Amory Hall (c. 1834 – c. 1888) was located on the corner of Washington Street and West Street in

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 ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

, in the 19th century. Myriad activities took place in the rental hall, including sermons; lectures by

Henry David Thoreau Henry David Thoreau (July 12, 1817May 6, 1862) was an American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher. A leading Transcendentalism, transcendentalist, he is best known for his book ''Walden'', a reflection upon simple living in natural su ...

Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champ ...

William Lloyd Garrison William Lloyd Garrison (December , 1805 – May 24, 1879) was a prominent American Christian, abolitionist, journalist, suffragist, and social reformer. He is best known for his widely read antislavery newspaper '' The Liberator'', which he found ...

; political meetings; exhibitions by

Rembrandt Peale Rembrandt Peale (February 22, 1778 – October 3, 1860) was an American artist and museum keeper. A prolific portrait painter, he was especially acclaimed for his likenesses of presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Peale's style w ...

George Catlin George Catlin (July 26, 1796 – December 23, 1872) was an American adventurer, lawyer, painter, author, and traveler, who specialized in portraits of Native Americans in the United States, Native Americans in the Old West. Traveling to the We ...

John Banvard John Banvard (November 15, 1815 – May 16, 1891) was a panorama and portrait painter known for his panoramic views of the Mississippi River Valley. He was a pioneer in moving panoramic paintings. Biography John Banvard was born in New York and ...

; moving panoramas; magic shows; concerts; and curiosities such as the "Nova Scotia Giant Boy." Through the years, tenants included: First Free Congregational Church (c. 1836);

Grace Church Grace Church may refer to: Canada * Grace Church on-the-Hill, Toronto China * Grace Church, Guanghan Poland * Grace Church, Teschen or Jesus Church, a Lutheran basilica in Teschen, Poland United Kingdom United States * Grace Cathedral (disam ...

(1836); artists

Eastman Johnson Jonathan Eastman Johnson (July 29, 1824 – April 5, 1906) was an American painter and co-founder of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, with his name inscribed at its entrance. He was best known for his genre paintings, paintings of ...

, J.C. King, N. Southworth, T.T. Spear, William S. Tiffany (c.1847); Oliver Stearns, retailer of artists' supplies (1849–1850); artists J.A. Codman, A. Ransom, and R.M. Staigg (c.1852). In 1888, the hall was acquired by retailer William H. Zinn and incorporated into his "Connected Stores" occupying the block bounded by West and Washington Streets and Temple Place.

Events at Amory Hall

* 1834, November - Boston Mercantile Association Lectures * 1836 - Herr Schmidt "electrical, mechanical and physical experiments" * 1837, March - Dr. Graham delivered lectures "on marriage and courtship to audiences of women" "Great excitement at Amory Hall in consequence of an intended lecture to ladies, exclusively, on physical education. Many women were present, but so great was the tumult made by persons adverse to Graham and his lecture, that his object was defeated."Boston Almanac. 1838 * 1838 ** Physiological Society weekly lectures "on various subjects connected with the human constitution, health, the structure of the body, &c. ... Object, improvement in physiological knowledge." ** Aug. -

's Indian gallery "...will endeavour to entertain and instruct the citizens of Boston and its vicinity, for a short time with an exhibition of his paintings, costumes, &c." ** Oct. 10 - Whig Party meeting * 1839 - Lewis, Bartholomew & Co.'s "splendid dioramas ... the grand historical moving diorama of the Battle of Bunker Hill!! and conflagration of Charlestown * 1842 ** Oct. 9 -

James Freeman Clarke James Freeman Clarke (April 4, 1810 – June 8, 1888) was an American minister, theologian and author. Biography Born in Hanover, New Hampshire, on April 4, 1810, James Freeman Clarke was the son of Samuel Clarke and Rebecca Parker Hull, though h ...

sermon on "the Sunday succeeding the death of

William Ellery Channing William Ellery Channing (April 7, 1780 – October 2, 1842) was the foremost Unitarian preacher in the United States in the early nineteenth century and, along with Andrews Norton (1786–1853), one of Unitarianism's leading theologians. Channi ...

