Biddeford's City Theater

The Biddeford 's City Theater is a Victorian opera house with just 500 seats in the 20,000 -inhabitant city of Biddeford, Maine, United States. In the building of theater, dance and music performances take place throughout the year instead. In 1896, designed by John Calvin Stevens building stands since 1973 in the National Register of Historic Places.

The building served in its history as an opera house, theater, warehouse, playground for Horseshoes, stood empty for several years, and has been used since 1977 again as a venue for theater and music. Since an extensive restoration in the 1990s, the theater has a year-round program.

History

Plans for an opera house originated in the 1840s, when the Biddeforder city fathers built a new city hall, and wanted to extend this to a venue. The City Council was thus in the mainstream of the time. Since the mid-19th century also opened in smaller towns Maines opera houses, which presented a colorful program of music and theater. Of these, a handful are now only receive. The Opera House finally opened in 1860 with an opera about slavery in the southern states of the United States. 1894 a fire destroyed the town hall and the adjacent buildings. In a highly controversial decision, the City Council decided again to invest money in a venue. They commissioned the architect John Calvin Stewart with the design of a new opera house.

The theater opened on January 20, 1896 again. Besides the classical theater performances, it also began to show a vaudeville program, which was particularly popular with the viewers. The City Theater was one of the cultural focal points in York County ( Maine) in Maine. During this period, for example, were Fred Astaire, Mae West or WC Fields to the theater.

With the advent of the film in the early 20th century, the importance of theater and vaudeville declined, and in 1930 the City Theatre was converted into a cinema. Despite a renewed modernized renovation 1955, the City theater could not hold its own against the competition of drive-in theaters and television, and graduated in 1963. After several years of vacancy, it served 1971-1974 as a warehouse for the local government Biddeford. Just at this time the recording was in the Register of Historic Places in 1973. Starting from 1975, the building served as a hall for the skill game Horseshoes. To play it, the orchestra pit was filled with sand.

The state of the theater motivated a group of volunteers to work for a reopening of the theater. The City Theater Associates sat down with political lobbying and practical repair work for a revive the theater as a place of culture. Finally, in 1978 it re-opened with a concert by the Norman Luboff Choir. On the 100th anniversary jährigens In 1996, money from the community to reach the state of Maine, the United and various private sources that are used for an extensive renovation. Seats, walls and ceiling have been replaced and installed new event technology.

According to legend, a ghost is haunting the house. This is the opera singer Eva Gray, 1904 collapsed at the age of 33 years with a cardiac arrest, after she had sung the third addition of Goodbye, litte girl, Goodbye.

Building

The City Theatre is intricately designed in the USA in the late 19th century Colonial Revival style. It has a parquet floor and a horseshoe-shaped box. A chandelier suspended from the ceiling stenciled.