Grundmann Studios (1893–1917) in Boston, Massachusetts, was a building on Clarendon Street in the Back Bay. It contained artist's workspaces and multipurpose function rooms Copley Hall and Allston Hall. Prior to 1893, it functioned as a skating rink. After the Boston Art Students' Association leased the building it was renamed in honor of local art educator Emil Otto Grundmann.Copley Society of Art. About CoSo . Retrieved 2012-02-21 The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, whose campus was adjacent, owned the property."Copley Hall, Proposed Temporary Walker Memorial." The Tech (MIT), Dec. 30, 1907
Tenants included the Copley Society (formerly Boston Art Students' Association); artists Henry R. Blaney, Herman Dudley Murphy,American Art News, Vol. 4, No. 9 (Dec. 9, 1905) Frank Richmond,American Art News, Vol. 5, No. 12 (Jan. 5, 1907) Mary Bradish Titcomb;Vose Galleries. Mary Bradish Titcomb (1858-1927): Painter of the North Shore sculptor John A. Wilson, architect Josephine Wright Chapman; and the College Club.Boston Evening Transcript - Jun 6, 1905
Ralph Adams Cram, architect and member of BASA, was charged with remodeling the interior. The first floor included club roomslibrary, parlor, smoking room and life class roomand two large halls, each lit with "an immense skylight or glass roof". The larger room, Copley Hall, could seat up to eight hundred people and was used for lectures, concerts, dancing parties and art exhibitions. The smaller Allston Hall was designed for use as a picture gallery or supper room. It was connected by dumbwaiter to the basement kitchen. The second floor contained thirty-four suites of one, two, or three rooms, described as "so delightfully picturesque, with little, overhanging galleries, which are reached by the tiniest flight of stairs, it seems like climbing into a doll's house."
The building was demolished in 1917 to allow for the extension of Stuart Street, part of the "broad highway" civic improvement project.American Art Annual, 1917
Events in Copley Hall
1890s Artists Festival, 1894Boston Evening Transcript - Dec 13, 1894 Art exhibition to benefit Boston Art Students' Association"A great art show: Boston's loan exhibition of works valued at a million dollars." New York Times, March 6, 1897 American Arts and Crafts ExhibitionSociety of Arts and Crafts (Boston, Mass.) First exhibition of the arts and crafts, Copley Hall, Boston, April 5–16, MDCCCXCVII : representing the application of art to industry, and comprising manufactured articles and original designs for the same. Boston : Printed by T.P. Smith, 1897 Daughters of the Revolution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts exhibit Artists' Festival, 1898Boston Letter. Artists' Festival: Festivities in Honor of the Return of the Crusaders. Brush and Pencil, Vol. 2, No. 4 (Jul., 1898) John Singer Sargent exhibitAmerican Art Annual, 1899
1900s Artists Festival, 1900"Artists' Festival: Copley Hall became a part of Kenilworth last night when Queen Elizabeth was gorgeously entertained by the Earl of Leicester." Boston Evening Transcript - Apr 27, 1900New York Times, April 10, 1900 Boston Orchestral Club concertScharfenberg, David. "Young woman with a sax: American's first classical saxophonist to be honored today." Boston Globe, 12 Mar 2000: 10. Museum of Fine Arts, School of Drawing and Painting, 25th annual exhibitBoston Evening Transcript - May 28, 1901 James Abbott McNeill Whistler exhibitCopley Society blog. James McNeill Whistler Exhibition, 1904. 2012Library of Congress. Ten prints by James McNeill Whistler on display at Boston Memorial exhibition, Copley Hall, 1904 Monet exhibitionBoston Globe, March 28, 1905 Artists' Festival, 1907The Meistersingers of Nuremberg; At the Artists' Festival in Copley Hall, Monday Evening, Jan 28, Will be Reproduced a German Festival of the Sixteenth Century, With All the Georgeous Costumes of that Period--The Interior of an Old German Hall Will Form a Splendid Background for All Sorts of Picturesque Dances and Playful Revel--The Copley Society Will Have the Assistance of the Harvard Glee Club, Pupils of the School of Design, the Tavern Club and Other Boston Organizations. Boston Daily Globe, Jan 27, 1907; p.40. Bela Pratt exhibitBela Lyon Pratt.com Copley Society, Copley Hall, Boston, MA, 1908 Yamanaka & Company Exhibition and auction of Japanese and Chinese fine art, November 6–8, 1902.Boston Evening Transcript, Nov 1, 1902, p. 24.
1910s Spanish art exhibit International Exhibition of Modern ArtInternational Exhibition of Modern Art, Copley Society of Boston, Copley Hall, Boston, Mass., 1913 Portrait exhibit Bertha A. Grover exhibitBoston Globe, Jan. 5, 1915 "Farewell" exhibition (1917)
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