Get ready to see a piece of Boston that very few people know about.
Tucked 40 feet below street level in the heart of the city sits a stunning piece of the past: Steinert Hall.
As part of our "Into the Air, Land and Sea" series, TODAY is taking you on a virtual tour of this iconic space, appropriately nicknamed “The Little Gem.”
“People walk by here every day and they don’t know what’s below their feet,” Paul Murphy, who formerly owned Steinert Hall, told Matt Lauer during a recent visit.
Built in 1896 to display pianos, Steinert Hall soon became a grand venue for performances.
The room’s curved walls created stunning acoustics for performances by musicians that included Polish pianist and former prime minister of Poland Ignacy Jan Paderewski, as well as pianist Sergei Rachmaninoff.
Sadly, it's been out of use since 1942 and is now mostly used for storage as the busy people of Boston hurry along aboveground.
Victor Coelho, professor of music at Boston University said, “There’s a particular beauty about the way it looks now, in its state of peeling paints and floors that are broken.”
There is indeed.