In 1750, the General Court of Massachusetts prohibited “stage plays and theatrical entertainments of any kind.” This anti-theater sentiment sprang from the area's religious roots. Nonetheless, plays were sometimes performed in private homes, even though a “puritanical uproar” occasionally followed. When Boston was occupied by British solders during the Revolutionary War, Faneuil Hall served as a theater for military productions. After the war, Boston’s first official playhouse, Boston Theatre, opened in February 1794 and a second playhouse, the Haymarket, opened in 1796.

By 1853, theater had a long enough history in Boston and enough popular interest for writer William Warland Cooke to write about local theater history in the newspaper Boston Evening Gazette and compile those entries into a book, A Record of the Boston Stage. Interest continued to grow, with additional theaters built (and rebuilt, after fires destroyed a few) throughout the nineteenth century. The late 1800s brought famed theater owner and former circus member Benjamin Franklin Keith to Boston, where he opened the New York Museum. Initially the museum starred a "three headed songstress," but shortly after opening, Keith began advertising a "theatorium." Museums like these introduced vaudeville to Boston, and B.F. Keith and various partners moved into ownership of Boston’s Bijou Theatre and others.

Theater owners frequently owned multiple properties. Augustin Daly owned Daly’s Theaters in New York and London, and the Shubert organization owned a number of New York theaters in addition to those in Boston and Chicago. Theaters frequently underwent name changes, depending on ownership; today, many of Broadway’s theaters have been renamed in honor of well-known performers. In Boston, many of the theaters constructed around the turn of the century have been demolished or repurposed. The Wang Center for the Performing Arts, for example, was formerly known as Metropolitan Theatre. The reverse is also true; Horticultural Hall has existed in name since 1845, but has moved on several occasions. Very few theaters have retained their original name and location over the decades.

Popular nineteenth century performance halls included the Boston Museum, Tremont Theatre, and a variety of opera halls. Notable twentieth century Boston theaters include Bijou Theater, B.F. Keith's Theatre, Colonial Theatre, Hollis Street Theatre, Majestic Theatre, Plymouth Theatre, Shubert Theatre, Wilbur Theatre, and performance halls at local colleges like Boston College, Boston University, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Wellesley College. This collection also reflects Boston theater-goers' excursions to performances in nearby New York, N.Y., New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine, as well as their further ventures into other areas of the United States, Europe, and Asia.

Sources

“Boston Athenaeum Theater History.” Boston Athenaeum. 2012. http://www.bostonathenaeum.org/node/224 (accessed October 19, 2012).

Clapp, William Warland. A Record of the Boston Stage. Boston and Cambridge: J. Munroe and Company, 1853.

King, Donald C. The Theatres of Boston: A Stage and Screen History. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 2005.