Misplaced Pages

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Cyclorama Building" Boston – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (May 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Cyclorama Building
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. Historic district Contributing property
Show map of MassachusettsShow map of the United States
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
Significant dates
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

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.

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.

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

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.

The Cyclorama was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.

Bunker Hill Cyclorama

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

See also

• National Register of Historic Places listings in southern Boston, Massachusetts

References

1. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
2. 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.
3. ^ Houton, Jacqueline (November 15, 2018). "The Cyclorama: Then and Now". Boston. Metrocorp. Retrieved December 27, 2021.
4. Illustrated Boston, the Metropolis of New England. 1889. p. 118.

External links

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

v t e U.S. National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts
Topics	Contributing property Keeper of the Register Historic district History of the National Register of Historic Places National Park Service Property types
Lists by county	Barnstable Berkshire Bristol Dukes Essex Franklin Hampden Hampshire Middlesex Nantucket Norfolk Plymouth Suffolk Worcester (northern)
Lists by city	Barnstable County Barnstable Harwich Bristol County Fall River New Bedford Taunton Essex County Andover Gloucester Ipswich Lawrence Lynn Methuen Salem Hampden County Springfield Middlesex County Arlington Cambridge Concord Framingham Lexington Lowell Marlborough Medford Newton Reading Sherborn Somerville Stoneham Wakefield Waltham Weston Winchester Norfolk County Brookline Milton Quincy Suffolk County Boston northern southern Worcester County Southbridge Uxbridge Worcester eastern northwestern southwestern
Other lists	Bridges Cape Cod National Seashore National Historic Landmarks Boston
Category National Register of Historic Places portal United States portal

• 19th century in Boston
• Buildings and structures in Boston
• Commercial buildings completed in 1884
• Cultural history of Boston
• Cummings and Sears buildings
• Cycloramas
• Event venues on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts
• Historic district contributing properties in Massachusetts
• National Register of Historic Places in Boston
• Neoclassical architecture in Massachusetts
• South End, Boston
• Victorian architecture in Massachusetts