Henry G. Lapham

Henry G. Lapham was an American businessman who was founding president of the Boston Garden-Arena Corporation and a major sports promoter in Boston during the 1920s and 1930s.

Lapham was born in 1875 in Brooklyn to John Jesse and Mary Elizabeth (Walker) Lapham. He graduated from Yale University in 1897 and a year later moved to Boston.

Lapham's first position was as a clerk in the offices of the United States Leather Company. He later branched out into banking and brokerage and was involved in a number of businesses, including B. A. Corbin & Sons Co. (as treasurer), Eastern Massachusetts Street Railway Company, the National Rockland Bank, Franklin Shoe Company, and the Boston National League baseball club (as director). He was also a director of the Texas Company, which was founded by family member Lewis Henry Lapham. He resigned from the board in 1933.

Lapham joined the Boston Athletic Association in 1914. He was the BAA's vice president from 1918 to 1920. Lapham then served as president from 1920 to 1926, when he chose not to continue in that role due to business pressures. He was succeeded by George W. Wightman, husband of Hazel Hotchkiss Wightman.

Lapham played an instrumental role in the construction of the Boston Arena. In the late 1920s the arena received competition from the newly constructed Boston Garden, which was owned by the Boston & Maine Railroad and run by the Madison Square Garden Corporation. The Boston Garden was unable to make a profit and in 1934 the smaller Boston Arena Corporation, led by Lapham, purchased a controlling interest in the Boston Garden. In 1936, Lapham's group bought out the remaining stock owned by the Madison Square Garden Corporation. Under the management of Lapham and general manager George V. Brown, the Garden was able to become a prosperous venture.

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