Nomination for Charles Playhouse

From the form

The catalogue entry the section above was filed under.

Form No. 10-300 REV.

(9/77) UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OFTHE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE FOR NPS USE ONLY NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES INVENTORY -- NOMINATION FORM RECEIVED MAY 1 3 1980 DATE ENTERED JUN 1 6 (980 1 NAME SEE INSTRUCTIONS IN HOW TO COMPLETE NATIONAL REGISTER FORMS TYPE ALL ENTRIES -- COMPLETE APPLICABLE SECTIONS Charles Play house Fifth Universalist Church 2 3 4 5 HISTORIC AND/OR COMMON Charles Playhouse (use for publication) LOCATION STREET & NUMBER 74-78 Warenton Street CITY, TOWN Boston STATE Massachusetts CLASSIFICATION - - VICINITY OF CODE 025 _NOT FOR PUBLICATION CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT 8th COUNTY Suffolk CODE 025 CATEGORY -DISTRICT XX BUILDING(S) _STRUCTURE _SITE _OBJECT OWNERSHIP -PUBLIC XPRIVATE _BOTH PUBLIC ACQUISITION _IN PROCESS _BEING CONSIDERED STATUS X OCCUPIED _UNOCCUPIED _WORK IN PROGRESS ACCESSIBLE XYES: RESTRICTED - YES: UNRESTRICTED _NO PRESENT USE AGRICULTURE _MUSEUM _COMMERCIAL PARK LEDUCATIONAL PRIVATE RESIDENCE X_ENTERTAINMENT RELIGIOUS _GOVERNMENT SCIENTIFIC _INDUSTRIAL _TRANSPORTATION MILITARY OTHER: OWNER OF PROPERTY NAME Charles Playhouse Realty Company STREET & NUMBER 74-78 Warrenton Street CITY, TOWN Boston VCNITY F LOCATION OF LEGAL DESCRIPTION STATE Massachusetts 02116 COURTHOUSE REGISTRY OF DEEDS,ETC.

Suffolk County Courthouse STREET & NUMBER Pemberton Square CITY,TOWN Boston STATE Massachusetts 02110 REPRESENTATION IN EXISTING SURVEYS TITLE Inventory of the HistoricAssets of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts DATE January 1978 DEPOSITORY FOR SURVEY RECORDS _FEDERAL ISTATECOUNTY *LOCAL ,. Massachusetts Historical Commission CITY, TOWN Boston Massachusetts T2108 7-DESCRIPTION CONDITION _EXCELLENT _GOOD X FAIR _DETERIORATED _RUINS CHECK ONE -UNALTERED X ALTERED CHECK ONE X_ORIGINAL SITE _MOVED DATE. x UNEXPOSED DESCRIBE THE PRESENT AND ORIGINAL (IF KNOWN) PHYSICAL APPEARANCE

Description of the property

The Charles Playhouse is located within the Boston Theatre District, south of the Boston Common (NR)- It is adjacent to Bay Village, a residential neighborhood dating from the same period, the 1830's. The Theatre District area is characterized by mixed resi- dential, commercial and entertainment uses. The Charles Playhouse was built as the Fifth Universalist Church between 1838 and 1839. It is rectangular in plan, seventy-five feet long and sixty-six feet wide. shorter end fronts Warrenton Street (southeast) without a setback. It is two stories high, set on a raised basement and enclosed by a ridge roof. Built of red brick in the Greek Revival temple form with columns in antis, the basement level granite substructure contained income producing commercial space.

A wide granite stringcourse runs across the width of the main facade separating the lower commercial part from the ecclesiastical function of the building. This band also serves as a lintel to granite posts defining entrances and store windows and capping the corner piers. The basement level rises twelve feet above street level and serves as a platform to the well proportioned classic temple above it. The upper part of the facade exhibits four giant paired antae on piers with Doric capitals framing two Ionic columns. Three small-paned two tiered windows separated by gracefully carved anthemion panels are placed between the two inner antae and the columns. The plain entablature and unadorned frieze are topped by a pediment with a lunette. The flanks of the building contain five symmetrically organized window bays.

basement window and two story church windows are capped by plain granite lintels. A simple cornice consists of a molded brick band and frame corona. The building originally contained 156 pews seating about one thousand people. "The interior has been altered repeatedly, and no decorative elements recall the building's ecclesiastical past. The original placement of lights and the form and placement of the granite basement entrances are clearly visible and still perform their originally intended function. At present, the upper structure houses the main playhouse. Box office, lobby space and a small stage occupy the street level and basement premises. Alterations to the main facade include addition of a theatre marquee, changes to the doorways and windows on the basement, reglazing of the upper windows and filling in the lunette with a ventilator.

