A Pictoral History of the Boston Music Hall and the Great Organ
A PICTORIAL HISTORY OF THE BOSTON MUSIC HALL AND THE GREAT ORGAN by Ed Sampson, President, Methuen Memorial Music Hall, Inc. 2018 Few instruments in the history of pipe organs in America have had as long, or as distinguished, a career as the Boston Music Hall Organ. The first concert organ in the country, it remains today one of the outstanding organs in America. The need for a large and centrally-located concert hall for Boston was discussed at the annual meeting of the Harvard Musical Association, founded in 1837 (Henry White Pickering (1811-1898), President) on January 31, 1851. A "Music Hall Committee", comprised of members Robert East Apthorp (1812-1882), George Derby (1819-1874), John Sullivan Dwight (1813-1893), Charles Callahan Perkins (1822-1886), and Dr. Jabez Baxter Upham (1820- 1902), was appointed to address the matter. The Boston Music Hall was built in 1852 by the Boston Music-Hall Association, founded in 1851 (Jabez Baxter Upham, President) and by the Harvard Musical Association, that contributed $100,000 towards its construction. It stood in the center of a block that sloped downward from Tremont Street to Washington Street; and was between Winter Street on the south and Bromfield Street on the north. Almost entirely surrounded by other buildings, only glimpses of the hall's massive granite block foundation and plain brick walls could be seen. There were two entrances to the Music Hall: the Bumstead Place entrance, (named after Thomas Bumstead (1740-1828) a Boston coachmaker), off Tremont Street (later Hamilton Place) opposite the Park Street Church; 1 and the Central Place or Winter Place (later Music Hall Place) entrance off Winter Street.
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