stage Company, the Theatre Offensive, and other smaller companies; and the sites of the Castle Square Theatre, which opened in 1894, the home of John Craig’s repertory company; the National Theatre; and the Grand Theatre.

Two of the newest theatres in Boston are located next to the Boston Center for the Arts in a building called the Stanford Calderwood Pavilion. The Virginia Wimbley Theatre is a 360-seat proscenium theatre, operated by the Huntington Theatre Company as a second stage for smaller productions, and the Nancy and Edward Roberts Studio Theatre is a flexible theatre with a maximum capacity of 235.

Gilbert and Sullivan note:
Oakland Garden, a summer garden in the Dorchester section, had a theatre called Grove Hall, where the famous American-born Savoyard Geraldine Ulmar appeared in H.M.S. Pinafore. It was managed by Isaac Rich, manager of the Hollis Street Theatre. Thomas E. Halleck’s Alhambra, built in 1880 on the site of a skating rink, in South Boston, opened as a summer theatre with a return engagement of D’Oyly Carte’s production of The Pirates of Penzance in July 1880 as its first attraction.

The Present Tremont Street Theatre District

.... Continue south on Washington Street to the intersection of Stuart Street (Kneeland Street on the east side). Turn right on Stuart Street and walk west to Tremont Street ....

[Places of Interest]

Jacob Wirth’s Restaurant

(39 Stuart Street, on the north side, between Washington and Tremont Streets)

“Jake’s” is a popular German-style restaurant, convenient to the theatre district. It claims to be Boston’s second-oldest restaurant, established in 1868. Its specialties include a wide selection of international draft beers, sausages, sauerbraten, and popular sing-alongs on Friday nights.

[Designated Boston Landmark and National Register of Historic Places]

.... Walk south on Tremont Street past the theatres on the right ....

Wilbur Theatre

(246 Tremont Street, on the east side, near Stuart Street)

Wilbur Theatre and Music Hall (Metropolitan Theatre), Tremont Street.

Designed by Clarence Blackall in 1914, the Wilbur Theatre had a capacity of 1,000 seats. Rather than following European models, the theatre was built in an American Colonial Revival style with architectural features based on old Boston buildings. It opened on April 20, 1914 with Romance, a play by the precocious playwright Edward Sheldon, Harvard class of 1908, following the play’s Broadway run.

The Wilbur Theatre was built by the Shubert brothers, who named it for their associate Albert L. Wilbur, a theatrical producer who operated the Majestic Theatre. Originally it was intended to be named the Winthrop Theatre, because it was built on the site of the former Winthrop School for Girls.

At the time of the Shubert monopoly investigation it was sold to the Jujamcyn chain, when it was restored and air-conditioned. Subsequently the theatre was owned by Charles Parker and Richard Bader. It was for a time renamed Ye Wilbur Theatre, and the present marquee still uses this name. It became a cabaret club in 1987, but the theatre was picketed by unions and ultimately the nightclub closed. In 1989 it was purchased by Robert Merowitz, and extensively renovated. It was subsequently owned by local producer Jon B. Platt. The lower lobby became a night club called Aria. The theatre was later operated by Broadway in Boston. It was announced in 2005 that the theatre would be closed indefinitely, but the producers placed The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee in the Wilbur theatre where it had a fairly long run. The theatre was put on the market in 2007, but no buyer was forthcoming, in spite of some expectations that one of the colleges in the area might develop it as an educational theatre. In 2008 the building was leased by Bill Blumenreich, with the intention of presenting the Comedy Connection there, a comedy club that had been located at Quincy Market. Currently the theatre is dark, aside from an occasional rock concert, and shows serious signs of decay.

The Theatre Guild’s production of Liliom appeared here in 1922, starring Eva Le Gallienne. Many pre-Broadway productions, including Thornton Wilder’s Our Town (1938), Marlon Brando and Jessica Tandy in A Streetcar Named Desire, Jason Robards in A Long Day’s Journey into Night (1956), Katherine Cornell’s last performances in Dear Liar (1960). More recent productions included Steel Magnolias (1989), Faye Dunaway in Master Class. Some plays seen here never reached Broadway, such as Tennessee Williams’s Battle of Angels.

[Designated Boston Landmark and National Register of Historic Places]

Wang Theatre

(268 Tremont Street, on the east side, south of Stuart Street)

Originally this theatre was known as the Metropolitan Theatre, named for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, which owned the building. It was designed by Clarence Blackall, together with the firm of Clapp and Whittemore, in 1923. It opened in 1925, with a capacity of over 3,500 seats.

