The Melodeon was a concert hall and performance space in 19th-century Boston

Boston

Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

, Massachusetts

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

, located on Washington Street

Washington Street (Boston)

Washington Street is a street originating in downtown Boston, Massachusetts that extends southwestward to the Massachusetts-Rhode Island state line. The majority of it was built as the Norfolk and Bristol Turnpike in the early nineteenth century...

, near West Street. Musical concerts, lectures, sermons, conferences, visual displays, and popular entertainments occurred there.

History

The Melodeon occupied the building of the former Lion Theatre (1836-1839) and Mechanics Institute (1839).

Proprietors of the Melodeon included the 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:...

 (1839); Leander Rodney (1844); Boston Theatre Company (1852); E. Warden (1857; temporarily re-named The Melodeon Varieties); Charles Francis Adams

Charles Francis Adams, Sr.

Charles Francis Adams, Sr. was an American lawyer, politician, diplomat and writer. He was the grandson of President John Adams and Abigail Adams and the son of President John Quincy Adams and Louisa Adams....

 (1859).

1830s-1840s

• 1839
  • Handel and Haydn Society.
• 1840
  • "Soiree musicale. The celebrated Rainer Family, or Tyrolese minstrels."
• 1842
  • Amateur concert for the benefit of the Warren Street Chapel.
  • Mr. Braham.
• 1843
  • Vocal entertainment by H. Russell.
  • Rossini's Stabat Mater, with Handel and Haydn Society.
  • Dr. Lardner
• 1844
  • Concert by Ole Bull
    Ole Bull
    Ole Bornemann Bull was a Norwegian violinist and composer.-Background:Bull was born in Bergen. He was the eldest of ten children of Johan Storm Bull and Anna Dorothea Borse Geelmuyden . His brother, Georg Andreas Bull became a noted Norwegian architect...
    
    , assisted by Miss Stone, Mr. Herwig, Mr. Hayter, and a full orchestra.
  • Henry Phillips, assisted by Miss Stone.
  • William Charles Macready
    William Charles Macready
    -Life:He was born in London, and educated at Rugby.It was his intention to go up to Oxford, but in 1809 the embarrassed affairs of his father, the lessee of several provincial theatres, called him to share the responsibilities of theatrical management. On 7 June 1810 he made a successful first...
    
    , Charlotte Cushman
    Charlotte Saunders Cushman
    Charlotte Saunders Cushman was an American stage actress.-Early life:She was a descendant in the eighth generation from Pilgrim Robert Cushman.Robert Cushman brought the family name to the United States on the Mayflower as a leader and great advocate for emigration to America...
    
    .
• 1845
  • Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association
    Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association
    The Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association of Boston, Massachusetts, was "formed for the sole purposes of promoting the mechanic arts and extending the practice of benevolence." Founding members included Paul Revere, Benjamin Russell, and others...
    
     13th triennial festival, 1st semi-centennial celebration.
  • Musical entertainment by Mr. Dempster.
• 1846
  • Haydn's The Creation, performed by the Handel and Haydn Society.
  • Hutchinson Family
    Hutchinson Family Singers
    The Hutchinson Family Singers were a 19th-century American family singing group who became the most popular American entertainers of the 1840s. The group sang in four-part harmony a repertoire of political, social, comic, sentimental and dramatic works, and are considered by many to be the first...
    
    .
  • Concert by C. Sivori.
• 1848
  • Steyermarkische Musical Company.
• 1849
  • Madame Biscaccianti and Strakosch.
  • Services on the occasion of the decease of the late president, James K. Polk
    James K. Polk
    James Knox Polk was the 11th President of the United States . Polk was born in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. He later lived in and represented Tennessee. A Democrat, Polk served as the 17th Speaker of the House of Representatives and the 12th Governor of Tennessee...
    
    .
  • Sermon of the Spiritual Condition of Boston, preached by Theodore Parker
    Theodore Parker
    Theodore Parker was an American Transcendentalist and reforming minister of the Unitarian church...
    
    .

1850s

• 1850
  • Annetta Stephani.
  • Handel's Jeptha, with Boston Musical Education Society.
  • "Optical wonders. Whipple's grand exhibition of dissolving views! Magnifiying daguerreotypes
    Daguerreotype
    The daguerreotype was the first commercially successful photographic process. The image is a direct positive made in the camera on a silvered copper plate....
    
    , kaleidoscope pictures, & pyramic fires."
• 1852
  • "Professor Anderson, the wizard of the North"
  • Handel's Samson, with Handel and Haydn Society.
  • Donetti's Comic Troupe of Acting Monkeys
  • Germania Musical Society
    Germania Musical Society
    The Germania Musical Society was a classical musical group that performed in the United States in the mid-19th century. Its musicians emigrated from Germany. Carl Lenschow and Carl Bergmann served as directors...
    
    
• 1854
  • Magician Macallister.
  • "Splendid miror of North and South America"; presented by J. Perham.
  • "Italia", panorama by Waugh.
• 1855
  • J. H. Siddons.
  • Josiah Perham's Ethiopian Troupe and Great Burlesque Company.
  • New England Anti-Slavery Convention.
  • William Makepeace Thackeray
    William Makepeace Thackeray
    William Makepeace Thackeray was an English novelist of the 19th century. He was famous for his satirical works, particularly Vanity Fair, a panoramic portrait of English society.-Biography:...
    
    
• 1857
  • Lola Montez
    Lola Montez
    Eliza Rosanna Gilbert, Countess of Landsfeld , better known by the stage name Lola Montez, was an Irish dancer and actress who became famous as a "Spanish dancer", courtesan and mistress of King Ludwig I of Bavaria, who made her Countess of Landsfeld. She used her influence to institute liberal...
    
    .
• 1858
  • The Bunyan Tableaux.
  • Orpheus Glee Club, Lucy A. Doane, Hugo Leonhard.
• 1859
  • Melodeon Minstrels.

1860s

• 1860
  • Parlor operas, with Mr. & Mrs. Henri Drayton.
• 1862
  • French Zouaves.
  • Stereopticon
    Stereopticon
    A stereopticon is a slide projector or "magic lantern", which has two lenses, usually one above the other.These devices date back to the mid 19th century, and were a popular form of entertainment and education before the advent of moving pictures...
    
    .
  • M. Lizzie Bell, Agnes A. Kenney.
  • "Master Rentz's second annual subscription concert," with the Mendelssohn Quintette Club
    Mendelssohn Quintette Club
    The Mendelssohn Quintette Club based in Boston, Massachusetts, was one of "the most active and most widely known chamber ensemble[s] in America" in the latter half of the 19th-century...
    
    , Adeline S. Washburn.
• 1864
  • Arthur Cheney, H.C. Barnabee, John F. Pray.
  • Morton's The angel of the attic.
• 1865
  • A. Bronson Alcott
    Amos Bronson Alcott
    Amos Bronson Alcott was an American teacher, writer, philosopher, and reformer. As an educator, Alcott pioneered new ways of interacting with young students, focusing on a conversational style, and avoided traditional punishment. He hoped to perfect the human spirit and, to that end, advocated a...