You are here

M. Harriet McCormick Performing Arts Center (Strand Theater)

-A A +A
Strand Theater
1917–1918, Funk and Wilcox; 1979, William Reisman and Associates. 543 Columbia Rd.
  • M. Harriet McCormick Performing Arts Center (Strand Theater) (Keith Morgan)

Located among densely built-up early-twentieth-century commercial blocks at Upham's Corner, the Strand was the earliest movie palace in suburban Boston. Nathan Gordon, a New England theater mogul who began his career in Worcester in 1903 and eventually owned a chain of seventy-five theaters, built it. Funk and Wilcox created a narrow facade in the form of a classical proscenium arch with a monumental lunette at the second-floor level. Above is a parapet emblazoned with the name “Strand.” William Reisman and Associates restored the interior with its Adamesque ornamentation.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Keith N. Morgan
×

Data

What's Nearby

Citation

Keith N. Morgan, "M. Harriet McCormick Performing Arts Center (Strand Theater)", [Boston, Massachusetts], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/MA-01-DR11.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of Massachusetts

Buildings of Massachusetts: Metropolitan Boston, Keith N. Morgan, with Richard M. Candee, Naomi Miller, Roger G. Reed, and contributors. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2009, 258-258.

If SAH Archipedia has been useful to you, please consider supporting it.

SAH Archipedia tells the story of the United States through its buildings, landscapes, and cities. This freely available resource empowers the public with authoritative knowledge that deepens their understanding and appreciation of the built environment. But the Society of Architectural Historians, which created SAH Archipedia with University of Virginia Press, needs your support to maintain the high-caliber research, writing, photography, cartography, editing, design, and programming that make SAH Archipedia a trusted online resource available to all who value the history of place, heritage tourism, and learning.

,