Metropolitan Hall, Hornellsville

1 Handbill promoting March 20-21 freethought lectures by Charles B. Reynolds and wife at Hornellsville's Metropolitan Hall. Click on handbill to see image at larger size. 2 Erie Railroad promotional art depicts Hornellsville in the 1880s.

Handbill promoting March 20-21 freethought lectures by Charles B. Reynolds and wife at Hornellsville's Metropolitan Hall. Click on handbill to see image at larger size.

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Hornellsville (now Hornell), after 1850 a major waypoint on the New York and Erie Railroad, hosted several significant freethought events. Metropolitan Hall was an important meeting venue. Located at the corner of Pearl and Loder Streets, it is known to be the site of a March 20-21, 1886 lecture series by minister-turned-freethinker Charles B. Reynolds and his wife.

The New York Freethinkers Association, despite its name a national organization, held conventions at unknown locations in Hornellsville on September 2-6, 1880, and again in 1881. The 1880 convention was described by the New York Times as "the largest and most important convention of the kind ever held in the country." Speakers included Robert Green Ingersoll and Lucy N. Colman.

Either or both of these conventions may have been held in Metropolitan Hall.

Seating 600, it was actually the smallest of three opera houses in Hornellsville. On December 26, 1879, it was badly damaged by fire. Little else is known about this facility.