The Cyclorama Building is an 1884 building at 543-547 Tremont Street in Boston, Massachusetts that is operated by the Boston Center for the Arts

Boston Center for the Arts

The Boston Center for the Arts is a 501 nonprofit visual and performing arts complex in the South End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. The BCA houses several performance and rehearsal spaces, restaurants, a gallery, the headquarters of the Boston Ballet, the Community Music Center of Boston...

.

History

The Classical Revival style Victorian

Victorian architecture

The term Victorian architecture refers collectively to several architectural styles employed predominantly during the middle and late 19th century. The period that it indicates may slightly overlap the actual reign, 20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901, of Queen Victoria. This represents the British and...

 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

Cyclorama

For the classical album Cyclorama, see Jonathan Goldstein; For the rock album Cyclorama by Styx, see Cyclorama ; for the theatrical backdrop, see Cyclorama...

 painting of the Battle of Gettysburg

Battle of Gettysburg

The Battle of Gettysburg , was fought July 1–3, 1863, in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The battle with the largest number of casualties in the American Civil War, it is often described as the war's turning point. Union Maj. Gen. George Gordon Meade's Army of the Potomac...

. It was designed by Charles A. Cummings

Charles A. Cummings

-Political life:He was elected on April 2 as the Mayor of City of Flint in 1900 for a single 1 year term.-References:...

 and Willard T. Sears

Willard T. Sears

Willard Thomas Sears was a prominent New England architect of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries who worked primarily in the Gothic Revival and Renaissance Revival styles....

.
The central space is a 127'-diameter steel-truss

Truss

In architecture and structural engineering, a truss is a structure comprising one or more triangular units constructed with straight members whose ends are connected at joints referred to as nodes. External forces and reactions to those forces are considered to act only at the nodes and result in...

ed dome

Dome

A dome is a structural element of architecture that resembles the hollow upper half of a sphere. Dome structures made of various materials have a long architectural lineage extending into prehistory....

 which, when it was built, was the largest dome in the country after the United States Capitol

United States Capitol

The United States Capitol is the meeting place of the United States Congress, the legislature of the federal government of the United States. Located in Washington, D.C., it sits atop Capitol Hill at the eastern end of the National Mall...

 building.

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

Isabella Stewart Gardner

Isabella Stewart Gardner – founder of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston – was an American art collector, philanthropist, and one of the foremost female patrons of the arts....

), converted it to a venue for popular entertainment, including a carousel

Carousel

A carousel , or merry-go-round, is an amusement ride consisting of a rotating circular platform with seats for riders...

, roller skating

Roller skating

Roller skating is the traveling on smooth surfaces with roller skates. It is a form of recreation as well as a sport, and can also be a form of transportation. Skates generally come in two basic varieties: quad roller skates and inline skates or blades, though some have experimented with a...

, boxing

Boxing

Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...

 tournaments (including an 1894 fight of John L. Sullivan

John L. Sullivan

John Lawrence Sullivan , also known as the Boston Strong Boy, was recognized as the first heavyweight champion of gloved boxing from February 7, 1881 to 1892, and is generally recognized as the last heavyweight champion of bare-knuckle boxing under the London Prize Ring rules...

), horseback riding, bicycling, and so on.

By 1899, it had become an industrial space, used by the New England Electric Vehicle Company, the Tremont Garage, the Buick Automobile Agency, and Albert Champion Company. Albert Champion

Albert Champion (cyclist)

Albert Champion was a French road bicycle racer, who won the 1899 Paris–Roubaix. In 1908 he founded the Champion Ignition Company to make spark plugs in Flint, Michigan. In 1909 the name changed to AC Spark Plug Company, after Champion's initials.-Cycling:Albert Champion was a talented racing...

 is said to have invented the spark plug

Spark plug

A spark plug is an electrical device that fits into the cylinder head of some internal combustion engines and ignites compressed fuels such as aerosol, gasoline, ethanol, and liquefied petroleum gas by means of an electric spark.Spark plugs have an insulated central electrode which is connected by...

 here before he moved to Flint, Michigan

Flint, Michigan

Flint is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and is located along the Flint River, northwest of Detroit. The U.S. Census Bureau reports the 2010 population to be placed at 102,434, making Flint the seventh largest city in Michigan. It is the county seat of Genesee County which lies in the...

.

When the Boston Flower Exchange

Boston Flower Exchange

The Boston Flower Exchange is a wholesale flower market located in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded as a marketplace that local growers could rent cooperatively to sell their products in a space more suited to their needs than Boston's historic Haymarket open-air marketplace. It has been the focal...

 bought the building in 1923, it added a new entrance and covered central dome with a skylight

Skylight

Skylight may refer to:* Skylight * Skylight , by David Hare* Skylight of a lava tube, a hole in the ceiling of the tube* Skylight, Arkansas* Skylight, a short film by David Clayton Rogers* Skylight Pictures, a film company...

. The Flower Exchange
moved out in 1970.

Boston Center for the Arts

The Boston Redevelopment Authority

Boston Redevelopment Authority

The Boston Redevelopment Authority is the municipal planning and development agency for Boston, working on both housing and commercial developments.The BRA was established by the Boston city council and the Massachusetts legislature in 1957...

 designated the Boston Center for the Arts as the developer for the Cyclorama and the surrounding buildings in 1970.

The Cyclorama was added to the National Register of Historic Places

National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

 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.

External links

• The Cyclorama at the Boston Center for the Arts
• Boston Public Library. Cyclorama info, with images of 19th c. Battle of Gettysburg paintings by Paul Philippoteaux
  Paul Philippoteaux
  Paul Philippoteaux was a French artist. He is best known for a cyclorama of the Battle of Gettysburg.-Life and career:Paul Philippoteaux was born in Paris, the son of the French artist Henri Emmanuel Felix Philippoteaux...