Wieting Opera House

The opera house began showing movies in the early 20th century, and closed in 1930, when it was replaced with a parking garage.

[4] Wieting, who had made a fortune in lecturing, felt that Syracuse did not have a public hall that was proportionally large enough for the city.

[1] Others who performed include Edwin Booth,[12] Edwin Forrest,[13] Joseph K. Emmett, Charlotte Cushman, Harrigan and Hart, Ellen Terry, Lillian Russell, Sarah Bernhardt,[1] Fanny Janauschek, John McCullough, Lawrence Barrett, Joseph Jefferson,[11] and Henry Irving.

[14] During the 1860s, Wieting Hall hosted many minstrel shows by performers including Lew Benedict, Primrose and West, and Charles, Daniel and Gus Frohman.

It was the site of pledges to the Union during the American Civil War,[1] and a two-lecture series on November 14 and 15, 1861, by Frederick Douglass, titled "The Rebellion, its Cause and Remedy".

In anticipation of Douglass's arrival, some Syracuse residents protested his visit; a handbill was circulated advocating for citizens to "drive him from our city!"

Syracuse's mayor, Charles Andrews, fearing a mob might attack Douglass, deployed the police and drafted 50 additional men.

Wieting refused to cancel Douglass's performance, and he arrived to a hall that was protected with soldiers and greeted by Andrews himself.

[29] She had been involved in the reconstruction, attempting to make the opera house "absolutely fire-proof" and offering suggestions to Oscar Cobb as he designed the new building.

Its construction and the presence of several similar theaters developed the city into a place to try-out plays that would later go to be performed on Broadway.

[33][34] The theater was a member of The Theatrical Syndicate, which gave it "first claim" on a number of Broadway shows and revivals in the area.

[35] According to the 2008 book Our Movie Houses, "all the big stars of the Broadway stage performed at the Wieting during the later decades of the nineteenth century.

"[14] Notable actors and lecturers that performed at the Wieting Opera House during this era include Lillian Russell, Victor Herbert, Helena Modjeska,[36] Ellen Terry,[9] and Mark Twain.

The audience, described in The New York Times as a large one, had become impatient and "noisy demonstrations" broke out before the opera company emerged and the show began, belatedly.

It began on December 23 at the Wieting; shortly before the performance Richard Golden, a co-star, fell ill and the show's director William Gill was forced to take his place.

[40] The Wedding Day, starring Lillian Russell, opened its touring season on September 15, 1896, in what was also the newly rebuilt Wieting's first performance.

[43] On September 7, 1900, the Wieiting hosted a performance of Anthony Hope Hawkins to raise funds in the aftermath of that year's Galveston hurricane that ran from 11 am to 11 pm.

[45] The operetta Naughty Marietta was first run for a week at the Wieting beginning October 24, 1910, and it premiered on Broadway the following month.

[48] The estate of Mary Wieting, who had died in 1927, held the opera house until they sold it to the Hemacon Realty Corporation for $1 million in July 1929.

That year, the Shuberts's lease on the theater was set to expire on August 1, and the owners were unwilling to undertake reconstruction and expansion projects.

[14] It was announced on June 21 that the Opera House had been purchased to be made into a parking garage that connected to the Lincoln Bank.