The Metropolitan Theatre was a movie theatre that also offered a live stage show. For a fraction of the price of a play, there was a feature film, a symphony orchestra (on an elevator), a giant organ, a chorus, a line of showgirls, and perhaps a variety program. Several years later the live performances ceased.

In 1958 the theatre it was renamed the Music Hall. In 1992 it was renamed the Wang Theatre, after Dr. An Wang, who financed the theatre’s renovation. The building is now owned by the New England Medical Center and operated by the Citi Center (formerly the Wang Center) for the Performing Arts.

The theatre has a lavish, spacious main lobby and large lower lobby that used to provide amusements and dancing. The theatre has an innovative air conditioning system with vents under the seats and ice-making apparatus in the basement.

When the Metropolitan Opera used to tour it played here. The theatre was renovated in 1982 to restore the building, to install more comfortable seats (thus reducing the capacity considerably), and to provide a stage house sufficiently deep and high for opera and ballet, especially for Metropolitan Opera tours; however, the Met stopped touring at about the time the theatre was reopened. However, for several years the Wang Theatre became Boston’s prime venue for post-Broadway national tours (before the dominance of Clear Channel Entertainment, later known as Broadway in Boston and Broadway Across America). It also presents the Boston Ballet, although this relationship is scheduled to end in 2009, and, until recently, a film series.

Organ note:
The theatre had a large Wurlitzer organ (Opus 2101, 1930, the “Publix 4” model), with a two 4-manual consoles, one white and gilt and one black. By the time of the theatre's renovation the organ was dismantled and cannibalized for other installations. The white console went to the the Organ Grinder Restaurant in Portland, Oregon; now it is installed at the F. Garrett Shanklin conference center in Ayer, Massachusetts.

[Designated Boston Landmark and National Register of Historic Places]

Shubert Theatre

(265 Tremont Street, on the west side, south of Stuart Street)

Designed by Thomas M. James, this theatre opened on January 24, 1910. Originally it was planned by Charles H. Bond in 1900 as the Lyric Theatre, but owing to his death the plan was not realized. Lee and J. J. Shubert purchased the property in 1908, and named the theatre the Sam S. Shubert Theatre, in memory of their brother who died in 1905. The theatre interior is decorated in French Renaissance style.

The theatre opened with E. H. Sothern and Julia Marlowe in The Taming of the Shrew. Maeterlinck’s The Blue Bird appeared here in 1911, the musical comedy Chu Chin Chow in 1918, and The Student Prince in 1925. Johnston Forbes Robertson made his final Boston appearance here on February 14, 1914. Some landmark pre-Broadway productions included Mary Martin in South Pacific, Ethel Merman in Call Me Madam (1950), Laurence Olivier in John Osborne’s drama The Entertainer, Yul Brynner in The King and I, Richard Burton in Camelot, and Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne’s last play, The Visit (1956). Some recent post-Broadway tours have included Cats, Dreamgirls, Les Miserables, Carousel, and Rent. Some plays seen here never reached Broadway, such as Tennessee Williams’s Red Devil Battery Sign.

After renovation, the theatre reopened on October 10, 1996 as a part of the Wang Center for the Performing Arts (now the Citi Center), which leased the theatre from the Shubert Organization for 40 years. It is now the home of the Lyric Opera of Boston, other local performances, and touring productions. It still boasts the most cramped seating (the narrowest seats and the smallest space between rows) in any Boston theatre.

[National Register of Historic Places]

Site of the Hollis Street Theatre

(10 Hollis Street, on the south side, between Tremont Street and Washington Street)

The Hollis Street Theatre opened on November 9, 1885, with an authorized production of the Gilbert and Sullivan opera The Mikado, which played for five months. The theatre was constructed by Robert E. Brigham, replacing the Hollis Street Church, an 1811 church building of the congregational denomination, designed by Charles Bulfinch. The theatre had a capacity of 1,650. The first proprietor was Isaac Rich, and the manager was Charles J. Rich. Eventually Charles Frohmann assumed control of the theatre.

Hollis Street was a short street that connected Tremont Street with Washington Street. It is now a pedestrian alley on the south side of the Wang Theatre, across Tremont Street from the Shubert Theatre. The site of the theatre itself is now a parking garage connected with the Tufts–New England Medical Center complex.

