Cyclorama Building (Boston)

Significant dates

Cyclorama Building
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. Historic district – Contributing property


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Location	543-547 Tremont Street, Boston, Massachusetts
Coordinates	42°20′40″N 71°4′19″W / 42.34444°N 71.07194°W / 42.34444; -71.07194
Built	1884
Architect	Cummings and Sears
Architectural style	Classical Revival, Late Victorian
Part of	South End District (ID73000324)
NRHP reference No.	73000318^[1]
Added to NRHP	April 13, 1973
Designated CP	May 8, 1973

The Cyclorama Building is an 1884 building in the South End of Boston, Massachusetts that is operated by the Boston Center for the Arts.

History

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The Classical Revival style Victorian building was commissioned by Charles F. Willoughby's Boston Cyclorama Company to house the Cyclorama of the Battle of Gettysburg, a 400-by-50 foot cyclorama painting of the Battle of Gettysburg. It was designed by Charles Amos Cummings and Willard T. Sears. The central space is a 127'-diameter steel-trussed dome which, when it was built, was the largest dome in the country after that on the United States Capitol building. Visitors entered through the crenelated archway, proceeded along a dark winding passage, and then ascended a winding staircase to an elevated viewing platform. Skylights lit the scene by day, and it was illuminated by a system of 25 arc lamps by night.^[2]

In 1889, a new cyclorama painting, Custer's Last Fight, was installed, but by 1890, the fashion for cycloramas had ended, and the new owner of the building, John Gardner (father-in-law of Isabella Stewart Gardner), converted it to a venue for popular entertainment, including a carousel, roller skating, boxing tournaments (including an 1894 fight of John L. Sullivan), horseback riding, bicycling, and so on.^{[citation needed]}

By the 1890s, it had become an industrial space, used by the Albert Champion Company.^[3] In 1907, Albert Champion developed the Champion spark plug there.^[3]

When the Boston Flower Exchange bought the building in 1923, it added a new entrance and covered central dome with a skylight. The Flower Exchange occupied the building until 1970.^{[citation needed]}

The Cyclorama was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.^[1]

Bunker Hill Cyclorama

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Another, competing cyclorama building was built two blocks from the first, and displayed a cyclorama of The Battle of Bunker Hill.^[4]

References

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^ ^a ^b "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
^ Appelbaum, Yoni (February 8, 2012). "The Half-Life of Illusion: On the Brief and Glorious Heyday of the Cyclorama". The Atlantic. Emerson Collective. Retrieved July 2, 2013.
^ ^a ^b Houton, Jacqueline (November 15, 2018). "The Cyclorama: Then and Now". Boston. Metrocorp. Retrieved December 27, 2021.
^ Illustrated Boston, the Metropolis of New England. 1889. p. 118.

External links

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cyclorama (Boston).

Cyclorama info, from the Boston Public Library, with images of 19th-century Battle of Gettysburg paintings by Paul Philippoteaux