Alterations to the lateral flanks include boarding of all windows and conversion of two windows to entrances. Certain air handling mechanical systems as presently arranged are intrusions. C10. -i.c m.

From the form

The catalogue entry the section above was filed under.

SIGNIFICANCE PERIOD _PREHISTORIC -1400-1499 -1500- 1599 -1600-1699 - 1700-1799 &1800-1899 -1900- ARCHEOLUGY-PREHISTORIC -ARCHEOLOGY-HISTORIC AGRICULTURE X ARCHITECTURE -ART XCOMMERCE _COMMUNICATIONS AREAS OF SIGNIFICANCE -- CHECK AND JUSTIFY BELOW -COMMUNITY PLANNING -LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE -CONSERVATION -LAW _ECONOMICS - LITERATURE EDUCATION _MILITARY -ENGINEERING -MUSIC TEXPLORATION/SETTLEMENT -PHILOSOPHY. INDUSTRY _POLITICS/GOVERNMENT INVENTION 6309 BUILDER/ARCHITECT: Asher Benjamin X RELIGION SCIENCE -SCULPTURE -SOCIAL/HUMANITARIAN X THEATER -TRANSPORTATION -OTHER (SPECIFY) SPECIFIC DATES 1838-39 STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE

Statement of significance

in Boston designed by Asher Benjamin (1733-1845) and as the only remaining example of the eron bestonce by AKE Ban (18-tei sha s ne n emeo, Greek Revival Additionally, it was the first permanent home built by the Fifth sreek Rerival Stele Adit Universalist Society. Asher Benjamin was one of America's most famous and influential early architects. Two of his Boston churches built in the Federal style survive: the Charles Street Meeting House (NR) 1804 and the 0ld West Church (NR) 1806 on Cambridge Street. Benjamin's in- fluence on the physical aspect of the New England landscape - and subsequently on the American hinterland -- is incalculable.

Through his builder's guides and architectural handbooks published continuously from 1794 until 1841, he taught and inspired countless country housewrights and self-taught carpenters to build graceful white wooden churches and stately classic frame houses, as well as urban brick townhouses and churches of a uniquely American style. His architectural pattern books, the first published in this country, spread both the Federal and the later Greek Revival modes across the young Republic. The design of the Charles Playhouse Building is a slight adaptation of Benjamin's plan for a church in Plates LVIII and LIX appearing in his Builder's Guide or Complete System of Architecture, Boston, 1838. The major innovation concerns the addition of street level stores, a requtrement of the cllent, the congregation of Rev. Otis A. Skinner.

This granite structure literally put the meetinghouse on the solid base of an anticipated per annum rental income. Organized in Boston in 1836, the Fifth Universalist Society for several years wor- shipped in the Great Hall of Bulfinch's Boylston Market (1809), which was located on the corner of Washington and Boylston Streets. Because of the magnetic personality and popularity of the pastor, Rev. Otis A. Skinner, membership increased so dramatically that larger quarters became necessary. Land was purchased in the newly developing part of the city south of the Common in July 1838 for $7,600, and a new meeting house was erected at a cost of $29,000. Numerous contemporary accounts describe the dedication services of January 30, 1839.

The Trumpet is particularly admiring: "The House thus dedicated is beautiful....The location is a very good one, the building of the House and of a few elegant brick buildings in the neighborhood has affected an astonishing alteratlon in the appearance of the street at that point. The house is of brick, with a granite front for the basement. In the basement, which is very commodious, there are two large and elegant stores, besides a very convenient vestry for the Society's use. The front of the building strikes every beholder as being unusually neat and pleasing... The Rev. Otis. A. Skinner stayed with his congregation, among the largest in Boston, until April 1857 when he moved to Elgin, Illinois. He subsequently became president of Lombard University in Galesburg, Illinois and died in 1861 at the age of 54.

An able orator, author of numerous religious papers and books, he was also for many years a member 9

The rest of the file

Bibliography, boundary description, and the people who prepared and reviewed the nomination.

MAJOR BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES Atidrews, Wayne. Architecture, Ambition and Americans. New York, 1964. Boston Post, February 6, 1839. Boston Transcript, February 6, 1839. Hamlin, Talbot. Greek Revival Architecture in America. New York, 1944. Pierson, William H., Jr. American Buildings and Their Architects, The Colonial and Neo- Classical Styles. Vol. 1. New York, 1970. UTM NOT VERIFIED 10 GEOGRAPHICAL DATA AUKtAGE NUP VENHEI ACREAGE OF NOMINATED PROPERTY 5,396 sq. ft.' QUADRANGLE NAME Boston South QUADRANGLE SCALE 1"=247,000' UTM REFERENCES Al119 3/22800 1,6/9014,3,01 ZONE EASTING NORTHING ZONE EASTING! LIlILu NORTHING DLL LHLLL ELL Fe LldbiL LudL VERBAL BOUNDARY DESCRIPTION HLULL 1Lud Please refer to the attached BRA map. The boundaries are deliniated in red.

