Theatre

Also known as the Grand Opera House 

HISTORICAL NOTE 

Grand Opera House
113-117 North Wyman Street,
Rockford, IL

Incorporated: November 6, 1880
Opened: November 12, 1881
Seating: 1500
Closed (as an Opera House): 1917
Demolished: April, 1927

http://www.oscarwildeinamerica.org/lectures-1882/march/0302-rockford.html 

January 30, 1885 

See Good's Opera House

Joe Vogel on January 5, 2012 at 4:52 am  The Majestic Theatre was an extensive rebuilding of the Utica Opera House, which had been built in 1871. When Sam Shubert took over the lease on the Opera House in 1900, he had the building largely gutted and expanded to create a space for a more modern theater. In addition to the new Majestic, the building housed a second-floor assembly room at the Washington Street corner of the structure, and this was converted into the Orpheum Theatre in 1901. 

The Paterson Opera House was opened on April 2, 1866.In 1900 it was severely damaged in a fire. It was rebuilt and reopened in 1901. In 1914 another fire caused some damage and following renovations it reopened as the U.S. Photo Play Theatre on March 6, 1916 with the film “Battle Cry of Peace”. It was listed in 1930 as the United States Theatre with a 2,000 seat capacity and equipped with an RCA sound system. It was operated by the Stanley Warner chain and was closed in September 1967.

The building was sold and demolished in 1969.

The cultural life of the city of Winona was supported by the establishment of the  Winona Opera House and Philharmonic Hall. These buildings were the sites of many locally produced plays and theatrical performances. They were also used for performances by famous  visiting artists, lecturers, and musicians who were brought to Winona by O. F. Burlingame,  the astute Impresario of the Winona Opera House.

Piper's Opera House is an historic performing arts venue in Virginia City, Storey County, Nevada, United States. Piper's served as a training facility in 1897 for heavyweight boxing champion Gentleman Jim Corbett, in preparation for his title bout with Bob Fitzsimmons. The current structure was built by entrepreneur John Piper in 1885 to replace his 1878 opera house that had burned down. The 1878 venue, in turn, had been to replace Piper's 1863 venue which was destroyed by the 1875 Great Fire in Virginia City.

One source reported that Platt's Hall opened in 1860. Jack Tillmany reports that the first newspaper accounts of events there that he found were in July 1862. The building was on the NE corner of Montgomery and Bush.

It's listed in an 1882 "Guidebook and Street Manual." It was still operating as late as 1885. The Mills Building was later on the site.

http://sanfranciscotheatres.blogspot.com/2019/01/platts-hall.html

Powers’ Theatre

A historic timeline of the Powers’:
Opera House Block 1874–1979
Powers’ Opera House (1874),
Powers’ Grand Opera House (1887),
Powers’ Theatre (1902–44),
Foto News (1944–48),
Midtown Theatre (1948–1972),
Civic Theatre (Under Renovation 1975–1977),
Demolished (Jan 1979)

The Ronacher theater, originally Etablissement Ronacher, is a theater in the Innere Stadt district of Vienna, Austria. 

The new Etablissement Ronacher was not a playhouse, but equipped with tables and chairs. During the performance, people were allowed to drink, eat and smoke. However, due to the poor economic situation, Ronacher later had to give up the house. From 1890 onwards, artists performed more frequently, which attracted more suburban populations and drove away the aristocracy. Later, the program was supplemented by revues, operettas, dance and singing performances.

Dr. Rudolphus Rouse's Performance Hall was located at the North West corner of Main and Jefferson Streets, and played host to many theatrical and opera companies. It was called "Main Street" theater after 1902. 

http://collections.carli.illinois.edu/cdm/ref/collection/bra_peoria/id/1

The Royal Aquarium and Winter Garden was a place of amusement in Westminster, London. It opened in 1876, and the building was demolished in 1903. The attraction was located northwest of Westminster Abbey on Tothill Street. The building was designed by Alfred Bedborough in an ornamental style faced with Portland stone.

The Royal Princess Theatre was opened on 31st August 1874. The cost of the building was £12,000 with a capacity of 2,000 people. The building was designed by William Charles Vahland.

