THE MUSIC MANSION

The Music Mansion is an elegant neo-Georgian concert hall housed in a stately English manor home designed by architect Albert Harkness and built in 1928 on College Hill in Providence. Created by Mary K. Hail, an accomplished classical pianist who studied in Berlin and London, the design allowed her to live on the second floor while the main level housed a concert hall and reception rooms. Today it hosts performances by the Chaminade Club, Chopin Club, and serves as home stage for Stone Soup Coffeehouse, Rhode Island's longest-running folk venue.

The intimate setting offers a distinctly personal concert experience from classical music to folk, jazz, and contemporary acoustic artists. The remarkable accessibility design features a balcony accessible directly from the second floor, which Mary K. Hail used in her wheelchair to observe rehearsals—one of the early examples of thoughtful performance space design for people with mobility considerations.

Mary Kimball Hail founded the prestigious Chaminade Club in 1905 and served multiple times as its president. Upon her death in 1948, she bequeathed the mansion to Providence for "free of charge" classical music performances, leaving a trust fund to ensure its maintenance. In 1996, the nonprofit Friends of the Music Mansion was established to preserve this cultural institution.