Boylston Market designed by architect Charles Bulfinch

Charles Bulfinch

Charles Bulfinch was an early American architect, and has been regarded by many as the first native-born American to practice architecture as a profession....

, was located in Boston

Boston

Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

, Massachusetts

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

, on the corner of Boylston

Boylston Street

Boylston Street is the name of a major east-west thoroughfare in the city of Boston, Massachusetts. Another Boylston Street runs through Boston's western suburbs....

 and Washington

Washington Street (Boston)

Washington Street is a street originating in downtown Boston, Massachusetts that extends southwestward to the Massachusetts-Rhode Island state line. The majority of it was built as the Norfolk and Bristol Turnpike in the early nineteenth century...

 Streets. Boylston Hall occupied the third floor of the building, and functioned as a performance and meeting space.

History

The Boylston Market Association developed the building. John Quincy Adams

John Quincy Adams

John Quincy Adams was the sixth President of the United States . He served as an American diplomat, Senator, and Congressional representative. He was a member of the Federalist, Democratic-Republican, National Republican, and later Anti-Masonic and Whig parties. Adams was the son of former...

 served as the association's first president. In 1809 the proprietors paid $20,560 for the land, formerly belonging to Joseph C. Dyer (and to Samuel Welles before him). The new building "was named to honor the benevolent and philanthropic Ward Nicholas Boylston

Ward Nicholas Boylston

Ward Nicholas Boylston , a descendent of the physician Zabdiel Boylston , was a man of wealth and refinement, a merchant, a philanthropist and a great benefactor of Harvard University...

"

Architecture

Construction began in April, 1810, and was completed the same year. The 3-story building measured 120 feet long and 50 feet wide. "On the first floor are 12 stalls for the sale of provisions. The 2nd is separated by an avenue running lengthwise, on the sides of which are 4 spacious rooms. The 3rd story consists of a hall 100 feet in length with the entire width of the building. the central height of the ceiling is 24 feet. It contains an orchestra, and 2 convenient withdrawing-rooms adjoining."

"In 1859 an extension of 40 feet was made." "In 1870 the solid brick structure was moved back from the street eleven feet without disturbing the occupants."

Tenants

Early tenants included the Linnaean Society of New England

Linnaean Society of New England

Linnaean Society of New England was established in Boston, Massachusetts, to promote natural history. The society organized a natural history museum, and also arranged lectures and excursions for its members. In 1817 it became involved in the Gloucester sea serpent debate...

, and Edward Savage

Edward Savage (artist)

Edward Savage was an American portrait painter and engraver. He was born in Princeton, Mass., and at first worked as a goldsmith, also practicing engraving. Although seemingly untrained in painting, he came into prominence in 1790 through his portrait of George Washington, intended as a gift to...

's New York Museum, ca.1812, both "handsomely fitted with natural and artificial curiosities." The Handel and Haydn Society

Handel and Haydn Society

The Handel and Haydn Society is an American chorus and period instrument orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1815, it remains one of the oldest performing arts organizations in the United States.-Early history:...

 held concerts in the hall for several years.

In 1845 some of the members of the Workingmen's Protective Union opened a shop on the 2nd floor.

Other vendors in the market included butter & cheese dealers M.C. Strout and F.H. Thomas (ca.1877).

Special events in Boylston Hall included the New-England Anti-Slavery Convention, 1834; July 4th celebrations of the New England Anti-Slavery Society in the 1830s; and Corydon Donnavan's "Grand Serial Panorama of Mexico," ca.1848: "Capt. Donnavan, for several months a prisoner during the recent war

Mexican–American War

The Mexican–American War, also known as the First American Intervention, the Mexican War, or the U.S.–Mexican War, was an armed conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848 in the wake of the 1845 U.S...

 in [Mexico], will deliver an explanatory discourse, relating many incidents of the war, Mexican life, manners, &c, as the painting passes before the audience."

Demolition

Boylston Market was demolished in 1887. In its place, the "Boylston Building" was erected. The belfry from the original Boylston Market structure went to the Calvary Methodist Church

Calvary Methodist Church

Calvary Methodist Church is a historic Methodist church building at 300 Massachusetts Avenue in Arlington, Massachusetts.Calvary Church was designed by J.H. McNaughton and W. J. Perry, built in 1920, and dedicated in 1923. Its belfry was designed by noted architect Charles Bulfinch in 1809,...

 in Arlington, Massachusetts

Arlington, Massachusetts

Arlington is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, six miles northwest of Boston. The population was 42,844 at the 2010 census.-History:...

, in 1921.

In popular culture

Poet John Pierpont

John Pierpont

John Pierpont was an American poet, who was also successively a teacher, lawyer, merchant, and Unitarian minister. His most famous poem is The Airs of Palestine.-Overview:...

 refers to the Boylston Market in his 1840 poem "The Drunkard's Funeral."

Further reading

• Paul Dean
  Paul Dean (minister)
  Paul Dean was a 19th-century universalist minister. He pastored in Boston, Massachusetts, at the First Universalist Church on Hanover Street and the Central Universalist Church on Bulfinch Street .-Further reading:...
  
  . A eulogy delivered in Boylston Hall, Boston at the request of the Masonic, Handel and Haydn, and Philharmonic Societies, August 19, 1819, on the character of their late friend and brother Thomas Smith Webb, Esq.