Boston Opera House

There is a new book about Boston streetcars in the period 1950-1964 which contains many brilliant photos made from old color slides. There is a photo of an outbound trolley train on the Arborway line taken in front of the Boston Opera House. The right side of the facade shows, including the entrance to the second balcony at the right corner. There are 2 things that surprise me: the date of the photo, April 16 1958 and the fact that there is no demolition fence or barrier in place. At that time, I was in uptown Boston almost on a daily basis. In my trip log I noted “Jan. 13- Wreckers are on-site (at the Opera House)”; “Jan. 24 – Rear stage wall gone”; Feb. 3 (no notation). If the date on the photo is correct then it is amazing that the front of the theater was still intact as of April 16, 1958.

A persistent old legend is that the Haskell Opera House in Derby Line VT/ Stanstead PQ is a one-sixth -size replica of the Boston Opera House. This is preposterous. I have seen photos of both the exterior and the interior of the Haskell and there is absolutely no resemblance at all. Moreover, the Haskell opened in 1904, 5 years before the Boston Opera House, so it could not possibly have been influenced by the latter. The Haskell also contains a public library and straddles the international boundary between Vermont and Quebec. It’s a very interesting building but it has no relationship with the old Boston Opera House.

There was a feature article “Ghost Opera” about the Boston Opera House in the Boston Sunday Globe, Nov. 8th. The occasion was the 100th birthday of the theater, which opened in November 1909. There were 2 photos of the auditorium, one with a full house present, even standees high up on the sides; and the other a demolition photo taken in January 1958.

During its first 2 years of existence, the Boston Opera House’s neighbor across Huntington Avenue was a professional baseball park, the Huntington Avenue Grounds (1901-1911) which was made obsolete by Fenway Park in 1912. There is a nice illustration, which is half-map and half-aerial drawing, of the ball park with the Boston Opera House opposite, on page 14 of the book “Historic Ballparks” by John Pastier (Chartwell Books, 2006).

The Opera House in Boston featured in that photograph, Warren, is this one: /theaters/23/

The Christmas week attraction in Dec. 1921 at the Boston Opera House was the Shubert Mammoth Mid-Winter Indoor Circus starring the noted clown Poodles Hannaford. There were 2 shows daily with admission prices ranging from 25 cents to $1. Doors opened 1 hour before performances because there were a large number of various entertainments under way in the lobby and corridors; these may have included comedy shorts on screen. This show was undoubtedly a good draw during the holiday week.

The theater opened in November 1909; its architect was Parkman Haven of the firm Wheelwright and Haven. Some claim that it had over 3000 seats – a recent example: Craig Morrison in his book “Theaters” lists a seating capacity of 3944. It had 2 tiers of boxes and 2 balconies. On its sidewalls were several more tiers of boxes, plus a standee area high up under the ceiling on each side. Along the right side of the theater was a side-street called Opera Place. The stage-door and a wing with dozens of dressing rooms was located there. On the rear stage wall there was a large scene-loading door. From about 1948 until it closed there were no more movies there, as far as I can recall.

The Boston Opera House is visible on this 1917 map. It is near the middle of the map, at the corner of Huntington Avenue and Opera Place. Just west of it is the large storage warehouse mentioned above.