Quick facts
- Address: 539 Tremont Street, Boston, MA — South End
- Built: 1884, by architects Cummings and Sears (the firm behind Copley Square's Old South Church and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum)
- Original purpose: To display Paul Philippoteaux's 360-degree painting The Battle of Gettysburg, about 400 feet around and 50 feet high
- Name: "Cyclorama" comes from the Greek for "circular view"
- Today: A 23,000-square-foot domed event hall operated by the Boston Center for the Arts; on the National Register of Historic Places since 1973
The South End is full of buildings with second acts. The Cyclorama has had at least six. Over roughly 140 years, this round brick hall on Tremont Street has been a Civil War spectacle, a roller rink, a boxing arena, a car garage, the birthplace of an automotive empire, a wholesale flower market, and — finally, fittingly — a home for art again. Here's how one of Boston's most unusual buildings earned its many lives.
Built for a battle (1884)
In the 1880s, before film, the cyclorama was the closest thing to virtual reality on earth: a vast 360-degree painting wrapped around the inside of a circular room, designed to drop the viewer into the middle of an event.
Chicago department-store magnate Charles Willoughby commissioned a Boston cyclorama after seeing the format's success elsewhere, and hired the prominent firm of Charles Amos Cummings and Willard T. Sears to build a home for it. The same duo had designed Old South Church in Copley Square and would go on to design the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. For the Cyclorama they produced a fortress-like brick rotunda — turrets, castellated detailing, arrow-slit windows — capped by one of the largest domes in the country at the time, reportedly second only to the U.S. Capitol.
The star attraction was The Battle of Gettysburg, painted by French artist Paul Dominique Philippoteaux, who had spent months interviewing survivors and sketching the battlefield. The canvas ran roughly 400 feet around and stood about 50 feet tall. When it opened on December 22, 1884, Bostonians paid 50 cents to climb a narrow passage and a flight of stairs to a central viewing platform. There, the painting seemed to stretch for miles — and a three-dimensional foreground of real dirt, debris, canteens, and cannons completed the illusion. Earth was ramped up against the canvas, the air was scented to evoke gunpowder, and Civil War veterans were often on hand. The battle had ended barely two decades earlier; for many visitors, it was living memory.
A building of many lives
Public taste is fickle. By 1889 the Gettysburg canvas had been swapped for a new panorama, Custer's Last Fight, but by 1890 the cyclorama craze had faded.
What happened next is the fun part. The building passed to John Gardner — father-in-law of Isabella Stewart Gardner — who reinvented it as a popular entertainment hall. Over the following years it hosted a carousel, roller skating, horseback and bicycle riding, and boxing, including an 1894 bout featuring heavyweight champion John L. Sullivan.
Then came the automobile age. By the turn of the century the space had become an industrial garage, home over time to the New England Electric Vehicle Company, the Tremont Garage, and a Buick agency. During this era the building's original martial facade and towers were removed and a squared-off Tremont Street extension was added.
It was here, around 1905–1907, that French bicycle racer Albert Champion set up shop and developed the spark plug that would carry his name — before moving to a larger Roxbury factory in 1908 and, eventually, into the orbit of General Motors. In other words, a piece of the modern auto industry was born inside a building made for a Civil War painting.
In 1922–1923 the building was sold to the Boston Flower Exchange, which made it the center of the region's wholesale florist trade for nearly half a century. The Flower Exchange replaced the original dome with a skylight and reworked the entrance, giving the building much of the more restrained look it wears today. It remained the flower market until around 1970.
The Cyclorama today
When the Flower Exchange moved out, the building came full circle. In 1970 it was selected to anchor the Boston Center for the Arts (BCA), and in 1973 it was added to the National Register of Historic Places as a contributing property in the South End historic district.
Today the Cyclorama is the BCA's signature venue: a dramatic round, brick-lined hall of about 23,000 square feet, crowned by a luminous copper skylight dome. It can host anywhere from 100 to 1,000 guests (up to roughly 875 seated), and its blend of historic grandeur and industrial-chic simplicity has made it one of Boston's most coveted event spaces. Over the year it fills with galas, art and antiques fairs, design shows, performances, and the SoWa arts events that the South End is known for. The BCA campus around it stretches along Tremont Street between Clarendon and Berkeley, mixing historic and modern arts buildings.
Stand under that dome today and it's easy to forget you're in the same room where Bostonians once gathered to "witness" Pickett's Charge — but the bones of that 1884 spectacle are still very much there.
Visiting and location
The Cyclorama sits on Tremont Street in the heart of the South End, surrounded by the largest collection of Victorian brownstones in New England and steps from the neighborhood's restaurants, galleries, and the SoWa district. It's easily reached by public transit, and for South End residents it doubles as a cultural anchor — the kind of landmark that makes a neighborhood feel like a destination.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Cyclorama building in Boston? It's an 1884 domed brick hall at 539 Tremont Street in the South End, originally built to display a giant 360-degree painting of the Battle of Gettysburg. Today it's operated by the Boston Center for the Arts as an event and performance venue.
Why was the Cyclorama built? It was purpose-built to house Paul Philippoteaux's panoramic painting The Battle of Gettysburg — roughly 400 feet around and 50 feet high — as an immersive, early form of "virtual reality" entertainment.
Was the spark plug really invented in the Cyclorama? Albert Champion is widely credited with developing his namesake spark plug in the building in the early 1900s, when it was used as an auto garage, before he relocated his operation to Roxbury and later Michigan.
What is the Cyclorama used for now? It's the Boston Center for the Arts' flagship venue — a 23,000-square-foot domed hall used for galas, art and antiques fairs, design shows, and performances, hosting up to about 1,000 guests.
Where is the Gettysburg Cyclorama painting today? The painting left Boston long ago and is now displayed at the Gettysburg National Military Park Visitor Center in Pennsylvania.
The South End's history is one of its greatest assets — and understanding it is part of how Remmes & Co. helps clients buy and sell in Boston's most storied neighborhood. Reach out anytime for a conversation about living near landmarks like the Cyclorama.