Dion Boucicault, Augustin Daly, E. H. Sothern, Sarah Bernhardt, Ada Rehan, John Drew, Edwin Forrest, William Warren, Henry Irving, and Eva Le Gallienne all appeared here. William Gillette appeared as Sherlock Holmes in 1901. Maude Adams played Peter Pan here in 1906. Ellen Terry brought her own company on April 15, 1907, with George Bernard Shaw’s play Captain Brassbound’s Conversion. The final performance, on June 8, 1935, was an appearance by the Abbey Theatre Players from Dublin. The theatre was demolished on August 21, 1935.

.... Walk back to the intersection of Stuart Street and Tremont Street, and cross to the opposite corner ....

Cutler Majestic Theatre

(219 Tremont Street, on the east side, south of Boylston Street)

Majestic Theatre, Tremont Street. Color picture postcard.

This Beaux Arts style theatre was designed by John Galen Howard, who had worked with H. H. Richardson and Charles McKim. The murals were designed by William de Leftwich Dodge.

Originally called the Majestic Theatre, this is one of three Boston theatres (together with Jordan Hall and the long-since-demolished Boston Opera House) built by Eben D. Jordan, the son of the founder of the Jordan Marsh department store. Built on behalf of E. D. Stair and A. L. Wilbur, it opened in 1903 as a commercial theatre for opera and musical theatre. It was originally intended to name the theatre the Van Rensselaer Theatre, after the name of the alley to the side of the theatre, which has since been officially (but incongruously) renamed Allen’s Alley, after the comedian Fred Allen.

The opening production was the musical comedy The Storks, by Richard Carle. Among the early attractions were Blanche Bates in Girl of the Golden West, the operetta The Chocolate Soldier, and Madame X.

In 1906 the theatre was purchased by the Shubert organization to present musicals and dramas, at which time it was renamed the Shubert-Majestic Theatre. In 1910 the actress Charlotte Hunt assumed the management of the theatre. Ethel Barrymore, W. C. Fields, the Marx Brothers, and the tenor John McCormack appeared here. In the 1920’s it was used for vaudeville. Charles Chaplin’s film Modern Times was first seen here by Boston audiences. By the 1950’s it had become a movie house called the Saxon Theatre, owned by the Ben Sack Theatre chain.

The theatre was purchased in 1983 by Emerson College (a liberal arts college with strong programs in theatre and communications, which was founded in 1880 as Emerson College of Oratory. As the Emerson Majestic Theatre, it has been used as a venue for not-for-profit theatre, dance, and opera companies, such as the Opera Boston (originally called Boston Academy of Music), as well as for student productions by several area colleges including New England Conservatory and Emerson College itself.

The renovations to adapt the theatre as a movie house had spoiled the original lobby area, and much of the original decoration had decayed or been obscured. An extensive renovation of the interior of the theatre, which restored the building to its original appearance, was completed in time for the theatre’s centenary in 2003.

[Designated Boston Landmark]

.... Return to Stuart Street and walk a short distance to the Massachusetts Transportation building ....

The second Charles Playhouse

(76 Warrenton Street, on the west side)

This building was originally the Fifth Universalist Church, designed in the Greek Revival style by Asher Benjamin in 1838. It was renovated and opened as a theatre in 1957. The theatre has a capacity of 500 seats. 1t had formerly been a speakeasy nightclub called the Lido Venice, later the Rio Casino. In the 1940’s the theatre was a fashionable nightclub, the Boston Ballroom, also known as Storyland, with a jazz club downstairs.

The Charles Playhouse arose with the regional theatre movement in the 1950’s, and it became a regional theatre producing new works by Brecht, O’Neill, Tennessee Williams, Pirandello, and many others. The first Charles Street Playhouse was located at 54 Charles Street. It moved to Warrenton Street in the same year the theatre opened. With a thrust stage, the Charles Playhouse was the first theatre in Boston to abandon the proscenium stage.

After the 1970’s, the theatre started showing extended-run franchise shows like Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris and Nunsense. Currently there are two productions running at this theatre, Blue Man Group (11 years), and in the smaller downstairs space, Shear Madness (22 years).

In 1995 the theatre was sold to the Warrenton Street Theatre Corporation, directed by Jon B. Platt. The Charles Playhouse is now operated by Broadway Across America, formerly by Live Nation, a division of Clear Channel Entertainment.

[National Register of Historic Places]

Stuart Street Playhouse

(200 Stuart Street at Charles Street, on the southwest corner)

The Stuart Street Playhouse is downtown Boston’s newest theatre, located in the Radisson Hotel, opened in 2000.This bare-bones theatre, refashioned from a movie house, has yet to find a personality. For several years it had only one major production, I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, another of the extended-run franchises that appear in the larger cities; that gave way to Menopause, the Musical, and several other low-profile shows.

