Hatch Shell on the Charles River Esplanade in Boston

An open-air half-dome for concerts and entertainment

The Edward A. Hatch Memorial Shell is an outdoor performance center on Boston's Charles River Esplanade. This is where the Fourth of July celebration of the Boston Pops Orchestra, many free summer concerts and various other events have taken and still take place. Beginning in the summer of 1929, Boston-born Arthur Fiedler conducted the Boston Pops on the Esplanada, where the concert shell was later built in 1941.

The famous shell is named for Edward A. Hatch. His sister Maria Hatch donated $300,000 for the construction of the shell in 1941 to commemorate her deceased brother.

The interior woodcraft paneling of the spacious shell overarches performers with a half-corona and provides outstanding acoustics. The front walls of the stage basement display names of great composers such as Loeffler, MacDowell, Poster, Debussy, Herbert, Gluck, Chopin, Ravel, Wagner, Weber and Rimsky-Korokov—the latter with its letter y currently missing. But we don't gather here as spell checkers. We keep visiting this grand place to enjoy magnificent sounds and musical fireworks.

Hatch Shell on Charles River Esplanade west of Beacon Hill

An open-air half-dome for concerts and entertainment