{"nrhp_refnum":"80000445","name":"Metropolitan Theatre","other_names":["Music Hall"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"252-272 Tremont St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Boston","county":"Suffolk County","state":"MA","lat":42.35036749400007,"lon":-71.06515720599998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1980-12-09","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Performing Arts"],"significance_levels":["national","state","local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"The Music Hall/Metropolitan Theatre is a large theatre and office building at 252-272 Tremont Street in Boston, built 1923-1925 and opened October 17, 1925. Blackall, Clapp and Whittemore were the chief designers, and Olympia Construction Co. was the builder.","why_significant":"The form calls it the largest theatre in Boston history and one of the largest in the country, and the best example of the sumptuous 1920s movie palace. It was also the last of Clarence Blackall's 14 Boston theatres. The theatre sits in an office building that was the first in Boston built under a new 14-story height limit.","narrative":"Rising 14 stories on Tremont Street in Boston, this combined theatre and office building was designed in the Renaissance Revival palazzo manner and opened in October 1925. Its 11-bay facade features a two-story colonnade of fluted Ionic columns, and Corinthian pilasters and a dentil cornice with palmette and theatre-mask cresting crown the top. The theatre reputedly cost $8.5 million and seats roughly 4,200 to 4,400, making it the largest in Boston history and among the largest nationally. Clarence Blackall, a leading American theatre architect, designed it as the last of his 14 Boston theatres. The interior followed Garnier's Paris Opera, with Louis XIV decoration, a grand lobby, gold-plated chandeliers and a central mural. It offered films alongside lavish stage shows with a resident ballet, chorus and orchestra. After the Boston Opera House was demolished in 1958, it hosted visiting ballet and opera companies. It was also the first building in Boston constructed under a new 14-story height limit.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Blackall, Clapp and Whittemore (chief designers); also C. Howard Crane, Kenneth Franzheim, G. Nelson Meserve; builder Olympia Construction Co.","architectural_style":"Renaissance Revival \"palazzo skyscraper\"","criteria":[],"status_note":"Listed as in good condition on the form; plans called for converting the Music Hall into a center for ballet and opera, leased to a nonprofit group in 1980 if funds were raised.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:54.020339-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/51/7927/63792751/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/80000445.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80000445/b871c51eba-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80000445/b871c51eba-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 3.0","author":"Tim Pierce","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Boston_MA_Wang_Theatre.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Tim Pierce</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Boston_MA_Wang_Theatre.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63792751","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wang_Theatre","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7967635"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/suffolk-county/metropolitan-theatre-80000445/"}