Horticultural Hall (Boston, 1845) Explained

Horticultural Hall (1845-1860s) of Boston, Massachusetts, stood at no.40 School Street.^{[1] [2]} The Massachusetts Horticultural Society erected the building and used it as headquarters until 1860.^[3] Made of granite, it measured "86 feet in length and 33 feet in width ... [with] a large hall for exhibitions, a library and business room, and convenient compartments for the sale of seeds, fruits, plants and flowers." Among the tenants: Journal of Agriculture;^[4] Azell Bowditch's seed store;^[5] and Morris Brothers, Pell & Trowbridge minstrels.^{[6] [7]}

Events

1840s

• Benjamin Champney exhibit^[8]
• Exhibit of John Skirving's "Panorama of Fremont's Overland Journey to Oregon and California"^[9]

1850s

• "Living specimens ... of mankind" from Iximaya, Central America
• Harmoneons performance
• American Pomological Society meeting
• 1854: Boston's first Women's Rights Convention^[10]

See also

• Horticultural Hall, Boston (1865)
• Horticultural Hall, Boston (1901)

External links

• Boston Athenaeum. Lithographs:
  • Horticultural Hall. Boston : Published by Henry Prentiss; Printed by J.H. Bufford & Co.'s Lith., 1845.
  • Horticultural Hall. Boston : Lane and Scott's Lithography, ca.1840s

Notes and References

1. Boston Directory. 1852
2. Horticultural Hall stood on the former site of the Boston Latin School (1812-1844). cf. Annual Report of the School Committee of the City of Boston, 1903
3. The society sold the property to hotelier Harvey D. Parker in 1860. cf.
4. American Agriculturalist, July 1851
5. Journal of Agriculture, 1851
6. Proceedings of the Bostonian Society at the annual meeting, January 9, 1900
7. The building was "also known as Pell, Huntley and Morris Brothers Opera House January 1858; School Street Opera House, 1860; The Boudoir, 1861." cf.
8. American Broadsides and Ephemera, Series 1
9. Peter E. Palmquist, Thomas R. Kailbourn. Pioneer photographers of the far west: a biographical dictionary, 1840-1865. Stanford University Press, 2000
10. Book: Robinson . Harriet . Massachusetts in the Woman Suffrage Movement . 1883 . Roberts Brothers . 36.