Horticultural Hall, at the corner of Huntington Avenue

Huntington Avenue (Boston)

Huntington Avenue is a secondary thoroughfare in the city of Boston, Massachusetts beginning at Copley Square, and continuing west through the Back Bay, Fenway, Longwood, and Mission Hill neighborhoods...

 and Massachusetts Avenue

Massachusetts Avenue (Boston)

Massachusetts Avenue, known to locals as Mass Ave, is a major thoroughfare in Boston, Massachusetts, and several cities and towns northwest of Boston...

 in Boston, was built in 1901. It sits across the street from Symphony Hall

Symphony Hall, Boston

Symphony Hall is a concert hall located at 301 Massachusetts Avenue in Boston, Massachusetts. Designed by McKim, Mead and White, it was built in 1900 for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, which continues to make the hall its home. The hall was designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 1999...

. Since 1992, it has been owned by the Christian Science

Christian Science

Christian Science is a system of thought and practice derived from the writings of Mary Baker Eddy and the Bible. It is practiced by members of The First Church of Christ, Scientist as well as some others who are nonmembers. Its central texts are the Bible and the Christian Science textbook,...

 Church. It is the current home to the offices of Handel and Haydn Society

Handel and Haydn Society

The Handel and Haydn Society is an American chorus and period instrument orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1815, it remains one of the oldest performing arts organizations in the United States.-Early history:...

, Boston Magazine, and a number of other businesses.

History

The building was the third "Horticultural Hall" built for the Massachusetts Horticultural Society

Massachusetts Horticultural Society

The Massachusetts Horticultural Society, sometimes abbreviated to MassHort, is an American horticultural society based in Massachusetts. It describes itself as the oldest, formally-organized horticultural institution in the United States...

. It was designed in the English Renaissance revival style in 1901 by architects Wheelwright and Haven

Edmund M. Wheelwright

Edmund March Wheelwright was one of New England's most important architects in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and served as city architect for Boston, Massachusetts from 1891-1895....

 on land purchased by the Society. (This firm also designed the whimsical Harvard Lampoon

Harvard Lampoon

The Harvard Lampoon is an undergraduate humor publication founded in 1876 at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.-Overview:Published since 1876, The Harvard Lampoon is the world's longest continually published humor magazine. It is also the second longest-running English-language humor...

 Castle in Cambridge, Massachusetts

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...

.)

When the Hall was dedicated in 1901, thousands of members and visitors attended its ten-day opening, during which time the hall was filled with amaryllis

Amaryllis

Amaryllis is a small genus of flowering bulbs, with two species. The better known of the two, Amaryllis belladonna, is a native of South Africa, particularly the rocky southwest region near the Cape...

es, azalea

Azalea

Azaleas are flowering shrubs comprising two of the eight subgenera of the genus Rhododendron, Pentanthera and Tsutsuji . Azaleas bloom in spring, their flowers often lasting several weeks...

s, Pelargonium

Pelargonium

Pelargonium is a genus of flowering plants which includes about 200 species of perennials, succulents, and shrubs, commonly known as scented geraniums or storksbills. Confusingly, Geranium is the correct botanical name of a separate genus of related plants often called Cranesbills. Both Geranium...

geraniums, gloxinia

Gloxinia

Gloxinia can refer to:*The genus Gloxinia of flowering plants in the family Gesneriaceae*The plant species Sinningia speciosa, formerly classified in the genus Gloxinia and still commonly known by that name, in the family Gesneriaceae...

s, jasmine

Jasmine

Jasminum , commonly known as jasmines, is a genus of shrubs and vines in the olive family . It contains around 200 species native to tropical and warm temperate regions of the Old World...

, trumpet lilies, palm

Arecaceae

Arecaceae or Palmae , are a family of flowering plants, the only family in the monocot order Arecales. There are roughly 202 currently known genera with around 2600 species, most of which are restricted to tropical, subtropical, and warm temperate climates...

s, rhododendron

Rhododendron

Rhododendron is a genus of over 1 000 species of woody plants in the heath family, most with showy flowers...

s, wisteria

Wisteria

Wisteria is a genus of flowering plants in the pea family, Fabaceae, that includes ten species of woody climbing vines native to the eastern United States and to China, Korea, and Japan. Aquarists refer to the species Hygrophila difformis, in the family Acanthaceae, as Water Wisteria...

, and a collection of 1,000 orchids, the finest collection gathered in America to that time.

The building's larger lecture hall could seat 300. It was home to many organizations including the
Benevolent Fraternity Fruit and Flower Mission, the Wildflower Society, the Garden Club Federation (whose founding in 1927 was organized by the Society), the Boston Mycological Club, the New England Gourd Society, the New England Gladiolus Society, and the Herb Society of America. The building was renovated in 1984, and sold to the neighboring Christian Science

Christian Science

Christian Science is a system of thought and practice derived from the writings of Mary Baker Eddy and the Bible. It is practiced by members of The First Church of Christ, Scientist as well as some others who are nonmembers. Its central texts are the Bible and the Christian Science textbook,...

 Church in 1992.

Former buildings (1845-1901)

The Massachusetts Horticultural Society has built and occupied a series of "Horticultural Halls" in Boston, including the first on School Street (1845), the second on Tremont Street (1864), and this third hall (1901).

Elm Bank Horticulture Center, Wellesley (2001-present)

The society's current home is the Elm Bank Horticulture Center

Elm Bank Horticulture Center

The Elm Bank Horticulture Center is the home of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, located at 900 Washington Street , Wellesley, Massachusetts, U.S....

, located on the town lines of Wellesley

Wellesley, Massachusetts

Wellesley is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of Greater Boston. The population was 27,982 at the time of the 2010 census.It is best known as the home of Wellesley College and Babson College...

 and Dover

Dover, Massachusetts

Dover is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 5,589 at the 2010 census.Located about southwest of downtown Boston, Dover is a residential town nestled on the south banks of the Charles River. Almost all of the residential zoning requires or larger...

(2001).

Image gallery

Horticultural Hall, Tremont Street
Horticultural Hall, Massachusetts Avenue and Huntington Avenue