National Register of Historic Places in Suffolk County, Massachusetts

Historic districts

Historic properties

Boston	Abbotsford Adams-Nervine Asylum Allandale Farm Allston Congregational Church Almont Apartments Alvah Kittredge House Ames Building Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral of New England Arlington Street Church Armory of the First Corps of Cadets Baker Congregational Church Bedford Block Bellevue Standpipe Benedict Fenwick School Benjamin Silverman Apartments Bennington Street Burying Ground Berger Factory Bigelow School Blake and Amory Building Boston Edison Electric Illuminating Company building Boston Fish Pier Boston Transit Commission Building Boston Young Men's Christian Union Bowditch School Boylston Building Brandegee Estate Brighton Evangelical Congregational Church Building at 138–142 Portland Street Buildings at 825–829 Blue Hill Avenue Bunker Hill School Calf Pasture Pumping Station Complex Cartoof & Sherman Apartments Charles Playhouse Charles River Reservation (Speedway)-Upper Basin Headquarters Charles Street African Methodist Episcopal Church Charles Street Jail Christ Church Clapp Houses Codman Building Collins Building Compton Building Congregation Adath Jeshurun Congress Street Fire Station Copp's Hill Burying Ground Copp's Hill Terrace Crowninshield House Cyclorama Building Dearborn School Dill Building Dillaway School District 13 Police Station Donald McKay House Dorchester Park Dorchester Pottery Works Dorchester Temple Baptist Church Edna G. shipwreck Edward Everett Hale House Edward H. Haskell Home for Nurses Egleston Substation Eliot Burying Ground Eliot Congregational Church Eliot Hall Engine House No. 34 Evergreen Cemetery Fairview Cemetery Fenway Park Fields Corner Municipal Building Filene's Department Store First Baptist Church First Church of Jamaica Plain First Congregational Church of Hyde Park Forest Hills Cemetery Fort Independence Fowler-Clark-Epstein Farmstead Frances and Isabella Apartments Francis B. Austin House Goldsmith Block Greenwood Memorial United Methodist Church Haffenreffer Brewery Harrison Loring House Harriswood Crescent Harvard Avenue Fire Station Hayden Building Hibernian Hall Highland Spring Brewery Bottling and Storage Buildings Home for Aged Couples Home for Destitute Jewish Children House at 1 Bay Street House at 17 Cranston Street I.J. Fox Building International Trust Company Building Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum James Blake House John Adams Courthouse John F. Kennedy Federal Building John W. McCormack Post Office and Courthouse Joshua Bates School Landmark Center Lawrence Model Lodging Houses Locke-Ober Long Island Head Light Loring–Greenough House Malcolm X—Ella Little-Collins House Mariners House Massachusetts School of Art Mount Hope Cemetery Nathan Warnick Apartments Nazing Court Apartments New Riding Club Nixes Mate North Terminal Garage Oak Square School Old Corner Bookstore Old East Boston High School Omni Parker House Ozias Goodwin House Paine Furniture Building Parish of All Saints Ashmont Paul's Bridge Peter Faneuil School Phipps Street Burying Ground Pierce House Pilgrim Congregational Church Publicity Building Quincy Grammar School R. H. Stearns Building Richardson Block Roslindale Baptist Church Roslindale Congregational Church Roslindale Substation Roughan Hall Roxbury High Fort Roxbury Presbyterian Church Russia Wharf Buildings Samuel Edelman Apartments Sarah Davidson Apartment Block Sarah J. Baker School Sears' Crescent and Sears' Block Second Brazer Building Second Church in Boston Second Harrison Gray Otis House Shubert Theatre South Station St. Mark's Episcopal Church St. Mary's Episcopal Church St. Stephen's Church Students House Symphony and Horticultural Halls Temple Ohabei Shalom Cemetery The Graves Light The Peabody The Riviera Theodore Lyman School Theodore Parker Unitarian Universalist Church Timothy Hoxie House Traffic Tunnel Administration Building Trinity Neighborhood House Trinity Rectory Union Wharf United Shoe Machinery Corporation Building United States Post Office Garage Upham's Corner Market Vermont Building Walton and Roslin Halls Wang Theatre Westerly Burial Ground Wigglesworth Building Wilbur Theatre William Lloyd Garrison School Winthrop Building YMCA Boston YWCA Boston building Youth's Companion Building
Chelsea	Congregation Agudath Shalom Bellingham–Cary House Chelsea Garden Cemetery C. Henry Kimball House
Revere	Church of Christ Immaculate Conception Rectory Revere City Hall and Police Station Mary T. Ronan School Rumney Marsh Burying Ground Slade Spice Mill
Winthrop	Edward B. Newton School Fort Banks Highland School Deane Winthrop House

National Historic Landmark Districts
Beacon Hill Boston Common Boston Navy Yard Boston Public Garden Fort Warren

National Historic Landmarks

Former
Jacob Wirth Restaurant

See also: National Register of Historic Places listings (Suffolk County, northern Boston, southern Boston), List of National Historic Landmarks (in Boston, outside Boston)