Sinfonia was founded at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston in 1898. At the time, NEC occupied the former St. James Hotel on Franklin Square in Boston’s South End.
In 1903 or so, the Conservatory moved to its current location on Gainsborough Street in Boston. The building where we were founded is now public housing for the elderly, the Franklin Square House Apartments. So, count us in with the groups that have no chance of preserving their birthplace.
But GCers around my age or older may remember the great television show
St. Elsewhere from the 1980s. The old NEC—our founding place—served as the exterior of the show’s St. Eligius Hospital. You can see it in
the opening theme from the show here. (From Season 3 -- check the cast.) The theme music for the opening was written by Dave Grusin, a 1953 initiate of our Beta Chi Chapter at the University of Colorado.