Tremont Theatre, Boston

The Tremont Theatre on 88 Tremont Street was a playhouse in Boston. A group of wealthy Boston residents financed the building's construction. Architect Isaiah Rogers designed the structure in the Greek Revival style. The playhouse opened on 24 September 1827.

Boston already had one playhouse, the Federal Street Theatre, and the city's small population made supporting a second theatre difficult.Banham 1122.] The owners tried to bring in patrons by booking big-name performers. These included Junius Brutus Booth, Charlotte Cushman, George Washington Dixon, Fanny Elssler, Edwin Forrest, John Gilbert, Charles and Fanny Kemble, and Thomas D. Rice. Nevertheless, the Tremont never turned a profit during its 16-year life.

On 28 December 1843, the Free Church Baptists bought the theatre and renamed it the Tremont Temple. Although the building was largely used for religious events after this, it still served as the venue for public events on occasion. Sam Houston spoke there on 14 March 1847, and an Egyptian mummy was displayed there beginning on 28 September 1850. The temple burnt down in 1852; the Baptists built a church on the site.

The building suffered two more fires followed by rebuilding during the 19th century. The existing structure opened in May 1896. Designed by architect Clarence H. Blackwell, it was intended to be a church with an auditorium suitable for business purposes. At various times, films were exhibited at Tremont Temple, though commercial leasing ended in 1956. [King, Donald C. (2005). "The Theatres of Boston". Jefferson, NC, McFarland & Company; p 159, p 218, p 238] However, the auditorium was used December 31, 1985, for a staged production of the opera "The Burning Fiery Furnace" by Benjamin Britten. [Boston Globe, December 29, 1985, p 25 [http://docs.newsbank.com/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info:sid/iw.newsbank.com:NewsBank:BGBK&rft_val_format=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:ctx&rft_dat=0EADEB33119D7CB6&svc_dat=InfoWeb:aggregated4&req_dat=0F40413B3B2D7D5C newsbank.com link] (accessed via Metrowest Massachusetts Library System www.mmrls.org)]

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References

* Banham, Martin (1998). "The Cambridge Guide to Theatre". New York: Cambridge University Press.
* Kilde, Jeanne Halgren (2002). "When Church Became Theatre: The Transformation of Evangelical Architecture and Worship in Nineteenth-Century America". New York: Oxford University Press.
* Savage, Edward H. (1865). "A Chronological History of the Boston Watch and Police, from 1631 to 1865: Together with Recollections of a Boston Police Officer, or Boston by Daylight and Gaslight.: From the Diary of an Officer Fifteen Years in the Service". Boston.
* Shand-Tucci, Douglass (1999). "Built in Boston: City and Suburb, 1800-2000". Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press.