However, its glory days as an opera house were brief.
The first photo was probably taken soon after the opera house opened, and the signs outside the front doors list some of the Boston Opera Company’s upcoming performances, including Aida, La traviata, Rigoletto, Faust, and Pagliacci. Otherwise, there were plenty of vacant lots in the area, although these would steadily be developed over the next few decades as the city continued to grow westward. The building barely visible to the left in the first photo was a warehouse, and directly across the street from here was Huntington Avenue Grounds, which served as the home of the Boston Red Sox from 1901 until 1911. It opened in 1909, in an area that was sparsely developed at the time. Jordan provided much of the funds necessary to create a world-class opera house in the city, and also established the Boston Opera Company to perform in the building. The Boston Opera House was built thanks to the efforts of Eben Dyer Jordan, Jr., the son of the co-founder of Jordan Marsh & Company, a Boston-based department store. It came to be nicknamed “The Avenue of the Arts” because of the number of institutions that opened new buildings here during this time, including the Boston Opera House, Symphony Hall, Chickering Hall, Horticultural Hall, the New England Conservatory of Music, and the Museum of Fine Arts. The first decade of the 20th century was a busy time for this section of Huntington Avenue. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection. The Boston Opera House on Huntington Avenue, around 1909-1910.
0 kommentar(er)
