The Melodeon (1839 – 1870) was a concert hall and performance space in 19th-century Boston, Massachusetts, located on Washington Street, near West Street. Musical concerts, lectures, sermons, conferences, visual displays, and popular entertainments occurred there.
History
The Melodeon occupied the building of the former Lion Theatre (1836–1839) and Mechanics Institute (1839).Justin Winsor. The memorial history of Boston, v.4. J. R. Osgood and Co., 1881; p.371.
Proprietors of the Melodeon included the Handel and Haydn Society (1839); Leander Rodney (1844); Boston Theatre Company (1852); E. Warden (1857; temporarily renamed The Melodeon Varieties); Charles Francis Adams (1859).Eugene Tompkins, Quincy Kilby. The history of the Boston Theatre, 1854-1901. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1908.
Performances & events 1830s-1840s 1839 Handel and Haydn Society. 1840 "Soiree musicale. The celebrated Rainer Family, or Tyrolese minstrels."American Broadsides and Ephemera, Series 1 1842 Amateur concert for the benefit of the Warren Street Chapel. Mr. Braham. 1843 Vocal entertainment by H. Russell. Rossini's Stabat Mater, with Handel and Haydn Society. Dr. LardnerThe Rover, v.2, no.10, 1843 1844 Concert by Ole Bull, assisted by Miss Stone, Mr. Herwig, Mr. Hayter, and a full orchestra. Henry Phillips, assisted by Miss Stone. William Charles Macready, Charlotte Cushman. 1845 Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association 13th triennial festival, 1st semi-centennial celebration. Musical entertainment by Mr. Dempster. 1846 Haydn's The Creation, performed by the Handel and Haydn Society. Hutchinson Family. Concert by C. Sivori. 1848 Steyermarkische Musical Company. 1849 Madame Biscaccianti and Strakosch. Services on the occasion of the decease of the late president, James K. Polk. Sermon of the Spiritual Condition of Boston, preached by Theodore Parker.Theodore Parker. Speeches, addresses, and occasional sermons, v.2. W. Crosby and H. P. Nichols, 1852; p.298.
1850s 1850 Annetta Stephani. Handel's Jeptha, with Boston Musical Education Society. "Optical wonders. Whipple's grand exhibition of dissolving views! Magnifiying daguerreotypes, kaleidoscope pictures, & pyramic fires." 1852 "Professor Anderson, the wizard of the North" Handel's Samson, with Handel and Haydn Society. Donetti's Comic Troupe of Acting Monkeys Germania Musical SocietyDwight's Journal of Music, June 5, 1852 1854 Magician Macallister. "Splendid mirror of North and South America"; presented by J. Perham. "Italia", panorama by Waugh. 1855 J. H. Siddons. Josiah Perham's Ethiopian Troupe and Great Burlesque Company. New England Anti-Slavery Convention.New-England Anti-Slavery Convention; Fun in the Boston Melodeon. New York Times, June 1; p.2. William Makepeace Thackeray 1857 Lola Montez. 1858 The Bunyan Tableaux. Orpheus Glee Club, Lucy A. Doane, Hugo Leonhard. 1859 Melodeon Minstrels.
1860s 1860 Parlor operas, with Mr. & Mrs. Henri Drayton. 1862 French Zouaves. Stereopticon. M. Lizzie Bell, Agnes A. Kenney. "Master Rentz's second annual subscription concert," with the Mendelssohn Quintette Club, Adeline S. Washburn. Louis Moreau Gottschalk playing works by Chopin and Henselt.Life and Letters of Louis Moreau Gottschalk, 1870; p.109 1864 Arthur Cheney, H.C. Barnabee, John F. Pray. Morton's The angel of the attic. 1865 A. Bronson AlcottFrederick Wagner. Eighty-Six Letters (1814-1882) of A. Bronson Alcott (Part Two). Studies in the American Renaissance, 1980; p.216-217
References
External links
Detail of 1861 map of Boston showing location of Melodeon, via Boston Public Library's Atlascope Boston tool.