Site of the Plymouth Theatre

(131 Stuart Street, on the north side, west of Tremont Street, now occupied by the Massachusetts Transportation Building)

The Plymouth Theatre was situated behind the Colonial Theatre and the Majestic Theatre, between Stuart Street (then Elliot Street) and Allen’s Alley (formerly Van Rensselaer Place).

Like so many other Boston Theatres, the Plymouth was designed by Clarence H. Blackall. With a capacity of 1,500 seats it opened on October 16, 1911, under the management of Fred E. Wright.

For a time the theatre was called the Shubert-Plymouth Theatre, reflecting the ownership of the Shubert Organization. Later the theatre was known as the Gary Theatre, a part of the Ben Sack chain of movie houses.

The opening production was John Millington Synge’s controversial Playboy of the Western World, performed by the Abbey Theatre Co. from Dublin, at which time William Butler Yeats and Lady Gregory hired a team of Harvard graduates for protection against local agitators.

Henry Jewett began his famous repertory company here on October 27, 1913. Cyril Maude, John Barrymore, and George Arliss were among the stars who appeared here.

The theatre was demolished in 1978 and the site is now part of City Place, a food court within the Massachusetts State Transportation Center.

Site of the Cort Theatre, the second Selwyn’s Theatre, the Park Square Theatre, and the 1869 Coliseum

John Cort, a theatrical producer from New York, opened a theater bearing his name on January 19, 1914, in Park Square, near a station for the Providence Railroad. The theatre had 1,800 seats. The architect was Clarence Blackhall, who devised a structure with cantilevered balconies that did not require supporting pillars. Less than a year later, the theatre was purchased by the Selwyn Organization and renamed Selwyn’s Theatre, and then it became the Park Square Theatre, The theatre was not financially successful and it was not long afterward replaced by a parking garage.

Coliseum, Park Square, built for the National Peace Jubilee, 1869. Large color lithograph.

The Coliseum was an enormous wood-frame auditorium constructed at Park Square expressly for a week-long music festival in 1869 called the National Peace Jubilee. This was one of the most important musical events of nineteenth-century America, organized by the bandmaster Patrick S. Gilmore and including more than 11,000 performers — 10,000 of whom were chorus members from all over the greater Boston area. The festival was in part a celebration of peace following the Civil War. The Coliseum was dismantled immediately after the festival. After the success of the Jubilee another, even larger, one was held in 1872, the World’s Peace Jubilee. Performing organizations were brought from several countries, and each night of the two-week-long festival featured music of a specific kind. Again a large wood-frame auditorium was specially built for the Jubilee and dismantled afterward.

.... Walk through the food court of the Massachusetts Transportation Building, to the opposite doorways, leading to Boylston Street through Boylston Place ....

[Places of Interest]

Boylston Place

(off Boylston Street, between Tremont and Charles Streets)

Boylston Place is a pedestrian alley that leads to the Transportation Center and then to Stuart Street. The Boylston Place gates at the Tremont Street entrance were designed by Dmitri Gerakaris. Decorative motifs include lyres, theatrical masks, animal figures, and a welcoming mascot bear in evening clothes.

The bear represents the mascot of the Tavern Club (see below). When the short-lived Zoo, which was established in the vacated Public Library building next door along Boylston Street, was closed and the animals removed, a baby bear was adopted by the Tavern Club and became its mascot that still figures in the club logo.

The Tavern Club

(4–5–6 Boylston Place, on the right side)

Tavern Club, Boylston Place. Program to commemorate the
coming-of-age of the bear, the club's mascot.

The venerable Tavern Club occupies three adjacent townhouses, built in 1819 and 1844. The main gated entrance is at No. 4. It is a private club, founded in 1884, which produces original musical plays before private audiences.

[Places of Interest]

“Piano Row”

(Boylston Street, between Tremont and Charles Streets)

This was the location of many musical instrument stores, of which the surviving firms are M. Steinert and Sons (162 Boylston Street, agents for Steinway and Sons) and Boston Organ and Piano Co. (104 Boylston Street, in the Colonial Building). Earlier there were music and record shops and retail outlets for other instrument makers such as Mason and Hamlin, Estey, and Chickering, all locally made pianos.

