Paramount Center
549-59 Washington Street,
Boston,
MA
02111
549-59 Washington Street,
Boston,
MA
02111
18 people
favorited this theater
Showing 201 - 225 of 266 comments
There was a great deal of water damage from the old roof, but it is hard to see that from these pictures. When the exterior was renovated, the roof was patched – but it had some gaping holes in it! Much of the auditorium ceiling was re-plastered in 2001 with plain gray plaster to keep the ceiling from falling in – and a new roof was put in.
it is in very good shape considering how long it’s been closed. Someone has been looking after it – they have installed sprinklers – and although the pipes are not concealed, at least the place has fire protection. There doesn’t appear to be any water damage from the roof.
If you promise not to change it again, I’ll post that URL to other places that may be interested.
There are two levels of lobbies, the larger one (with the fireplace) is the second floor, accessing the front of the huge balcony. The upper one, on the third floor, accesses the top of the balcony.
Ron and Dave:
Oops! Sorry. I was playing around with this new site and the address changed in my haste. Here is the new address (slightly different):
View link
Porter:
Yes. Two level with a small mezzanine and then a upper level balcony.
-j.
J, thanks for the update. In your pics there seem to be pieces of original furniture in the lobby shots too. Fascinating that it is still just sitting there. You’d think the souvenir hunters would have had that long ago. This is a two level theatre correct? The mezz being at the front of the upper level and the balcony at the rear of it?
I couldn’t get in, either…
J, the URL stopped working. Did you take the photos down?
Porter:
Sadly most of the pictures i took were not very good. The theater was very dark and so even with a flash it was really hard to get good pictures. As you could see by some with all the dust in the air alot of the photos had lots of bright white spots all over them. I am trying to photoshop a few more that may be good but alas that may be all i can add to the mix.
As for the lobby, if i remember correctly, and Ian correct me if i am wrong, the contruction company that was using the space had contrstructed walls that broke up both the lobby and the main auditorium so it was really hard to get a sense of space with these artificial walls.
Well, i guess that is all i can add.
-j.
I
Ian:
If you are lucky!
-j.
Thanks Guys for posting those pics. Its great to see what the interior of this theatre finally looks like, even in its very dilapidated state it is still a beauty.There is very little in the way of photographs from its past. Lets hope that Emerson retain and restore as much of the original features as possible. After all,it is a miracle that the building is still there after a near 30 year wait to be rediscovered.
Are there any photos of the Main Lobby or more of the auditorium? I have been fascinated by the Paramount since I saw it sitting there very sadly in 1991 covered in mesh to stop falling debris hitting passers-by. Even then with that massive rusted marquee and vertical it captured your imagination.
Thanks for posting those photos, j (and to you and Ian for taking them in the first place). For having been vacant 22 years at the time, the elements you captured appear to be in decent condition for the most part, all considering.
Thanx j! See you at work.
Ian (and anyone else who is interested):
I have posted the pictures of our excursion at the following: http://homepage.mac.com/j_morong1/PhotoAlbum1.html
I hope everyone enjoys them!
-j.
I’m sure I can arrange something. Let’s talk about it offline.
Ron –
I have the photos and I can email them to you… could you post them for me if I emailed them to you?
-Ian
My favorite memory of the Boston Paramount…. the Boston press screening of “Psycho,” before anyone knew about the shower sequence, the death of the Janet Leigh character early in the picture, etc. Wow! That shock was far greater than the “Alien” surprise many years later.
This article about last week’s Emerson-Paramount-BRA press conference comes not from the student newspaper, but from a class at the college’s journalism school:
Paramount announcement timing questioned
Thanks for all the replies. Ian, I’d love to see your photos if we can find a way to get them online. I bet you had more lighting than we did!
Given Emerson’s plans for the space — subdividing it into two much smaller live stage theatres — I’m uncertain how much restoration can truly occur. It’s a very different project from the Majestic, which was an actively used movie theatre up to the day that Emerson bought it. Whatever happens here, I’ll be very glad to see this building reused for theatrical use.
Ron Newman- I wouldn’t call it a total ruin – the plaster walls and high ceiling look amazingly well after nearly 30 years of entombment – apparently someone has sort of maintained the roof over the years, otherwise the ceiling would be in a heap on the floor. It, the side wall and what you can see of the procenium appear to be largely intact. What makes it look so bad is that the paint and probably the skim-coat of plaster have fallen off, which would happen over time anyway, even if the roof was kept tight as a drum. The main thing is that there is something there to work with – and if sections of plasterwork were found to be unsound, molds can be taken and the unsound area removed and rebuilt.
Great pics, by the way….
The plywood floor you see is a temporary floor built in the orchestra space when Millenium Partners were building the towers next door; a temporary contractors office (complete with windows, doors, and ceiling) was built in the middle of the orchestra area, and was partially removed when construction next door was complete. The orchestra IS very shallow and does not have a huge rake to it, but it DOES have one. A friend and I took many interior pictures from 2001 but do not have them online.
The space btwn the floor and the stage looks like the original raked concrete floor, and the flat floor looks like it is just plywood on metal studs. Look at the relation of the floor to the exit doors on the opposite side – the doors are below the floor level. Given how long it’s been closed, the interior really doesn’t look too bad – yes, it will require a lot of work, but it could be restored an long as most of the supporting structural elements are sound. I don’t think it would have to be gutted.
Ron
Awesome pictures, thanks for posting.
A friend and I found a small hole in the back of the Paramount, just big enough to poke one’s head — or a small camera — through. He took these amazing interior photos yesterday.
The theatre is a total ruin inside. I expect this will be a gut rehab project and not any kind of restoration.
My friend also took these photos of the Paramount’s rear exterior.
Yesterday’s edition of the Emerson College student newspaper, The Berkeley Beacon, goes into more detail on Emerson’s plans. Unfortunately, the article is not on the Beacon’s web site. I’ve written to them and asked them to put the article online so I can link to it.
The Beacon article says that both the 450-seat and 125-seat theatres will go into the Paramount Theater building. The Bijou building (which the article calls the “Arcade building”) will become a 250-bed dormitory, and will include a restaurant, open to the public, at street level.
A new “performance development building”, to be constructed on the “vacant lot behind the Paramount”, will contain rehearsal spaces, individual and small-group practice rooms, and offices for performing arts department faculty and staff.
The interiors of the Paramount and Arcade buildings will be renovated, but Emerson will preserve both façades.
Elkus/Manfredi Architects of Boston and theatre consultants Auerbach, Pollack, Friedlander of New York are designing the Paramount Center. This is the same team that oversaw restoration of Emerson’s Cutler Majestic Theatre and construction of the school’s new Tufte Performance and Production Center.