Boston Opera House

About Boston Opera House

The first Boston Opera House was built in 1909 on Huntington Ave. in Boston, Massachusetts. It was described as a "perfect jewel-box of an opera house" and despite its smallish size, was the venue for many of the local opera companies, as well as the Metropolitan Opera Tours. It was just two blocks from Boston Symphony Hall, and one block up from the New England Conservatory of Music.

During the Great Depression and World War II, the Opera House fell into disuse and disrepair. The Boston Redevelopment Authority, acting on behalf of the Northeastern University Trustees, declared the Opera House unsafe, and scheduled it for demolition. The local opera community demonstrated and petitioned the BRA to spare their only venue, but the order stood. The first and second demolition companies gave up in frustration, as the opera house resisted their demolition efforts. Only after a new and larger wrecking derrick arrived, did the walls fall. Ron Della Chiesa, noted WGBH-FM announcer, has a brick, which was his souvenir of the old house. The Northeastern dormitory, Speare Hall, now stands on the corner of Opera Way and Huntington Ave.

The current Opera House in Boston, fashioned from the old B.F. Keith movie and vaudeville theater at 538 Washington St. was opened in 1928 and came into the hands of Ms. Sarah Caldwell, at the behest of her close supporter, Ms. Timken, heiress to an energy company in New England. The architect, Thomas W. Lamb, designed a staggering number of intricately decorated theaters, many with elaborate support spaces, in the early 20th century. The Sack Theaters corporation owned the building, under the name Savoy Theater, at the time of the Opera Company of Boston purchase. Sack operated a smaller cinema in the stage space, with a large movie screen on a masonry wall built across the proscenium, serving the original auditorium.