Harris Theatre

The book McKeesport, by the McKeesport Heritage Center Volunteers, has an interior photo of a Whites Opera House, but gives its location as the corner of 5th and Walnut. The book doesn’t mention White’s New Theatre, but says that the Opera House was built in 1883, became the Gayety Theatre by 1907, and closed as the Orpheum in 1922. The building was replaced by a department store in 1941.

However, a book called Vaudeville Old and New lists both a White’s Opera House and a White’s Hippodrome Theatre as having been part of the B.F. Keith circuit in McKeesport, though it doesn’t give their years of operation. Confusingly, it also lists a Harris' Hippodrome Theatre in McKeesport, and that might have been the same house under different ownership at a later time. As the Opera House became the Gayety then the Orpheum, perhaps White’s New Theatre became the Hippodrome?

From Mckeesport a postcard image of White’s New Theatre.

There is a late photo of the Harris Theatre just below the map on this web page. The caption says the building was partly demolished in 1943, but the remaining part of the structure was incorporated into a building that is still standing, housing Pozutto & Sons Plumbing.

The caption also calls the house the Hippodrome Theatre, though the name Harris is on the vertical sign. I’ve come across references to a White’s Hippodrome Theatre and Harris Hippodrome Theatre in McKeesport, so the sequence of names should probably be White’s New Theatre, White’s Hippodrome Theatre, Harris Hippodrome Theatre, and finally Harris Theatre.

I Think that White’s OPERA HOUSE, and Whites NEW THEATRE are two different buildings. If I remember my McKeesport lore, I think the older of the two (Whites Opera House) was demolished to make room for Cox’s Department Store (a building that is also now gone!)

This project’s roots dated back to 1905 when Dr. A. James P. White of White’s Opera House decided to build a mammoth new stock theater on five lots in downtown McKeesport. White’s New Theater opened at 629-635 Walnut in downtown McKeesport on March 19, 1908 with Julia Marlowe starring in a live performance of “As You Like It.” The Henry J. Lohman architecture wowed with what was called a Corinthian architectural style in a venue that seated 2,118 with 22 dressing rooms at launch. The $200,000 theater was underway; but stock theater proved to be a challenging environment entering the 1910s, especially for the Tube City which had fewer than 45,000 residents at that time. So the venue followed the trend of Hippodromes all over the country that eschewed live stage plays in favor of heavy doses of vaudeville and short novelty films changing to White’s Hippodrome late in 1909.

In 1913, Rowland & Clark Circuit took on the venue which mostly went by Hippodrome Theater. In 1917, John P. Harris of Harris Amusement Circuit took over the venue giving it a major refresh. The house was reduced to 1,984 seats with a more modern outlay. It relaunched for Harris on January 29, 1917 as Harris' Hippodrome / Hippodrome Theatre retaining that name into 1926. The venue became known as the Harris Theater. The building of the new Harris Theatre in 1928 and opening in 1929 appears to be the impetus for this venue’s long period of vacancy in the 1930s and into the 1940s.

Warner Bros. inherited the property in June of 1930 when it purchased the Harris Amusement locations. It announced later in the 1930s that the former Hippodrome would be razed. That demolition finally was taking place but in a manner that proved fatal to a young boy. In partially razing the building in 1943, a boy fell into a pool of rain water drowning. An unfortunate ending for the entertainment showplace from decade’s past.