Statement of Significance

The Music Hall contributes to the Equinox Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972 and amended in 1980. In 1983, the VDHP enlarged the district to form the Manchester Village Historic District.

According to the 1983 amendment, the Manchester Village Historic District is significant

As the oldest recreational resort community in New England, if not in the northeastern United States. It is comprised of an excellent collection of well-preserved structures dating from the late eighteenth to early twentieth centuries. Manchester Village is not a typical Vermont community. It represents, rather, a rural village which has grown, slowly but steadily, from a collection of early turnpike taverns, through a lengthy period of hotel resort development, into an exclusive resort environment of summer homes catering to a varied but thoroughly cosmopolitan population, to today's community of year-round permanent residents. Its architecture reflects this history and, in doing so, gives the district a strong sense of time and place.7

The Music Hall is significant under Criterion A at a local level for its contributions to the recreation, entertainment, and social history of Manchester Village. It was a community resource between 1868 and 1912. During this time, residents and visitors used the building for lectures, concerts, plays, public auctions, and graduation exercises. When visitors filled the Equinox Hotel during the summer months, the guests used the building's billiards room, dance hall, indoor putting green, casino, and bowling alley.

The Music Hall is significant under Criterion A at a local level in its role as a lodging facility used for the Equinox Hotel's guests and staff after the conversion of the building in 1912. The hotel removed the 500-person auditorium, inserted the second floor, and turned all three levels into lodging spaces.

The Music Hall no longer possesses any interior features related to the building's use as a community resource. The auditorium and bowling alleys no longer exist, and the building layout reflects its use as a lodging facility. The exterior experienced profound changes, as well. While the north elevation retains several original features such as the central pavilion, decorative woodwork, and corner pilasters, the hotel removed the large, two-story windows and installed the second floor in 1912.

7 Fisher, Courtney, Manchester Village Historic District National Register Form, Manchester, Bennington County, Vermont, United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service, 1983.