The 1876 Academy of Music was Massachusetts' second largest theatre

Lydia Borden and her three children, Simeon, Nathaniel, Jr, and Louisa Borden Aldrich, wanted to build a memorial to their late husband, Nathaniel Briggs Borden. They hired noted Boston architects H.W. Hartwell and A.E. Swasey to design a Ruskinian Gothic Revival building in Fall River. Construction costs escalated during the building's creation due to foundation problems, sending expenses past the initial $260,000 estimate. This forced the family to obtain large mortgages from local banks and sell shares in the building to local businessmen. By July 1882, the three Borden siblings no longer owned the building.

When the building opened in 1876, it housed the Academy of Music, which was the second largest theatre in Massachusetts at the time. The first program on January 6, 1876, featured the Theodore Thomas Orchestra. Later, the theatre hosted the Boston Symphony Orchestra numerous times during the 1880s. The building also served as the city's first telephone exchange from 1879 to 1890. It functioned as a hive of commerce, featuring shops at street level and offices in its upper levels.

The building survived a mid-century renovation in 1946 and a close call with the wrecking ball in 1973. The Fall River Redevelopment Authority acquired the building in 1973 and initially planned to demolish it. However, the building was restored during the 1980s. During this restoration, the theatre portion of the building was removed.

Today, the building is primarily occupied by senior apartments with retail spaces at street level along South Main Street. It remains a historic structure, having been added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons