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Lecture Tour of America 1882

Writing and Research on Oscar Wilde

Boston

Massachusetts

Globe Theatre

Friday, June 2, 1882 (Afternoon)

The Decorative Arts

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Verification

Newspaper notice

The Fitchburg Sentinel, June 3, 1882, 2

Wilde's second lecture in Boston.

Letter (Oscar Wilde)

To Ian Forbes Robertson

May 28, 1882, O'Neill House, Woodstock, ON

I have been obliged to alter my Boston lecture to next Friday.

‍Venue

‍Globe Theatre (1874)

‍364 Washington Street, near the corner of Essex Street, Boston, MA

‍

‍Original building: 1867 (as Selwyn's)

‍Destroyed (fire): May 1873

‍Second building: December 1874 (B.F. Dwight, architect)

‍Seating capacity: 2200

‍Destroyed (fire): January 1894

‍

‍* There was a third Globe Theatre at 692 Washington Street built in 1903 (Arthur H. Vina, architect), extant

Accommodation

Vendome Hotel

SW corner of Commonwealth Avenue and Dartmouth Street, Boston, MA

Built: 1871 (William G. Preston, architect)

Sold: 1879

Expanded: 1881-82 (J.F. Ober, architect)

Sold: 1971, renovated

Partially destroyed (fire): June 17, 1972*. Subsequently rebuilt

Extant as an office and condominium complex

* In terms of loss of life, the Vendome fire is the worst fire-fighting disaster in Boston history. Nine fire-fighters died when a 40-by-45 foot section of wall collapsed burying a ladder truck (Ladder 15) and seventeen firefighters beneath a two-story pile of debris.

Ephemera

Letter sent from Boston by Wilde to his manager, Col. W. F. Morse:

“Mr. Moore paid only 250 dollars - and no expenses at all.”

John Cooper on Oscar Wilde © 2026