Lawrence Theatre

The address was 53 N 8th. Strangely, the 1901 Sanborn shows the Gennett Opera House to be nearly identical to the Grand Opera House shown on earlier maps. I think ‘burned down’ did not really reflect what happened.

The 1909 map shows an extensive interior remodel of what is now called the Gennett Theatre. The ground floor storefronts appear to have been removed, and the balcony is now a large ‘horse collar’ shape rather than the previous flared ‘U’. The front of the stage appears to have been straightened. The notes say that it has two balconies, and give the capacity as 900.

It is on the 1909 map that a three story building at the rear appears, with the first floor serving as offices and prop storage, and the upper stories being labeled ‘Theatre Flats’. This portion of the building remains.

There was a later map, probably from the ‘20s, but the only copy online was heavily modified starting in 1937, with bits of paper pasted over buildings as they changed or were replaced. What can be seen through the overlays indicates that the capacity of the Washington was unchanged, although a more extensive metal canopy across the front replaced the small wooden canopy seen in the postcard.

December 22nd, 1899 grand opening ad in the photo section

Grand opening as the Gennett Theatre was December 22, 1899 with Otis Skinner and Company doing the live play, “The Liars.” On September 16, 1916, it relaunched as the Washington Theatre with the film, “Undine” and booking legitimate theatre in 1917. On October 14, 1926, it rebooted as the Lawrence Theatre doing live legit performances. For all intense and purpose, the Lawrence closed in February of 1931 as a legit house. Some rehearsals and high school shows occur until 1933. A demolition sale in October of 1935 preceded its demolition in November of 1935.

According to “The Encyclopedia of the American Theatre Organ” by Mr. David Junchen, pg. 629, the “Washington Th.” in Richmond, Indiana, had a two-manual Smith organ installed at some point.

No further information, such as size of the instrument (# of pipe ranks), install date, blower info, or nameplate (Seeburg-Smith, Smith, Smith-Geneva, etc) is available in the book (not known at the time of publication).

I know this is is a long shot, given that this building was torn down in 1935 in the height of the great depression, when theatre pipe organs were considered most useless and most unwanted in most parts of the US, (and thus it’s likely the organ went down with the building), but does anybody know what happened to this organ, and where it, or its parts, is/are today? Could it have been moved to a church in the greater Richmond area?

Thanks a lot,
Andrew

Richmond Ind Oscar Cobb of Chicago is preparing plans for a $25.000 theater to be erected on the site of the Bradley opera house Stone; an Illustrated Magazine