[National Register of Historic Places]

Commonwealth Books

(134 Boylston Street, on the south side, across from the Common)

A good shop for used and antiquarian books.

Colonial Theatre and the site of the old Boston Public Library, The Zoo, and the Sans Souci.

(106 Boylston Street, on the south side, west of Tremont Street, across from the Common)

The Zoo, formerly the Boston Public Library. Tender of stock.
Newspaper advertisement, ca. 1897.

The Colonial Theatre, one of the most famous theatres designed by Clarence H. Blackall, opened on December 17, 1900, with the Klaw and Erlanger production of the Biblical drama Ben Hur, which ran for four months. It was an integral part of the new Colonial Building, an office building at 100 Boylston Street that was built by the Frederick Ames Estate. Originally it was to have been called the Ames Theatre and then the Lyric Theatre. The novel business plan was for the office building to help to support the theatre financially. The Colonial Theatre was leased by Isaac Rich, William Harris, and Charles Frohman, who ran the Park Theatre, the Boston Museum, and the Hollis Street Theatre.

The Colonial Theatre is now Boston’s oldest theatre to survive intact under its original name and purpose. Above all other Boston theatres its history represents to the present-day public the most recognizable theatrical star-power. William Gillette, Ethel Barrymore, Otis Skinner, Charles Wyndham, Henry Irving, and Martin Harvey were just a few of the famous actors who appeared here. Some early productions include the Ziegfeld Follies in the 1920’s, Julia Marlowe in When Knighthood was in Flower, the musical comedy Florodora, Irving Berlin’s Music Box Revue, Ethel Merman in Anything Goes and Red, Hot and Blue, and pre-Broadway productions of Porgy and Bess, Oklahoma!, Annie Get Your Gun, Carousel, and Follies. The theatre is now the home of post-Broadway national tours and occasional pre-Broadway tryouts.

This was the location of the old Boston Public Library, which occupied this site from 1858 until 1895, when the library moved to its present Copley Square location. On November 16, 1896, a zoo was established here inside the old library building. Inside the building was also an auditorium, called Bates Hall, which was converted into a makeshift theatre, also known as The Zoo, where in 1898 the Harvard Opera Comique Co. (with no known connection with Harvard University) produced The Mikado, H.M.S. Pinafore, and other comic operas, several times a day.

In that same year this theatre was renamed the Sans Souci, and it presented variety performances, cabaret style, with tables on the floor and refreshments served during performances. The library building was demolished in 1899, after the zoo itself was relocated to the Cyclorama in the South End.

The Colonial theatre underwent interior renovations in 1960 and again in 1995. It is now operated, in tandem with the Opera House on Washington Street, by Broadway Across America, which was formerly owned by the radio, concert, and billboard company Clear Channel Entertainment.

Gilbert and Sullivan note:
The D’Oyly Carte Opera Company performed here in 1935.

Site of the Mason and Hamlin Organ and Piano Co.

(146 Boylston Street, Street, between Boylston Street and West Street)

Mason and Hamlin building, Piano Row.

Eventually housed in this imposing marble building, Henry Mason and Emmons Hamlin originally established their business in 1854. Their American Cabinet Organ, a reed harmonium, was the basis of their initial popularity. Mason and Hamlin instruments were manufactured in Cambridge; by 1900 only about 700 pianos were produced in a year, but they were widely considered to be unsurpassed in quality.

Many of the best-known pianos of the nineteenth century were manufactured in Boston, and their warehouses, or retail showrooms, were concentrated around the intersection of Boylston and Tremont Streets, an area referred to as Piano Row.

Steinert Hall

(162 Boylston Street, on the south side, at Carver Street, across from the Common)

The Steinert Building houses the oldest retail music store in the country. The firm of M. Steinert and Sons was established in 1860 by Morris Steinert, and the Boston branch was opened in 1880.

For 130 years the Steinert firm has been a dealer for the Steinway and Sons piano company. In addition, beginning in 1901, Steinert manufactured its own Steinertone piano, and later the Woodbury, Jewett, Hume, Curtis, and Berkshire brand pianos, as well as so-called “stencil brands” for dealers all over the country.

The piano showroom, with an attached recital hall that is no longer used for public performances, has a Beaux Arts style façade. Steinert Hall, an elliptical recital hall in the basement, opened on December 16, 1896, with a recital by the Kneisel Quartet and pianist Karl Baerman.

.... Walk along Boylston Street back to the intersection of Tremont Street, and cross Tremont Street on the Boston Common side ....

