Museum of Fine Arts (first) opens.

[7/3] Architect: Sturgis & Brigham. Designed in the High Gothic style [Ruskinian Gothic style], it is located at today’s 138 Saint James Avenue. A second wing opens July 1, 1879 and a third wing on March 18, 1890. Art historian Arthur Dexter later calls it, “[A] beautiful and characteristic edifice . . . which no intelligent person, seeing it for the first time, could possibly take for anything but a museum.” The museum attracts 158,000 visitors in its first full year of operation, but most come on Saturdays and Sunday afternoons when admission is free. It moves to its current building (second) in the Fenway in 1909.* The original building is demolished and replaced by a hotel in 1912.*