Over the Top – Lobby, Cutler Majestic Theatre, Tremont Street, Boston, Massachusetts

The Majestic Theatre opened on February 16, 1903 with a performance of the jolly musical comedy, The Storks. Eben Dyer Jordan commissioned architect John Galen Howard to design The Majestic, who was one of only 400 American architects trained at the École des Beaux-Arts (School of Fine Arts) in Paris in the late 1800s. Howard attended MIT before moving to Paris so his design of the Majestic combines plain old Yankee ingenuity with the classical perfection, Rococo decoration, functional quality, and pure visual fun taught at the Beaux Arts School. He used the newly invented electric light bulb to proclaim the theater’s grandeur by accenting the tall columns, soaring arches, and stained glass of the facade. The pattern was repeated in the lobby and auditorium – 4,500 light bulbs in all.

The École des Beaux-Arts lead a resurgence of the highly decorative forms such as Rococo, blending them with Classical forms and accents referring to current popular styles. The Majestic therefore has a unique fusion of Classical form and art nouveau, with a touch of the Rococo influence. Since every piece of decorative plaster is gilded and the scheme has more decorative plaster than other forms (and hence an almost overwhelming amount of bright gold leaf ) the Majestic was called "The House of Gold."