Massachusetts

http://www.messynessychic.com/2014/04/22/the-secret-symphinic-stage-forgotten-35-feet-below-a-local-piano-shop/

22nd Apr, 2014

The Secret Symphonic Stage Forgotten 40 feet below a Local Piano Shop
By MessyNessy
22nd Apr, 2014

~snip~



The “acoustically perfect” theatre was built by Alexander Steinert, son of Morris Steinert, a German immigrant who arrived in Boston in the mid 1800s along with his dream of opening an American piano store. Alexander commissioned the 650 seater concert hall for musicians to benefit from a unique acoustic environment, buried deep enough to entirely silence the noise of the busy Boston streets.



World-renowned pianists and opera singers alike performed on this stage but Steinert Hall hasn’t hosted an audience or heard the echoes of musicians’ instruments since 1942, the same year an unforgettable tragedy struck Boston’s entertainment scene and shocked the nation.

It was the year 492 people would die in the deadliest nightclub fire in history at the Cocoanut Grove. Following the horrifying incident, building codes would never be the same again. Subterranean spaces in particular, became subject to strict fire regulations. With a capacity for 650 people and a serious lack of fire exits 40 feet below ground, Steinhert had no chance of surviving the new wave of laws that saw many establishments heavily fined and ultimately shut down. The costly upgrades were simply out of budget and the sounds of Steinhert Hall were silenced under lock and key.



While the piano shop at ground-level continued to specialise in Steinways and become a well-known and trusted name in the Boston music community, the once treasured theatre was quickly forgotten by the cultural elite that had frequented its underground auditorium. As decades passed, it became a mysterious urban legend, unseen even by the majority of the staff themselves at M. S Steinert & Sons. Some in-the-know Bostonians heard the whispers of a secret subterranean theatre, but few believed it was really there.