war memorial opera house bcony rear center

In 1856, the hall was sold to Blasius Yecker, a harness worker, and Hilaire Zaepfel, a hotelkeeper. Mark Twain and Horace Greeley were among the lecturers who came to Fulton Hall, and theatrical performances included Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The first musical concert at Fulton Hall was by violinist Ole Bull and 9-year-old soprano Adelina Patti, to raise money for a settlement of Scandinavians in Potter County. The exterior wall of the jail courtyard is now the back wall of the theatre.

This was a monumental event throughout the colonies and became the subject matter for the first plays ever written on American soil – A Dialogue Between Andrew Trueman and Thomas Zealot About the Killing the Indians at Cannestogoe and Lancaster and The Paxton Boys, a Farce. Named Fulton Hall, after the county’s steam engine pioneer, Robert Fulton, it was built on the foundation of Lancaster’s pre-Revolutionary jail, where in 1763, a vigilante gang known as the “Paxtang Boys” massacred the last of the Conestoga Indians being held there for their protection. He commissioned the renowned Philadelphia architect Samuel Sloan (who later designed the Lancaster County Courthouse) to create this building, which was erected in 1852. The location where Christopher Hager would later build Fulton Hall.Ĭhristopher Hager, a Lancaster merchant and civic leader, had a dream-to create a building that would serve as a community center for meetings, lectures, concerts, and theatrical performances.

The evolution of the Fulton Opera House A fascinating reflection of the history of American theatre.Ī sketch of Lancaster’s pre-Revolutionary jail.

War memorial opera house bcony rear center