Once Rochester's premier lecture hall, site of addresses by such luminaries as abolitionists Susan B. Anthony and William Lloyd Garrison, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Horace Greeley, and many others.  

The building was constructed in 1849 on Exchange Place (later Corinthian Street) behind the Reynolds Arcade, Rochester's first truly great commercial building. The architect was Henry Searle; the owner was the Rochester Athenaeum and Mechanics Association, led by Arcade owner William A. Reynolds. Originally the building was to be called the Athenaeum. Inspired by the Corinthian columns adorning its stage, Reynolds chose instead to dub it Corinthian Hall.  

Corinthian Hall was the site of Frederick Douglass's famous July 5, 1852, "Fifth of July" speech condemning the fraud of celebrating the Fourth of July as a festival of freedom for all while the nation still held slaves.  

During 1859, Susan B. Anthony attempted to establish a Free Church in Rochester, renting Corinthian Hall for a series of Sunday evening lectures. Anthony biographer Ida Husted Harper said Anthony was inspired by the similar church launched in Boston by the liberal Congregationalist reformer Theodore Parker, "where no doctrines should be preached and all should be welcome." Several lectures were held, always at a financial loss, and ultimately the plan had to be abandoned.  

On October 26, 1877, Corinthian Hall was the site of the first annual convention of the National Liberal League, the period's most prominent national freethought organization. 

The building was remodeled in 1879 and was thereafter known as the Academy of Music. 

In September 1883, the building was the site of a convention of the New York State Freethinkers Association. Rochester freethinker Charles B. Reynolds, whom Robert Green Ingersoll would famously defend against blasphemy charges three years later, delivered a eulogy for atheist publisher D. M. Bennett. On September 1, religious skeptic John E. Remsburg delivered an address titled "False Claims."\

In addition, agnostic orator Robert Green Ingersoll spoke at this site on at least three occasions: on January 11, 1878. when he delivered his lecture "Liberty"; on February 21, 1878, when he delivered his lecture "Individuality"; and on January 26, 1885, when he delivered his lecture "Which Way?". 

Destroyed in an 1898 fire, the building was rebuilt in 1904 as the Corinthian Theater. It closed in 1928 and was razed the following year. Its site is now occupied by a dreary parking structure. Corinthian Street was reduced to its present stature by construction of the Midtown Plaza project in 1962.  http://www.freethought-trail.org/site.php?By=Person&Page=1&Site=41 

December 6, 1884, 2 performances 

Images from: http://www.rochester.lib.ny.us/rochimag/roads/map4.htm