A historic parking lot. From: Googlemaps 2020
The parking lot beside the Holiday Inn might not be the first place that comes to mind when one thinks of historic sites in Rochester, but as it happens, one of the city’s most significant buildings once stood at that very location.
In the 1840s, when Rochester was still in its infancy, the neighborhood surrounding what is now Corinthian Street was one of the dirtiest and most neglected areas in the city.
Work Street was the former name of Corinthian Street. The street on the left hand side is State Street and Main Street lies at the bottom of the image. From: Plan of the City of Rochester, 1851.
The same area today. The unmarked road is Corinthian Street. From: Googlemaps, 2020.
In 1848, seeking to remedy this situation, William A. Reynolds decided to build an edifice for the Athenaeum and Mechanics Association (the predecessor of RIT) directly behind his eponymous Reynolds Arcade building.
Reynolds, who became president of the Association in 1847, had initially conceived the structure as a library and reading room until his architect, Henry Searle, convinced him to add a third story to the building for a concert hall.
A circa 1866 engraving of Corinthian Hall. From: the Collection of the Rochester Public Library’s Local History & Genealogy Division.
Completed in 1849, the edifice was dubbed Corinthian Hall for the impressive columns that adorned its interior. In addition to its namesake architectural features, the venue was also outfitted with grand chandeliers and a ceiling paneled with Grecian moldings.
An engraving of the interior of Corinthian Hall, circa 1851. From: the Collection of the Rochester Public Library’s Local History & Genealogy Division.
Upon Corinthian Hall’s opening on June 28, 1849, the Rochester Daily Democrat raved that the building was, “…at once an ornament and one of the most desirable edifices for the purposes to which it is to be devoted, that can be found in the State. It might be too great praise to say that it has not its equal in the Union; but we venture the assertion that there are not many like it, or that combine its elegance, appropriate construction, in principle and detail, and commodiousness.”
The third floor concert hall that had been an architectural afterthought soon took precedence over the building’s original bibliophilic function.
Over the course of several decades, the venue welcomed some of the most significant artistic, literary, and political figures of the nineteenth century.
One of the first major artists to grace the Corinthian stage was world-renowned opera singer, Jenny Lind, who gave two concerts at the hall in July 1851.
Swedish songstress, Jenny Lind by Edward Magnus, 1862. From: Wikipedia Commons (image in public domain). Accessed March 18, 2020.
Lind, known as “The Swedish Nightingale” for her sweet soprano stylings, was so impressed with the venue that she reportedly called the hall the best she had seen in America.
An advertisement for the second night of Lind’s stint at Corinthian Hall. From: Rochester Union and Advertiser, July 23, 1851.
Other famous acts that performed at the hallowed hall included Wild West showman Buffalo Bill, humbugger and circus pioneer P.T. Barnum, and esteemed actor Edwin Booth. Booth, brother to the infamous actor and assassin, John Wilkes Booth, wowed Rochester audiences in 1873 with his stirring portrayal of Hamlet, prince of Denmark.
Edwin Booth as Hamlet. From: Library of Congress. Accessed: March 18, 2020.
Wordsmiths such as transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson, newspaper publisher Horace Greeley, and author Charles Dickens spoke at the venue as well. The latter drew some 800 people, though local reviews of the event suggested that Dickens’ talents as a writer vastly surpassed his skills as an orator.
Beyond serving as Rochester’s unparalleled entertainment venue for many years, Corinthian Hall was also the primary local meeting place for a number of religious and reform movements in the nineteenth century.
One of the first notable events the hall held, on November 14, 1849, was the first public séance of the Fox Sisters. That evening the siblings attempted to demonstrate the existence of ghosts via a series of mysterious noises, or, “rappings” that permeated the hall in their presence. Many in the 400-person audience remained skeptical following the séance, but the soiree nevertheless helped spark the Spiritualist movement.
The Spiritualist Fox Sisters. From: the Collection of the Rochester Public Library’s Local History & Genealogy Division.
Corinthian Hall was more associated with social reform than spiritualism, however. Temperance, suffrage, and anti-slavery activists all held meetings, lectures, and conferences at the site. Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass frequented the venue often, and the latter gave perhaps the most famous oration of his career, “What to the Slave is the 4th of July?” at the hall on July 5th, 1852.
Pamphlet of Frederick Douglass’ “What to the Slave is the 4th of July?” speech. From: the Collection of the Rochester Public Library’s Local History & Genealogy Division.
The esteemed establishment, which was rebranded the Corinthian Academy of Music in 1878, became increasingly known for its entertainment offerings in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Plays, concerts, and various forms of amusement took their turns on its stage until a devastating fire leveled the structure on December 2, 1898.
The interior of the lavish Corinthian Hall circa 1894. From: Rochester Union & Advertiser, September 8, 1894.
The day after the conflagration, Rochester resident George M. Elwood aptly summed up the lost landmark’s stature when he opined to the Democrat & Chronicle, “I very much doubt if anywhere in the world, certainly not in America, there are four walls standing, within which, at one time or another, have been seen and heard so many people distinguished in every branch of art, science, letters.”
The hall reopened in 1904 as the Corinthian Theatre, but operated largely as a burlesque destination, and–according to the Democrat and Chronicle, “a place of masculine entertainment”–until its closure in 1928.
The Corinthian Theatre in the last decade of its existence. From: Democrat and Chronicle, February 21, 1928.
The once incomparable venue was razed in 1929. Its former location has been used as a space to park cars ever since.
-Emily Morry
Local History ROCs! 
Bravo, Emily, on this wonderful article about the great and much-missed Corinthian Hall! My great-granduncle, Otto Dossenbach, made his Rochester debut in Corinthian Hall on March 27, 1873, with the violinist and conductor Henri Appy’s Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra (not the same as today’s). After this, Otto became known all over NYS, and beyond, as Rochester’s Wonderful Violinist! He performed in Corinithian Hall again the following December (and many times afterwards). I like to think of him playing in Corinthian Hall in 1873, when he was just 12 years old.
Edwin Booth was a frequent performer in Rochester. In 1857 he appeared at the Metropolitan Theatre. And on April 3, 1889 while appearing as Iago in Othello, he suffered a collapse that left many fearing for his life, leading the management at the theatre to announce, “We fear that this is the beginning of the end. The world may have heard for the last time the voice of the greatest actor who speaks the English language.” Although booth survived the attack, he never fully recovered and died 4 years later.