[Places of Interest]

The third Masonic Temple, site of the second Masonic Temple

(Tremont Street at Boylston Street, on the northeast corner)

First Masonic Temple, Tremont Street at Temple Place, adjacent to St. Paul's Church.

The first Masonic Temple was located a few blocks up Tremont Street, having given its name to the street called Temple Place. All of the Temples contained halls that were formerly used for public performances.

East of the Temple on Boylston Street was the site of the Edison Electric Co. At the rear of an alley that surrounds the Masonic Temple is a brick building that bears the faint painted name of the music publisher Oliver Ditson Co.

Site of the third Chickering Hall

(152 Tremont Street, south of Avery Street)

Chickering pianos were manufactured in Boston, and this was the location of the firm’s showroom and business offices. Jonas Chickering founded the firm in 1823, and although the factory only produced about 700 instruments a year, the Chickering pianos (which won a first prize at the International Exposition in London in 1851) were known for their strength and beauty of tone.The recital hall here was the location of many noteworthy musical performances.

Gilbert and Sullivan note:
The comedian and former Gilbert and Sullivan star George Grossmith made an extended engagement here in 1893. The Boston pianist Ernst Perabo (who published an arrangement of songs from Iolanthe) gave recitals here in 1888 and 1889.

First site of the Boston Conservatory of Music

(154 Tremont Street, between Boylston Street and West Street)

The conservatory originally occupied a building adjacent to the Mason and Hamlin warehouse. The influential director of the institution was Julius Eichberg, a violinist and former director of music at the Boston Museum, where he composed the first native operas.

Site of the Haymarket Theatre

(Common Street at Sheaf’s Lane, near the intersection of the present Boylston Street and Washington Street)

Haymarket Theatre, along Tremont Street across from Boston Common.

The Haymarket Theatre opened on December 26, 1796, the second theatre in Boston. The opening production was the comedy The Belle’s Strategem, by Hannah Cowley.

Built in direct competition to the Boston (Federal Street) Theatre, there seemed not to be sufficient business to support two theatres, and the older theatre survived; the Haymarket was dismantled in 1803.

Site of the second Tremont Theatre, the Astor Theatre, and the Haymarket Theatre

(176 Tremont Street, south of Avery Street, north of the Masonic Temple)

Long after the first Tremont Theatre, several blocks to the north, was transformed into the Tremont Temple, a second Tremont Theatre was opened just below Avery Street, across from Boston Common. This same site had been occupied many years earlier by the Haymarket Theatre, Boston’s second theatre, which opened in 1796, shortly after the Boston Theatre on Federal Street. It is now occupied by Loew’s Boston Common multiplex cinema.

.... Walk to the Boylston Street T Outbound kiosk at the corner of Boylston Street and Tremont Street. Take the Outbound Green Line E Train to the Museum stop ....

.... Alternatively, the tour can conclude at this point. Either walk north along Tremont Street back to the Park Street T Station, where the outbound Red Line will run back to Harvard Square, or go into the Inbound kiosk of the Boylston Street T Station, where any Green Line train will take you the very short distance back to the Park Street Station ....

Other Theatre Districts in Boston

This tour does not extend to other parts of Boston where theatres now exist or existed in the past: the Copley Square area (Copley Theatre and YWCA), Massachusetts Avenue (Berklee Performance Center), the Back Bay and Commonwealth Avenue area (Boston Playwrights Theatre and Tsai Performance Center), the North End (early theatre sites), the South End and South Boston, and many other locations.

The Huntington Avenue Arts District

.... From the Museum T stop, walk north along the west side of Huntington Avenue, toward Symphony Hall ....

[Places of Interest]

The Museum of Fine Arts

(465 Huntington Avenue, on the west side)

The M.F.A. is one of the great art museums of the world. From 1876 to 1909 the museum was located in a Gothic style building in Copley Square, now the location of the Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel. The present building, designed by Guy Lowell, of the legendary Harvard Lowell family, opened in 1909. It has been expanded many times since, and a further major expansion is now being planned. In addition to representative collections of Western paintings, drawings, and sculpture, there are also important collections of decorative arts, furniture, musical instruments, Asian and African art, and prints and photographs.

The Fenway

The Fenway area, defined by the marshy Fens, is located behind the Museum of Fine Arts. In this area are located the Boston Conservatory, Simmons College, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and Fenway Park.

[Designated Boston Landmark]

Site of the Boston Opera House

(Huntington Avenue, at Opera Place, on the southwest corner, several blocks south of Massachusetts Avenue)