Papanti’s Dance Studio opens.

Operated by Tuscan Count Lorenzo Papanti, it proves extremely popular with Boston society. An 18-year-old Marian Lawrence subsequently writes in her diary, “Every girl of fifteen or sixteen went to [Papanti’s] Friday evening if she could . . . and danced with freshmen from Harvard.” A new studio opens in 1837 at today’s 2 Center Plaza (then 17 Tremont Row). It features the first ballroom with a dance floor on springs in the U.S., reputedly built to accommodate one of Papanti’s most generous – and generously proportioned – students, Mrs. Harrison Gray Otis. Papanti’s continues to operate until 1899.