Boston Opera House

Designee by theater architect Thomas W. Lamb, Boston’s Opera House opened in 1928 as the B.F. Keith Memorial Theatre. Built as a lavish movie palace for the Keith-Albee vaudeville and motion picture circuit, the theater featured an opulent interior of ornamental plaster, decorative painting, gilding, and murals. After closing in 1990, years of vacancy and extensive water infiltration left the landmark theater and many of its elaborate finishes severely deteriorated.

As part of the theater’s comprehensive restoration, EverGreene conducted a historic finishes investigation to document the original decorative schemes and guide the conservation and restoration work. Our artisans and conservators restored ornamental plaster, recreated decorative painting and finishes, and repaired and restored the Dutch metal gilding throughout the interior.

EverGreene also conserved the theater’s historic murals, which had suffered significant damage from water infiltration and years of neglect. Treatments included stabilization, cleaning, inpainting, and the replication of missing sections where necessary to restore the visual continuity of the compositions. In a subsequent phase, EverGreene carefully removed and conserved a series of historic murals from the theater’s Basement Lounge.

The restored theater reopened in 2004, bringing one of Boston’s great historic performance spaces back to life. Renamed the Citizens Bank Opera House in 2019, it continues to serve as a major venue for ballet, touring Broadway productions, and other live performances while preserving the elaborate architectural artistry of Thomas Lamb’s original 1928 design.