Melodeon (Boston, Massachusetts)
# Melodeon (Boston, Massachusetts)

The Melodeon (1839 - ca.1870) was a concert hall and performance space in 19th-century Boston, Massachusetts, located on Washington Street, 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 (1839); Leander Rodney (1844); Boston Theatre Company (1852); E. Warden (1857; temporarily renamed The Melodeon Varieties); Charles Francis Adams (1859).

## Performances & events

### 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, assisted by Miss Stone, Mr. Herwig, Mr. Hayter, and a full orchestra.
   * Henry Phillips, assisted by Miss Stone.
   * William Charles Macready, Charlotte Cushman.
* 1845
   * Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association 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.
   * 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.
   * Sermon of the Spiritual Condition of Boston, preached by Theodore Parker.

### 1850s

* 1850
   * Annetta Stephani.
   * Handel's Jeptha, with Boston Musical Education Society.
   * "Optical wonders. Whipple's grand exhibition of dissolving views! Magnifiying daguerreotypes, 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
* 1854
   * Magician Macallister.
   * "Splendid mirror 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
* 1857
   * Lola Montez.
* 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.
   * M. Lizzie Bell, Agnes A. Kenney.
   * "Master Rentz's second annual subscription concert," with the Mendelssohn Quintette Club, Adeline S. Washburn.
   * Louis Moreau Gottschalk playing works by Chopin and Henselt.
* 1864
   * Arthur Cheney, H.C. Barnabee, John F. Pray.
   * Morton's The angel of the attic.
* 1865
   * A. Bronson Alcott
