Title:
Fensgate Dormitory.
Title:
534 Beacon Street (1 Charlesgate East).
Record Type:
dormitories (buildings)
Record Type:
dining halls
Record Type:
university and college buildings
Record Type:
photography (discipline)
Record Type:
photographs
Record Type:
black-and-white photography
Date:
1974
Description:
Exterior view of 534 Beacon Street, a modern limestone and red brick apartment building. In 1972, the college leased, and later purchased 534 Beacon Street for use as the Fensgate Dormitory. Hotel Fensgate was built in 1923-1924. The 72-room apartment house had a restaurant downstairs famous for its steak and lobster menu. Hotel Fensgate also gave an early start to the career of legendary music entrepreneur George Wein. Wein started a music series, La Jazz Doux at the Satire Room, before gaining fame with his Storyville nightclub and record label, and founding the music festivals at Newport (Newport Jazz and Newport Folk). During the late 1930s and 1940s, it also featured a small nightclub, the Satire Room (later renamed Cafe Society). In 1952, the club hosted the first Beaux Arts Ball, the highlight of the gay social season. The hotel manager disapproved of his lobby full of men dressed in chiffon and ladies in tuxedos, so the ball found another venue. The building would be used a dormitory and dining hall for Chandler School of Women (1961-1973), and briefly used for the same purpose by Boston University, before Emerson College moved-in. In 1982, an early incarnation of the ProArts Consortium was housed in the Emerson dormitory at Fensgate. The inter-arts residency program, then called Art House, consisted of a director and 50 students from the BAC, MassArt, the SMFA, and Emerson College. Emerson continued to operate Fensgate Dormitory until the mid-1990s.
Extent:
10 x 6.73 in.
Collection:
RG 004.05 Office of Communication & Marketing Prints and Negatives Collection
Location:
Emerson College Archives and Special Collections
Rights Restrictions:
This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s) (http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/). For questions about rights statements, or access to the original document please contact the Emerson College Archives and Special Collections at www.emerson.edu/library/archives.
Access Restrictions:
No known access restrictions
Language:
English
Identifier:
batch7_002a.jpg
