Lyceum Hall

"Around the corner on Washington and Church streets, stands Lyceum Hall, built in 1831. Its exterior is unpretentious, its auditorium small and plain, but for lectures, readings and such entertainments it is most convenient. The hall is semi-circular in form, the rows of seats rising one above the other on an angle of thirty-five degrees," writes C. H. Webber in the book Old Naumkeag. Judge Daniel A. White, the president of the Lyceum, delivered the first lecture on Feb. 24, 1830. Among the well know lecturers in the succeeding years were: Francis Peabody, Henry K. Oliver, Rufus Choate, Daniel Webster, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and Horace Mann. On Feb. 12, 1877, in the Lyceum Hall an historic event took place. Alexander Graham Bell carried on the first telephone calls with his assistant Mr. Watson, who was in Boston in front of a large audience.