The Boston Opera House (originally the B. F. Keith Memorial Theatre) was built at the height of the Roaring Twenties as a vaudeville theater and movie palace by Keith’s business partner Edward Albee. Its sumptuous Baroque interior was designed by the distinguished theater architect Thomas W. Lamb and was described by the Historic American Buildings Survey as “one of the finest examples of the moving picture palace at its highest stage of development.”
When it opened in October 1928, the Keith Memorial Theatre was equipped to show only silent films. At the same time, vaudeville was declining in popularity, being replaced by the talking cinema. In the spring of 1929 the Keith Memorial operated strictly as a vaudeville theatre offering two shows a day. This soon changed when it became exclusively a movie palace (for sound movies) by the fall of 1929. After decades of neglect, a brief time as the home of the Boston Opera Company, destructive alterations and extensive damage from roof leaks, the theater was rehabilitated using federal historic tax credits and reopened in 2004 as a performing arts theater. Now home to the Boston Ballet, the former Keith Memorial Theatre has excellent acoustics which continue to enhance the audience experience.