Boylston Market (1810-1887), designed by architect

Charles Bulfinch Charles Bulfinch (August 8, 1763 – April 15, 1844) was an early American architect, and has been regarded by many as the first American-born professional architect to practice.Baltzell, Edward Digby. ''Puritan Boston & Quaker Philadelphia''. Tra ...

, was located 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: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...

, on the corner of

Boylston Boylston may refer to the following communities: ;Canada * Boylston, Nova Scotia ;United States * Boylston, Massachusetts * Boylston, New York * Boylston, Wisconsin * Boylston Junction, Wisconsin It may also refer to: * Helen Dore Boylston, au ...

and

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

Streets. Boylston Hall occupied the third floor of the building, and functioned as a performance and meeting space.

History

The Boylston Market Association developed the building.

John Quincy Adams John Quincy Adams (; July 11, 1767 – February 23, 1848) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, and diarist who served as the sixth president of the United States, from 1825 to 1829. He previously served as the eighth United States ...

served as the association's first president. In 1809, the proprietors paid $20,560 for the land formerly belonging to Joseph C. Dyer (and to Samuel Welles before him). The new building "was named to honor the benevolent and philanthropic

Ward Nicholas Boylston Ward Nicholas Boylston (1747–1828; born Ward Hallowell), a descendant of the physician Zabdiel Boylston, was an American merchant, a philanthropist, and benefactor of Harvard University. He was a brother of Admiral Sir Benjamin Hallowell Carew, ...

Architecture

Construction began in April, 1810, and was completed the same year. The 3-story building measured 120 feet long and 50 feet wide. "On the first floor are 12 stalls for the sale of provisions. The 2nd is separated by an avenue running lengthwise, on the sides of which are 4 spacious rooms. The 3rd story consists of a hall 100 feet in length with the entire width of the building. the central height of the ceiling is 24 feet. It contains an orchestra, and 2 convenient withdrawing-rooms adjoining." "In 1859 an extension of 40 feet was made." "In 1870 the solid brick structure was moved back from the street eleven feet without disturbing the occupants."

Tenants

Early tenants included the

Linnaean Society of New England The Linnaean Society of New England (1814–1822) was established in Boston, Massachusetts, to promote natural history. The society organized a natural history museum and also arranged lectures and excursions for its members. In 1817 it became invol ...

, and Edward Savage's New York Museum, c. 1812, both "handsomely fitted with natural and artificial curiosities." 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 ...

held concerts in the hall for several years. In 1845 some of the members of the Workingmen's Protective Union opened a shop on the 2nd floor. Other vendors in the market included butter & cheese dealers M.C. Strout and F.H. Thomas (c. 1877). Special events in Boylston Hall included the New-England Anti-Slavery Convention, 1834; July 4 celebrations of the

New England Anti-Slavery Society The Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, headquartered in Boston, was organized as an auxiliary of the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1835. Its roots were in the New England Anti-Slavery Society, organized by William Lloyd Garrison, editor of ...

in the 1830s; and Corydon Donnavan's "Grand Serial Panorama of Mexico," c. 1848: "Capt. Donnavan, for several months a prisoner during the recent war in exico will deliver an explanatory discourse, relating many incidents of the war, Mexican life, manners, &c, as the painting passes before the audience."

Demolition

Boylston Market was demolished in 1887. In its place, the "Boylston Building" was erected. The belfry from the original Boylston Market structure went to the Calvary Methodist Church in

Arlington, Massachusetts Arlington is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts. The town is six miles (10 km) northwest of Boston, and its population was 46,308 at the 2020 census. History European colonists settled the Town of Arlington in 1635 as a village w ...

, in 1921.

In popular culture

Poet

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 ...

refers to the Boylston Market in his 1840 poem "The Drunkard's Funeral."Airs of Palestine and Other Poems (Boston: Munroe, 1840). Reviewed in The North American Review, Vol. 51, No. 109 (Oct. 1840), pp. 479-492.

Images

Image:1814 Common Boston map Hales.png, Detail of 1814 map of Boston, showing location of Boylston Market Image:1855 SingingSisters SamuelBWaugh BoylstonMarket Boston.png, Samuel B. Waugh, and the Singing Sisters, at Boylston Hall, 1855 Image:1881 BoylstonHall BostonDailyGlobe Feb20.png, Announcement for "military & civic fair," 1881 Image:BoylstonMarket byBaldwinCoolidge.jpg, Boylston Market Image:Calvary Methodist Church, ArlingtonMA - IMG 2849.JPG, Former belfry of Boylston Market, now part of the Calvary Methodist Church building, Arlington, Massachusetts (photo 2009)