Pike's Opera House was designed by New York–based architects Horatio Nelson White and John M. Trimble and constructed from 1857 to 1859 at a cost of $500,000.
Junius Brutus Booth Jr. was performing at Pike's for Edward, Prince of Wales, when he was arrested after being informed that his brother, John Wilkes Booth, had assassinated Abraham Lincoln.
[2] On March 22, 1866, a gas leak caused the theater to explode, taking with it the original offices of The Cincinnati Enquirer, along with archives of the Enquirer's first 25 years.
In 1895, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra gave its first concerts at the original Pike's Opera House before moving to Music Hall the following year.
The ruins remained for two years before the lot was cleared to make way for the Sinton Hotel.