Steinert Hall (est. 1896) of
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
,
, stands at 162
Boylston Street
Boylston Street is a major east–west thoroughfare in the city of Boston, Massachusetts. The street begins in Boston's Chinatown neighborhood, forms the southern border of the Boston Public Garden and Boston Common, runs through Back Bay, and e ...
on what was called Boston's "
piano row",
[Kahn, Joseph P.]
"Steinert Hall, out of use and far from sight"
''The Boston Globe'', December 13, 2013 opposite the
Common
Common may refer to:
Places
* Common, a townland in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland
* Boston Common, a central public park in Boston, Massachusetts
* Cambridge Common, common land area in Cambridge, Massachusetts
* Clapham Common, originally com ...
in the
Boston Theater District
The Boston Theater District is the center of Boston's theater scene. Many of its theaters are on Washington Street, Tremont Street, Boylston Street, and Huntington Avenue.
History
Plays were banned in Boston by the Puritans until 1792. Bosto ...
.
Piano dealers M. Steinert & Sons own the building, erected in 1896 by company employee Alexander Steinert.
[M. Steinert & Sons]
Philosophy & History
Retrieved 2012-03-20 Architects
Winslow and Wetherell
Bradlee, Winslow & Wetherell (1872-1888) was an architecture firm in Boston, Massachusetts. Its principals were Nathaniel Jeremiah Bradlee (1829-1888), Walter Thacher Winslow (1843-1909) and George Homans Wetherell (1854-1930). Most of the firm ...
designed the "six-story limestone and brick Beaux Arts-style facade with terra-cotta ornament and a copper cornice."
Underground performance auditorium
Inside the building and four stories below ground is a concert auditorium, now closed, designed in the "
Adam-style ... with fluted Corinthian pilasters separating round arches."
Around 1911 some considered Steinert Hall the "headquarters for the musical and artistic world of cultured Boston.
Lhévinne,
Josef Hofmann
Josef Casimir Hofmann (originally Józef Kazimierz Hofmann; January 20, 1876February 16, 1957) was a Polish-American pianist, composer, music teacher, and inventor.
Biography
Josef Hofmann was born in Podgórze (a district of Kraków), in Aus ...
,
Harold Bauer
Harold Victor Bauer (28 April 1873 – 12 March 1951) was a noted pianist of Jewish heritage who began his musical career as a violinist.
Biography
Harold Bauer was born in Kingston upon Thames; his father was a German violinist and his mot ...
,
Anna Diller Starbuck Anna Maria Diller Starbuck (August 29, 1868 – February 12, 1929) was a composer, music educator, organist, and pianist. She was one of the first two women to attend Harvard University.
Starbuck was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, to Anna Margar ...
,
Fritz Kreisler
Friedrich "Fritz" Kreisler (February 2, 1875 – January 29, 1962) was an Austrian-born American violinist and composer. One of the most noted violin masters of his day, and regarded as one of the greatest violinists of all time, he was known ...
and many others have made their bows from its platform."
The concert auditorium, now in ill-repair, has not been used since it was closed in 1942 due to new fire code restrictions imposed after the
Cocoanut Grove nightclub fire and the prohibitive cost to upgrade the hall.
In May 2015, it was announced that the hall would be renovated in an attempt to open it again for performances.
Notes
References
Further reading
* Coe, Joshua
"The Secret Underground Theater on Boylston Street" WECB News, Emerson College, December 5, 2013
*
Vintage advertising
Image:1898 Faelten SteinertHall Boston ad NewtonMA BlueBook.png, 1898
File:1903 SteinertHall BostonEveningTranscript Feb21.png, 1903
Image:1904 SteinertHall BoylstonSt Boston.png, 1904
Image:1916 SteinertHall BostonGlobe January20.png, 1916
External links
* Bostonian Society
Photo of 146-162 Boylston Street ca. 1950
{{coord, 42, 21, 8.69, N, 71, 4, 0.55, W, type:landmark_region:US-MA, display=title
Commercial buildings completed in 1896
Boston Theater District
1896 establishments in Massachusetts
Event venues established in 1896
Music venues in Boston