" ** Nov. 24 - James Freeman Clarke lecture "Slavery in the United States" * 1844 ** Feb. 4, 11 - William Lloyd Garrison lectures ** Feb. 18 - Charles Lane lectures ** Feb.25 -

Adin Ballou Adin Ballou (1803–1890) was an American proponent of Christian nonresistance, Christian anarchism and socialism, abolitionism and the founder of the Hopedale Community. Through his long career as a Universalist and Unitarian minister, he ...

lectures ** March 3 - Ralph Waldo Emerson's lecture "New England Reformers" ** March 10 - Henry David Thoreau lectures, "The Conservative and the Reformer" ** March 17 - Charles Dana lecture ** March 17 - Joseph Rhodes Buchanan lecture ** March 24 -

Ernestine Rose Ernestine Louise Rose (January 13, 1810 – August 4, 1892) was a suffragist, abolitionist, and freethinker who has been called the “first Jewish feminist.” Her career spanned from the 1830s to the 1870s, making her a contemporary to the more ...

lecture ** March 31 -

Wendell Phillips Wendell Phillips (November 29, 1811 – February 2, 1884) was an American abolitionist, advocate for Native Americans, orator, and attorney. According to George Lewis Ruffin, a Black attorney, Phillips was seen by many Blacks as "the one whi ...

lecture ** March 31 -

John Pierpont John Pierpont (April 6, 1785 – August 27, 1866) was an American poet, who was also successively a teacher, lawyer, merchant, and Unitarian minister. His poem '' The Airs of Palestine'' made him one of the best-known poets in the U.S. in his da ...

lecture ** April 21 - W.L. Garrison ** December - Eleventh Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Fair. * 1846 **

's ''Court of Death'' ** Herr Alexander "experiments in natural philosophy and magic" * 1847 **

** George Brewer's panorama of the wonders and natural curiosities of the American continent. Fairmout Water works, & adjacent scenery ... Mammoth Cave of Kentucky."American broadsides and ephemera, Series 1 ** Walter McPherson Bayne's "gigantic panoramic picture of a voyage to Europe! Comprises views of Boston, its harbor, the Atlantic, the River Mersey, Liverpool, London from the Thames, and both sides of the Rhine, painted from original sketches taken by the artist himself, constituting by far the largest panorama ever presented to the public, and which has been in preparation upwards of three years." * 1848 - Hine's "journey from Paris to Rome! over the Alps." * 1849 ** April - Caleb Purrington and Benjamin Russell's " Panorama of a Whaling Voyage" ** William Burr's "seven mile mirror! the mammoth moving painting of the Great Lakes and rivers" ** Stockwell's colossal panorama of the upper and lower Mississippi rivers * 1850 - Brunetti's model of ancient Jerusalem, and Mr. Malone Raymond "with a descriptive lecture" * 1851 ** January - Nova Scotia giant boy ** April - Miss Reynaldson. "Scotch melodies by this distinguished vocalist." * 1852 ** Exhibition of Edward A. Brackett's "marble group of the shipwrecked mother and child" ** May - "Immense attraction at Amory Hall. This fashionable place of resort is thronged every afternoon and evening, with crowds of those who wish to see the great panorama of California. Mr. Edward Wilson, the learned author of 'Sketches in the Mines' delivers an explanatory lecture." ** "The hall is now leased to the

Handel and Haydn Society The Handel and Haydn Society is an American chorus and period instrument orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts. Known colloquially as 'H+H', the organization has been in continual performance since its founding in 1815, the longest-serving suc ...

for every Sunday evening for 5 years; to the Musical Fund Society and to the Germanians for their concerts; also to the Mercantile Library Association for 30 evenings, and to the religious society of the Rev.

Theodore Parker Theodore Parker (August 24, 1810 – May 10, 1860) was an American transcendentalist and reforming minister of the Unitarian church. A reformer and abolitionist, his words and popular quotations would later inspire speeches by Abraham Lincol ...

for the Sunday forenoons." * 1853 - Antonio "Signor" Blitz "scenes in ventriloquism and great magical illusions." * 1877 - Caroline Shawk Brooks, butter sculptorBoston Daily Globe, May 19, 1877

Events at Amory Hall

References

Further reading