Grand Opera House, Greenville, Mississippi

Authors

Files

Description

This postcard features a color illustration of the Grand Opera House in Greenville, Mississippi, a three story brick building with arched windows on the top floor. Other buildings are on either side of it. H. P. Hawkins hired architect J. H. Johnson and builder J. F. Barnes to build the Grand Opera House whose cornerstone was dedicated on November of 1899. The Grand Opera House launched with “The Children of the Ghetto” in the Fall of 1900 and continued with live fare in its formative years. In 1909, the Simmons Brothers (Seymour, Ben F., Henry and Jake) used the summer months to show motion pictures with the Fall and Spring used for road shows. Seymour and Ben apparently pleased locals with by creating live sound effects to accompany the films. The biggest hit was in 1915 with “Birth of a Nation” with large orchestra. The venue was renamed the Grand Theatre. Saenger Amusement Company took on the theatre in 1928 for $61,000. They ran the theatre as a full-time silent film house for a short period declining to equip the theatre for sound and closing that same year. The Knights of Columbus were allowed to operate in the space by Saenger until 1938 when Saenger had the Grand Theatre demolished. Banners and posters from the 1900-1920 period remained in the building along with its original seating at the point of demolition. It was replaced by the city’s main post office. The title of the card is printed along the bottom edge of the card.

Subjects

Postcards; Opera-houses

Keywords

opera houses; Greenville, MS; Mississippi Delta

Geographic Location

Greenville, (Miss.)

Object Type

image

Format (original)

postcard

Format (digital)

PDF

Digital ID

MFM_MSS_837_postcard-Grand-Opera-House-Greenville_001

Source

Mississippi State University Libraries, Archives and Special Collections, Manuscripts Unit, Lucius Marion Lampton, MD Historical Images Collection, Mississippiana Collection, Postcard/Photographs, Box 4, Mississippi Delta Region

Repository

Manuscripts

Digital Publisher

Mississippi State University Libraries (electronic version)

Rights

Copyright protected by Mississippi State University Libraries. Use of materials from this collection beyond the exceptions provided for in the Fair Use and Educational Use clauses of the U.S. Copyright Law may violate federal law. Permission to publish or reproduce is required.

Contact Information

For more information about the contents of this collection, email sp_coll@library.MSState.edu.

Recommended Citation

Grand Opera House, Greenville, Mississippi, Lucius Marion Lampton, MD Historical Images Collection, Special Collections Department, Mississippi State University