Notes |
Th music lovers of the city felt the need a century ago of co-operative encouragement of the art and some practical assistance
to professionals in want of support. To this end the Musical Fund Society was organized in 1820 and incorporated three months
later. In 1824 the Society purchased a church structure upon the south side of Locust street, west from Eighth street, and
adapted it to their requirements. Then in the centre of a refined residential section, it was long a fashionable place of
entertainment. Its auditorium as known far and wide as the finest in its acoustic quality in the United States. The most eminent
song artistes of their time appeared upon its stage, including Malibran, Sontag, Jenny Lind, Alboni, Grisi, Mario, Ole Bull,
and Vieuxtemps. Concert orchestras often numbered on hundred and twenty performers. The present drawing represents the original
facade. The Society still exists, and its once-noted home, dingy and forgotten, is now environed by a decadent vicinage and
elbowed by crowding industries. There are yet some living who cannot look upon the old structure without a sense of fond recollection
of the gifted ones, the gay throngs of friends, the triumphs of which only fading memories now remain.
|