LIST ALL STATES AND COUNTIES FOR PROPERTIES OVERLAPPING STATE OR COUNTY BOUNDARIES STATE CODE' COUNTY CODE STATE CODE COUNTY CODE by Mary Van Meter 11 FORM PREPARED BY NAME/ TITLE Candace Jenkins, National Register Coordinator ORGANIZATION Massachusetts Historical Commission DATE Jüdith McDonough Boston Landmarks Com February 1980 STREET & NUMBER 294 Washington Street 617 727-8470 CITY OR TOWN Boston Massåchusetts 02108 12 STATE HISTORIC PRESERVATION OFFICER CERTIFICATION THE EVALUATED SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS PROPERTY WITHIN THE STATE IS: NATIONAL STATE_ LOCAL- As the designated State Historic Preservation Officer for the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 (Public Law 89-665), 1 hereby nominate this property for inclusion in the National Register and certify that it has been evaluated according to the criteria and procedures set forth by the National Park Service.

STATE HISTORIC PRESERVATION OFFICER SIGNATURE Halua RWesbuski 4/14/50 TITLE FOR NPS USE ONLY DATE Executive Director, Massachusetts Historical Commission I HEREBY CERTIFY THAT THIS PROPERTY IS INCLUDED IN THE NATIONAL REGISTER Onu ATEST. KEDERO TYE MAMTONAL RESRUgO Palucb ahua CHIEFOF REGISTRATION DATE 6/14/80 DATE 6/10/80 GPO 921-803 FHR-8-300A (11/78) UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR HERITAGE CONSERVATION AND RECREATION SERVICE NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES INVENTORY -- NOMINATION FORM FOR HCRS USE ONLY RECEIVED MAY 13 1980 DATE ENTERED CONTINUATION SHEET ITEM NUMBER 8 9 PAGE 1 8)Significance-continued of the Boston School Committee. Tufts University remembers him for his help in raising $100,000 for the establishment of the College. After the departure of the Rev.

Skinner, the Fifth Universalist Society had several other pastors until 1862 when it merged with another congregation and vacated the building. The church was bought by the Hebrew congregation Ohabei Shalom in February 1863 for $15,000, a very low price no doubt due to the economic slump during the Civil War. It remained a synagogue until 1887 when the Young Women's Christian Association purchased it for $27,500. In 1889 the building became the property of the Scotch Presbyterian Church. This was the building's last religious association. Because of its location in Boston's spreading entertainment area, the house eventually hosted such dissimilar enterprises as a prohibition era speakeasy, the Rio Casino and Lido Venice nightclubs, the Boston Ballroom and offices of several of Boston's theatrical booking agents.

The use of the building for other than its originally designed purposes is an early example of adaptive use without destroying the exterior. Since 1958 the Charles Playhouse has been in residence in the building producing classic as well as avant garde plays by its own residential company and also serving as stage to visiting the- atrical groups. 9)Bibliography-continued Suffolk County Deeds, Lib 437, f. 84; Lib. 823, f. 230; Lib. 1779, f. 408; & Lib. 1874, f. 121 Thayer, Rev. Thomas B. The Life, Labors and Character of Rev. Otis A. Skinner, D. C. Boston, 1861. The TRUMPET, Boston, August 25, 1838. Van Mesto, Maso "ety ins ton 19 the Church Street District," Proceedings of the "A New Asher Benjamin Building in Boston," DRUMLIN Newsletter, January 1978, Vol. 3, no. 1. "A New Asher Benjamin Church in Boston," Journal, Society of Architectural Historians, Octobert 1979. 275 375l 366.

