• Academy of Music, Baltimore, MD

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    The Academy of Music in Baltimore, Maryland was an important music venue in that city after opening following the American Civil War. The Academy was located at 516 North Howard Street. The Academy was demolished in the late 1920s, as the Stanley Theatre was being built in the same block.

    Wikipedia 

    Twain-Cable Tour: November 28 & 29, 1884

    Image from: http://mdhsphotographs.tumblr.com/page/12

  • Academy of Music, Fort Wayne, IN

    Submitted by scott on

    Academy of Music: 215 E. Berry St., Fort Wayne, IN (between Clinton and Barr Streets). It is the small white-fronted building at left  

    Built as The Rink: 1870  (a roller skating venue)  

    Converted to a public hall: c. 1878-80 

    Later known as The People's Theatre, which name is on the sign in the above image made from a photograph in 1899.  

  • Academy of Music, New York City

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    The Academy of Music was a New York City opera house, located at East 14th Street and Irving Place in Manhattan. The 4,000-seat hall opened on October 2, 1854. The New York Times review declared it to be an acoustical "triumph", but "In every other aspect ... a decided failure," complaining about the architecture, interior design and the closeness of the seating; although a follow-up several days later relented a bit, saying that the theater "looked more cheerful, and in every way more effective" than it had on opening night. 

  • Academy of Music, Philadelphia, PA

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    The Academy of Music, also known as American Academy of Music, is a concert hall and opera house located at 240 S. Broad Street between Locust and Manning Streets in the Avenue of the Arts area of Center City, Philadelphia It was built in 1855-57 and is the oldest opera house in the United States that is still used for its original purpose. Known as the "Grand Old Lady of Locust Street," the venue is the home of the Pennsylvania Ballet and the Opera Company of Philadelphia.

  • Allyn Hall, Hartford, Connecticut

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    The Allyn Hall Fire, commonly referred to as the “Auditorium Fire” or the “Happy Hour Fire,” occurred less than a week later on February 26, 1914. The auditorium, which opened in 1856, hosted many political gatherings as well as theatrical events. The building also housed a restaurant, offices, and a movie theater, which had begun showing “moving pictures” in 1909.

  • Athenaeum, Brooklyn

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    The Brooklyn Athenaeum and Reading Room was founded in 1852 by a group of prominent Brooklyn citizens as a library and respite for young men, where they could gather as well for instruction as for that innocent relaxation, which the wear and tear of mercantile life so imperiously demands, according to its first president, John Taylor, in his first annual report.

  • Blackstone Hall Building, Providence, RI

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    November 8, 1884 

    We were able to determine from the Providence Board of Trade Journal (vol. 2, p.94, 1891) that Blackstone Hall was on the corners of Washington and Snow Streets in downtown Providence. And that it could accommodate 500-600 people. We could not identify a specific address.  

    We do have a copy of a glass plate negative of Blackstone Hall which locates it at Washington and Acorn Sts. In the photo we believe the hall is the building with the cupola as it was described as "architecturally excellent" in that same Board of Trade mention. 

  • Boston Music Hall

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    The Boston Music Hall was a concert hall located on Winter Street in Boston, Massachusetts, with an additional entrance on Hamilton Place.

    One of the oldest continuously operating theaters in the United States, it was built in 1852 and was the original home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The hall closed in 1900 and was converted into a vaudeville theater named the Orpheum Theatre.  The Orpheum, which still stands today, was substantially rebuilt in 1915 by architect Thomas W. Lamb as a movie theater.

  • Brown's Hall, Rockford, IL

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    In 1863 the Rockford post office was located on S. Main Street what was then the Holland Block. At that time there was no mail delivery and people living on the east side of the river were forced to walk to retrieve their mail. So great was the agitation that several prominent citizens talked of building the post office on West State Street. Finally Horace Brown came forward and said that if he could be assured of the post office he would build a structure to house it. This assurance was given and the construction was begun. When the building was completed Mrs.