The site was at the corner of View Street and McKenzie Street, with the frontage facing View Street. The auditorium was on three levels and seated 650 in the pit (rear stalls), 200 in the stalls, 250 in the dress circle and 850 in the gallery. A further 50 were seated in the six stage boxes.

Selwyn's Theatre (1867–1870) of Boston, Massachusetts, was established by British-born actor John H. Selwyn. Architect Benjamin F. Dwight designed the building. Personnel included Dexter H. Follet, Arthur Cheney, H.A. M'Glenen, Charles R. Thorne Jr., and Charles Koppitz. In 1871 Selwyn's was renamed the "Globe Theatre."

Wikipedia

There are apparently two possible sites for a Soo Opera House.

...the boom times in the eighties brought out the old Opera House on Arlington Street, which did an excellent business under the management of Mr. Percy Jordan up to the time of its destruction by fire in 1917.

The Grand Opera House was constructed in 1886-87 on Court Street, by outside capital. This structure was afterward remodeled and enlarged and is now the First Baptist Church building.

First purpose built theatre in Johannesburg, it was a lushly decorated Victorian horseshoe shaped theatre, erected behind the Rissik street Post Office in Market Street. Seated 800 people, but with the addition of extra seats could house a 1000. (According to P.J. du Toit, 1988, it could house 1400.) It opened 1891 and became favoured venue of touring theatre and opera companies from England and elsewhere. For example Mark Twain performed his At Home there in May 1896.

ESAT

Through the years there were eight theaters in Plainfield. The Stillman Music Hall (216 W. Front Street) was built in 1884. Its entertainments included plays, lectures, concerts, operas, minstrel shows and variety stars until it closed in 1901.  http://www.plainfieldlibrary.info/OnlineExhibits/LBNF/Theaters.html

The Tacoma Opera House Company commissioned a group of architects to design an office and theatre block in downtown Tacoma. At this time, Tacoma was experiencing a building boom. It began shortly after the Northern Pacific Railroad first reached Tacoma in 1883. Chicago theatre architect James M. Wood (see my previous installment #214 ) designed the Tacoma Theatre. Wood was a native of New York City, born in 1841. Early in his career, he moved to Chicago and eventually opened an architectural firm for himself.

The Taylor Opera House was built by James S. Taylor, according to the book series, “Images of America, Danbury”. He originally solved the problem of felting hats with the Taylor sizing machines (Danbury was the hat capitol of the world) by machinery. He was born in 1825 and was the great-great-great-grandson of Thomas Taylor, an original settler of Danbury.

Taylor Opera House was an opera house in Trenton, New Jersey. It was the city's first theater, and was founded by John Taylor, creator of Pork Roll and one of Trenton's leading citizens. The building first opened March 18, 1867 at 18 S. Broad Street. A historical marker was placed on the site after its demolition.

The Teatro Alfieri was a major theatre and opera house in 18th and 19th century Florence, located at Via dell'Ulivo #6 corner Via Pietrapiana in the Florence, region of Tuscany, Italy.

Wikipedia

The Real Teatro di San Carlo (English: Royal Theatre of Saint Charles) is an opera house in Naples, Italy. It is located adjacent to the central Piazza del Plebiscito, and connected to the Royal Palace. It is the oldest continuously active venue for public opera in Europe, opening decades before both the Milanese La Scala and Venetian La Fenice theaters.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teatro_di_San_Carlo

The Upper Crust of Naples

The Temperance Hall was built in 1853 on a site fronting onto Granby Street, Leicester. The Architect was James Medland of Gloucester. The main hall was 100 feet long by 58 feet wide, and could seat 1,800 people. It had a balcony on three sides with a platform stage at the far end.

Built at a cost of $60,000, the top two levels of the Metropolitan’s three stories were devoted to its 1200-seat theater, while the street level featured storefronts, a cagey hedging of bets on the part of Butsch. Other theater managers struggled with low attendance and protests by local clergy of the “immoral character” of the theater, so Butsch called his establishment a hall, rather than a theatre.