3503 400l 200C 19/4 2000 6828 5277 1959 1882 OWNSEND 1468 1950 1890 176/ 1400 3143 1200 574 694 895 1300 1288 BOYLSTON 489/ 3854 26,864 82 82 667 262 ossI OsgI ELIOT STREET PARKING GARAGE STREET PARKING, AREA 5478 ITO U.S. POST OFFICE TREMONT STATION 2348 1755 238/ 3/6/ 72,80 11,173 2627 1174 10530 844 2992 133Y1S 2386 1982 90LJe0l 11,460 BOSTON EDISON CO. 2 =3928 5396 2765 8931 pl: STREET WARRENTON 14,715 6 2226 -TYHDEBORO pL- 84 82 80 78 COLONIAL THEATRE LITTLE 12,672 23,357 BUILDING ALLEN'S 210 213 ALLEY GARY THEATRE 2317 43141 139 10,337 SAXON THEATRE 10,333 3356 1297 2950 1911 1358 153 lil 109103 STUART +98/ 1463 114 2180 112 3743 1010 8755 1022 SEAVER PL SHUBERT 17,403 THEATRE 268/ 261- 253 263 6/54 267 271 TREMONT 19,688 BRADFORD HOTEL STREET 3161 8.

74 STREET 195 BOSTON Y.M.C.U 203 15,623 TAMWORTH WE 643 PARK AREA LA GRANGE 224 222220 218 216 230 228 226 1488 1429 1429 1429 1429 1407 75 7195 5088 55.V-3 X 24.09 ELIOTN 3030 67 656361 57 55-51A 5 64 76 2404 70 6866 84 62 29/9 3891 60 38 1596 143R 218.346 244 WILBUR THEATRE 1040 23 2i 255 252 262 260 | BOSTON MUSIC 76,018 HALL 5969,, 7000 HOLL Charles Playhouse 78 Marrenton St- MAY 1 3 1980 Boston, Ma. Scale: 1" = 100' UTM References: 19/329800/4690430 JUN | 6 1980 WYA T3 1880 Property Charles Playliouse rel 80000676 Working Number Ma - s 5-13-80 1325 TECHNICAL CONTROL Photos 3 Maps 2 This building is of major auchitectural significance as only o only three HISTORIAN churches in Boston designed by Asher benjamant the only , one in the Revrral style. in unnovation in the desean ln tnsa tinick te vian detia red athe tilente cmaentame the fuil r. Built ihuch.

Fatrick Andrus It has senved a vaiiety of religious and secula piupores and is nowa plaghouse. 6|10/80 ARCHITECTURAL HISTORIAN ARCHEOLOGIST OTHER HAER Inventory Review REVIEW UNIT CHIEF BRANCH CHIEF KEEPER National Register Write-up Federal Register Entry 2.3. Send-back Re-submit Entered JUN + 61080 United States Department of the Interior - Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service ONE WAY THREE CHARLES PLAY HOL SE VANITIES THE CHARLES PLAYHOUSE VTHE CHARLETPBATROSE Charles Playhouse - Left flank suffolk co. View from south east JUN | 6 1980 Fifth Universalist Church Charles Playhouse (use for publication) 74-78 Warrenton St., Boston, MA Suffolk County Photo by & Negative filed at M97y Van Meter, 10 Byron St., Boston, MA #| OF3 MAY 1 3 1980 THREE CHARLES PLAYHOLSF VANITIES THE CHARLES PLAYHOUSE VTHE CHARLESPUASROUE Charles Playhouse - Main facade sunfolic ce.

view from northeast MAY 1 3 1980 #2OF3 JUN | 6 1980 Fifth Universalist Church Charles Playhouse (Use for Publication) 74-78 Warrenton St., Boston, MA Suffolk County Photo by & Negative filed at: 1978 Mary Van Meter, 10 Byron St., Boston, MA SMASH NEW YORK HIT LES THE CHARLES PLAYHOUSE TOW ZOME *NO- PARKING LOADING (chartes playhowa - olo Sooe direction. Small house on left with pitched roof is Lyndeboro Place in Bay Village,1838. JUN | 6 1980 MAY 1 3 1980 Fifth Universalist Church Charles Playhouse (use for publication) 74-78 Warrenton St., Boston, MA Suffolk County Photo by and Negative filed at: Mary Van Meter, 17 Byron St., Boston, MA 1978 #30F3 ENTRIES IN THE NATIONAL REGISTER STATE MASSACHUSETTS Date Entered JUN | 6 1930 Name Colburn, Sarah Foster, House Charles Playhouse All Saint's Church Stearns, R.

H., Building Grafton Inn Location Cambridge Middlesex County Boston Suffolk County Boston Suffolk County Boston Suffolk County Grafton Worcester County Also Notified Honorable Edward M. Kennedy Honorable Paul Isongas Honorable Thomas P. O'Ne111, Jr. Honorable Brian J. Donnally Honorable John J. Moakley Honorable Joseph D. Early NR Byers/mjd State Historic Preservation Officer Mrs. Patricia L. Weslowski Executive Director, Massachusetts Historical Commission 294 Washington Street Boston, Massachusetts 02108 6/27/80 For further information, please callthe National Register at (202)343-6401.