  • Burtis Opera House, Davenport, IA

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    The Burtis-Kimball House Hotel and the Burtis Opera House were located in downtown Davenport, Iowa, United States. The hotel was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. It has since been torn down and it was delisted from the NRHP in 2008. The theatre building has been significantly altered since a fire in the 1920s.

  • Central Music Hall, Chicago, IL

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    Central Music Hall (1879–1900) was a mixed-use commercial building and theater in Chicago, situated on the southeast corner of State and Randolph Streets. It was designed by celebrated German-born American architect Dankmar Adler. It was the first important building designed by the famous architect, in which he made initial use of his knowledge of acoustics. The building was demolished in 1900, around the same time Adler died, in order to build the Marshall Field & Company store, now Macy's.

  • Chatterton's Opera House, Springfield, IL

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    January 8, 1885 

    From http://sangamoncountyhistory.org/wp/?p=2456  Chatterton Opera House, Posted on October 30, 2013 by editor 

    However, on March 17, 1876, Rudolph’s was almost completely destroyed by fire. “There is a story that Mr. Bunn, upon being awakened with the news that the Opera house was burning down, remarked that he couldn’t put it out, and turned over and went to sleep again,” Gib Bunn wrote. 

  • Chickering Hall, New York

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    The firm also ran the "Chickering Hall" concert auditorium in New York City at no.130 Fifth Avenue, 1875-1901. The building was situated on the north-west corner (not north-east contrary to some sources) of Fifth Avenue and West Eighteenth Street, and was the venue for Oscar Wilde's first lecture in America. [Source: New York 1880: Architecture and Urbanism in the Gilded Age, Robert A.M. Stern (Author), Thomas Mellins (Author), David Fishman (Author)].  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chickering_and_Sons

  • Cleveland Music Hall

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    William H. Doan, industrialist, philanthropist, and grandson of the pioneer Nathaniel Doan, gave land on the north side of Vincent Street, between Bond and Erie, plus $10,000 toward construction of the Music Hall, a public auditorium to be used for religious, educational and musical advancement. The cost exceeded $50,000, and, as the city's largest meeting place, it seated 4300 persons. Opened November 9, 1885.

    http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2011/09/cleveland-music-hall-1220-east-6th-and.html

  • Comstock's Opera House, Columbus, OH

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    197 S High St, Columbus OH

    Became known as the Metropolitan Opera House
    Opened: 1862
    Closed: January 26, 1892

    The November 30, 1874, Dispatch reported that the Metropolitan Opera House was the first building in Columbus with electric ignited, gas jet lighting. The Metropolitan Opera House, also called The Cotton Block and Comstock's Opera House was built in 1862 and burned 1/26/1892.
    http://www.cinematour.com/tour/us/26352.html

    February 9, 1885

  • Elmira Opera House

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    The Building and Site. The structure was erected in 1867 at a cost of $89,000. It seated 2,000 persons. It opened on December 17, 1867, with a temperance lecture. Later it was sold and remodeled; it reopened as the Lyceum Theatre in 1898. In 1904 it was lost in a cataclysmic fire that claimed one additional theater and six stores in downtown Elmira. The theater was rebuilt and opened, still as the Lyceum, in 1905. It closed in 1926 and was demolished in 1949.

  • Gilmore's Opera House, Springfield, MA

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    The Capitol was originally built as the Gilmore Opera House in 1857!  It burnt down in 1864, remodelled and reopened in 1865. In April, 1920, it became the Capitol Theater. It had a balcony with a total of 1,450 seats. A prosenium arch curved around the stage/screen and to the right of it, in a wall niche, was a 2,500 pipe Austin organ that was played during it’s silent movie days.  The exterior front had a long marquee with narrow title space on the front. Two verticle signs spelling Capitol hung on the building above either side of the marquee.

  • Grand Opera House, Dayton, OH

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    The Victoria, one of the oldest continually operated theaters on the continent, was opened to the public as the Turner Opera House on New Year's Day, 1866, at a cost of $225,000. Its initial offering was the James Sheridan Knowles drama "Virginius, starring Edwin Forrest – a play strongly associated with the famous actor. According to press clippings of that era, the theater was referred to as "the best [sic] theater west of Philadelphia". General admission was $1.