HOWARD HISTORY

The Baltimore Sun

As reported July 15, 1967, in The Sun:

About 2,500 music lovers walked through driving rain and thick mud last night to bring a wide smile to one man's face.

James W. Rouse, beaming from ear to ear, saw one of his special projects come to life in the opening of the summer festival at his new and developing city of Columbia.

Mr. Rouse stood inside and watched his guests slog through wet fields from distant parking lots to almost fill the Merriweather Post Pavilion.

People from Washington, Baltimore and Lynchburg, Va., were, due to rain and heavy traffic, late, soaked and " chilled to the bone," but they got to Columbia for what may be the summer's most exciting cultural adventure.

Dodging an army of Secret Service men, Vice President [Hubert H.] Humphrey ducked in the back door before the gala concert and exclaimed to his host: " My, you've got to love music."

Mayor McKeldin attended the concert with his wife and his son, Theodore R. McKeldin Jr., and his wife.

The concert marked the first performance of the Washington National Symphony Orchestra, with Van Cliburn as guest performer, in its new summer home. The orchestra conductor, Howard Mitchell, led the symphony.

The evening also marked the marriage of the symphony, which has been looking for a summer home, and the brand new city , which has been looking for a summer orchestra.

"This is our first truly great event, and what could be more wonderful than to have a great symphony proclaiming the birth of our new city," Mr. Rouse said before the concert.

In a brief ceremony at the beginning of the concert, which began 20 minutes late, the vice president dedicated the amphitheater and presented Mrs. Marjorie Merriweather Post and Mr. Rouse with two permanent tickets to the summer festival.

Vice President Humphrey congratulated Mr. Rouse and acclaimed the builder's ideas of city building.

"We must do the same thing in the center of the older cities," he said. "They can't be just a place to sleep and to work," he said.

The $650,000, semicircular structure was designed by Gehry, Walsh and O'Malley, Baltimore architects. Christopher Jaffe designed the acoustical shell, which, combined with a reinforced high-fidelity sound system, is expected to generate the tremendous volume needed to reach the audiences on the surrounding slopes outside the amphitheater.

The pavilion is located on a 10-acre woodland site donated by the Rouse Company to the symphony. It will seat 3,000 and an additional 4,000 to 5,000 will be able to hear musical performances from the nearby grounds.

Originally, the Rouse Company planned to build a tent as the music theater, but later decided that a permanent structure would be more appropriate and would provide far better acoustics.

[Paul McCardell, Sun library researcher]

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