Academy Building

Moved - Unexposed (Check One) riginal Site The Academy Building (1876) occupies an important corner block and fronts on three streets: So. Main, So. Frontage, and Second Streets. It is four stories high, of red pressed brick, with plain and carved sandstone trim, and polished granite and encaustic tile detail. The style is High Victor- ian (or Ruskinian) Gothic, and the three facades, though composed different- ly, are unified through an abundant use of chromatic Gothic detail. The So. Main St. and So. Frontage St. facades are basically tripartite with large, shallow projecting, pedimented bays and flanking wings. The larger portion of the Second St.

facade serves as a theater wall and is simpler row of colossal pointed-arch windows with panel-brick insets and is capped with a wide panelled and corbelled brick entablature. The principal facades, on So. Main and So. Frontage Sts., have modern glass shop fronts on the street level, but retain their original fenestration of single, paired, and triple-grouped windows in the upper three stories. Decoration is colorfully and exuberantly applied. Windows are capped with pointed arches in the second story, segmental arches in the third story, and scalloped lintels in the fourth story. Sandstone courses divide the facades horizontally and connect windows at both sill and cornice levels.

On the fourth floor and in the central bays, paired stone columns with stylized Gothic pinnacles and framing roundels with finely carved grotesques, add to the Academy's decorative liveliness. Further sandstone ornamentation occurs on the So. Frontage St. facade, in the carved and tiled panels above the entrance, and in the canted corner bays projecting at either end.

18th Century 19th Century 20th Century Political "! Religion/Phi- losophy Science Sculpture Social/Human- itarian Theater Transportation Urban Planning Other (Specify) LL The Academy Building is an outstanding example of Ruskinian Gothic architecture, the most important building of this style in Fall River, and, in terms of its quality, scale, and condition, one of the finest in New England. It was completed in :1876 for Simeon Borden from designs of the Boston architects, Hartwell and Swazey. Constructed at the height of Fall River's commercial and cultural growth, it is unique in providing space and facilities for these two major forces in the city's development.

With shop-fronts and three floors of office space it offered the most desirable business location and was the finest commer- cial block in the city when completed. Today the office and retail portions of the block remain as the commercial heart of Fall River. The chief theater and opera house (the Academy of Music, from which building took its name) was located in the building and for over half a century it was the cultural center ofthe city, with the theater play- ing host to many famous performers in its day. Except for the much altered store fronts, the facades and exterior decoration of the building are in excellent condition. Inside, most original woodwork and plasterwork survives, also in good condition.

The theater is now in operation as a movie house, and is original through- out except for the seating of the parquet. There have been no major renovations at any time, and a theater the size and age of the Academy, still retaining its original stage machinery, drops, and sets, as well as its original crystal chandelier and ornate plastered and painted audience hall is a rare survival.