Blackall was a senior member of the Boston architectural firm Blackall, Clapp and Whittemore, and in 1889 he helped establish the Boston Architectural College as a club for local architects and as a training program for draftsman.[2]
He designed the 1894 Carter Winthrop Building, which was the first steel frame structure in the city of Boston.[3] In addition to its innovative technology, the structure also used terra cotta trim and featured a dramatic, deep, and overhanging cornice. Blackall is also credited with designing the Copley Plaza Hotel, the Foellinger Auditorium (1907) on the University of Illinois campus, as well as the Little Building (1917)[4] at Emerson College on the site of the Pelham Hotel (1857), the "first apartment house in any city along the Atlantic seaboard of the United States" according to architectural historian Walter Muir Whitehill. Blackall also designed Lowell, Massachusetts' first steel frame building, the ten story Sun Building (1912-1914).
Opened in 1908 and designed by Blackall, the Gaiety Theatre was one of the only theatres in New England that would allow African Americans to perform vaudeville.[5] It was also the first of Blackall's theatres to use a large steel girder to support the balcony, eliminating the need for architectural columns. Blackall was also responsible for Nathan H. Gordon's Olympia Theatre design, which opened as a film and vaudeville theatre on May 6, 1912.[6]
Blackall died in Concord, Massachusetts on March 5, 1942.
Notable works
Bowdoin Square Theatre, One Bowdoin Square, Boston MA; opened February 1892; demolished 1955
Castle Square Theatre, 421 Tremont St., Boston MA; opened 1894; demolished December 1932-January 1933[7]
Tremont Temple, 88 Tremont St., Boston MA; opened May 1896
Colonial Theatre, 100-106 Boylston St., Boston MA; 1653 seats; opened 20 December 1900[8]
Park Theatre (later the State), 619-621 Washington St., Boston MA; 1184 seats; remodeled by Blackall in 1903; demolished in 1990
Unique Theatre, 700 Washington St, Roxbury MA; opened in 1907[7]
Pastime Theatre, 581 Washington St., Boston MA; opened 1 February 1908; demolished circa 1914[9][7]
Gaiety Theatre (later the Publix), 661 Washington St., Boston MA; 1049 seats; opened 20 June 1908; demolished 2005[10]
Casino Theatre (a.k.a. Waldron's Casino), 44 Hanover St. at Scollay Square, Boston MA; 1300 seats; opened April 1909; demolished 1962[9][7]
^Hardin, Evamaria, Syracuse Landmarks: An AIA Guide to Downtown and Historic Neighborhoods, photographs by Jon Crispan, Syracuse University Press and Onondaga Historical Society
p. 35
^Morgan, Keith N. (2012). Esperdy, Gabrielle; Kingsley, Karen (eds.). "Temple Ohabei Shalom [Brookline, Massachusetts]". SAH Archipedia. Charlottesville: Society of Architectural Historians. Retrieved January 4, 2024.
Bibliography
Morrison, Craig (2005). Theaters. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., Inc. ISBN9780393731088.
