Mechanics Hall (Boston)

Mechanics Hall, Huntington Ave., Boston, 1892

Mechanics Hall (Boston, Massachusetts) was a building and community institution on Huntington Avenue at West Newton Street from 1881 to 1959. Commissioned by the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association, it was designed by William Gibbons Preston and located between the Boston and Albany railroad yards and Huntington Avenue. It was razed for the Prudential Center urban renewal project of the early 1960s.[1] The site is on the north side of Huntington Avenue, and since 1941 has been served by Prudential Station (originally Mechanics Hall Station) of the MBTA Green Line E branch.

The building's sizable auditorium was host to meetings, conventions, and events such as boat shows, auto shows, dog shows, flower shows and sporting shows.[2][3] For example, in 1883 the Foreign Exhibition Association held a large exhibit of "foreign arts, manufactures and products".[4] In 1883 the Olympian Club held a "floral display and costume carnival" that included indoor rollerskating.[5] It was briefly the home court of the Boston Whirlwinds of the American Basketball League.[6]

Mechanics Hall was the site of Boston Pops concerts[7] until the Boston Symphony Orchestra brought them to its new home in Symphony Hall in October 1904.

Today, the site is the location of 111 Huntington Avenue.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Sports Temples of Boston http://www.bpl.org/online/sportstemples/temple.php?temple_id=11&pid=bpldc:05_02_010652
  2. ↑ Sports Temples of Boston http://www.bpl.org/online/sportstemples/temple.php?temple_id=11&pid=bpldc:05_02_010652
  3. ↑ Charles Giuliano, "The New Boston: On the Waterfront City Hall to Join the ICA's Harbor View" http://www.berkshirefinearts.com/?page=article&article_id=185&catID=3
  4. ↑ Official catalogue Foreign Exhibition, Boston, 1883: Foreign Exhibition Association, Boston, Mass., USA. Boston: G. Coolidge, 1883
  5. ↑ "Merry Skaters: Novel and Gay Scenes at the Mechanic's Building; the Hall Adorned by a Wealth of Flowers and Thronged by 10,000 Spectators", Boston Daily Globe, June 7, 1883
  6. ↑ Foulds, Alan E. (2005). Boston's Ballparks and Arenas. Northeastern. p. 79. ISBN 978-1584654094.
  7. ↑ "The "Pop" Concerts", The Boston Globe, May 27, 1900
Mechanics Hall, Huntington Avenue (1881–1959)
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