While Sam had been away in San Francisco [May to July of 1863], the impresario Tom Maguire, a former cab driver and gambler, had built a sixteen-hundred-seat theater on D Street near Union in Virginia City patterned after his opulent opera house in San Francisco, and it was routinely crowded with folks eager to see such popular local favorites as Lotta Crabtree, Julia Dean Hayne, and Frank Mayo.
Theatre
Maguire’s New Theatre, Marysville
Unidentified location
An Exhibition Building opened in Market Square on December 27, 1881. It was located to the west of the Clock Tower, and had a frontage to what became Jacobs Street. The building had over 30,000 exhibits before becoming the Exhibition Theatre with a 1,500 seat capacity.
By the late 1890s The Exhibition Building was known as Her Majesty’s Theatre. Upon the death of Queen Victoria in 1901, it was renamed His Majesty’s and a statue of Queen Victoria was unveiled on May 24, 1904 in her honour.
Marquam Building, Portland, OR
The Marquam Grand Opera House, a five-story structure adjoining the Marquam Building, opened in 1890 and was demolished in 1922. An early manager was future Portland mayor George Luis Baker. The opera house, later known as the Orpheum and the Baker Theatre, opened to highly complimentary reviews. A Portland newspaper, The Oregonian, called it "one of the neatest theaters of the west." Another review offered higher praise: "The Marquam...will eclipse all other such buildings in the northwest.
The Garden Theater was located at 118 N. Washington Avenue and also went by the names the Downtown, the Star and Mead's Hall. The Garden began life as Mead's Hall in 1866 and hosted several well-known theater acts as well as many of America's finest orators. In 1876 the hall was the site of the local Centennial. In the late 1890s due to increasing competition, the popularity of Mead's Hall began to wane.
Mercantile Library Hall, St. Louis, MO
The St. Louis Mercantile Library, founded in 1846 in St. Louis, Missouri, was originally established as a subscription library, and is the oldest extant library west of the Mississippi River. Since 1998 the library has been housed at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. It has 600 feet (180 m) of papers, ledgers, and printed materials currently in 26 departmental or other record groups In 1986 the library received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities because of the collection's cultural importance.
Music Hall, Orange, New Jersey
An 1887 business directory sets the Music Hall's location at the corner of Main and N. Day Street. Subsequent names for the hall are 1908 - Orange Theatre and 1920 - Bijou Theatre both with the address of 243 Main Street. The Music Hall was designed and built in 1880 by architecture firm Silliman & Farnsworth (picture and source attached).
The Troy Savings Bank was founded in 1823 and moved to its current location in 1870. In appreciation of the community's support, the plans for the new building called for a music hall to be built on the upper floors. In the early years of the 20th century the Music Hall featured performances from artists such as Lillian Nordica, Henri Vieuxtemps, Ignace Jan Paderewski, Albert Spalding, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Myra Hess and Jose Iturbi. In the 1930s and 1940s, artists including Vladimir Horowitz, Yehudi Menuhin and Artur Rubinstein played there.
National Theatre (Washington, D.C.)
National Theatre is a public theatre in downtown Washington, D.C., just east of the White House. The theatre functions as a venue for live stage productions and has a seating capacity of 1,676. Despite its name, it is not a government-funded national theatre, and instead operates as a private, non-profit organization.
Founded in 1835, National Theatre is the second-oldest continuously operating theater in the United States after Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia, which was founded in 1808.
The Nevada Theatre, also known as the Cedar Theatre, located in downtown Nevada City, California, is California's oldest existing theater building. Its principal periods of significance were 1850–1874, 1875–1899, 1900–1924, and 1925–1949. It is situated on ancestral Nisenan land.
The Hippodrome Theatre, also called the New York Hippodrome, was a theater located on Sixth Avenue between West 43rd and West 44th Streets in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. The theater operated from 1905 to 1939 and was called the world's largest theater by its builders, with a seating capacity of 5,300 and a stage measuring 100 by 200 feet (30 m × 61 m). It had state-of-the-art theatrical technology, including a tank built into the stage apron that could be filled with water for aquatic performances.
Nothing specific about the location. Many links to early cinema.
Odd Fellows Hall, Norristown, Pennsylvania
The Centre Theater at 208 DeKalb St. Norristown, is occupying a structure steeped in Montgomery County history. The original building opened in 1851 as the Odd Fellows lodge hall and public auditorium. From 1851 to 1873, the Odd Fellows auditorium provided the primary site for entertaining people who traveled from many corners of the region. Vaudeville acts performed in the early days.
Opera House, Brockton, Massachusetts
November 14, 1884
Mark Twain had complained that there was not enough notice of this event to generate a suitable audience. Here is the text from the notice published in the Brockton Enterprise, November 1, 1884: \
"OPERA HOUSE.--M.W. Hanley's company, presenting Harrigan & Hart's play, "Dan;s Tribulations," will be at this house November 6th. Nov.9th the Flora Myers company return for a season of dramatic representations at popular prices. The 14th Mark Twain, the humorist, and Mr. George W. Cable, the novelist, will appear in a lecture and readings."
The night the opera first came to town
Original Town Hall and Opera House burned down February 1934
I have no direct information that the Opera House was the location of the Twain-Cable reading of January 13, 1885, but I found this listing in the Hannibal City Directory 1885-86. Hannibal Opera House Co., cor of 5th and Center, J.B. Price, manager, office at F. & M. bank.
Image: Hannibal, Missouri: Bluff City Memories By Steve Chou
Known as the Myers Opera House. 118 E. Milwaukee Street, Janesville, WI 53545
The Myers Theater was built in 1870 as the Myers Opera House. It started showing movies around 1929. In 1977 the Myers Theater was demolished and replaced with a bank. The history page for this theater gives Milwaukee Avenue and South Parker Drive as its location. Google Maps returns East Milwaukee Street and South Parker Drive. http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/14142
January 20, 1885
The Grand Theatre was designed by Merle F. Baker and was constructed on the foundation of the Keokuk Opera House (Circa 1880) which burned in 1923. It was patterned after theaters in Chicago and was praised as one of the finest theaters in the country at the time.
http://www.keokukiowatourism.org/theatre.htm
It Happened In Keokuk Friday, December 7, 1923
KEOKUK'S 43 YEAR OLD OPERA HOUSE IS GUTTED IN EARLY MORNING BLAZE.
Known as the Pomeroy Opera House.
This site has not been specifically cited but based on dates opened this is likely the site visited by Mark Twain in 1868.
This was one of the legendary Newark showplace addresses at the busy corner of Halsey Street and Market Street. Opened in 1847, this location served 75 years of entertainment including live music, legitimate theatre, vaudeville, and movies. Beginning as Waller’s Opera House, Fred Waldmann took on the location changing it to Waldmann’s Opera House. The location would move to presenting vaudeville.
November 20, 1884
"From the daughter of Francis N. Bain, 1st proprietor, we have the following authentication: Mrs. John Nolle (Francis Bain Nolle) reminds us that the early Opera House on 2nd Street, just east of the hotel and the Academy of Music, on Broadway, west of Grand Street, supported interesting plays and singers. In fact, many of the plays that were to run on Broadway in New York City had try-outs in Newburgh. Also, Newburgh on the circuit of the early producers tours."
The Grand Opera House is referenced as built in 1874 on Sparks St, but also list on Albert Street at O'Connor, built by William Hodgson. http://www.dictionaryofarchitectsincanada.org/architects/view/262
Doerr's Opera House operated out of the second floor of the building on the northwest corner of 6th and Maine Streets.
http://www.idaillinois.org/cdm/ref/collection/qpl/id/1589