Hippodrome Theater
The Hippodrome Theater, later the Orpheum Theater, was a Vaudeville house located on the southwest corner of 17th Street and 3rd Avenue North, diagonally opposite the Bijou Theater, in the 1900s.
In March 1911 the Alabama Child Labor Committee hosted sessions of the 1911 National Child Labor Committee Conference at the Orpheum. In 1912 Vaudeville theater operator Jake Wells hired Richmond, Virginia-based architect C. K. Howell to design a $10,000 renovation for the theater.
The theater, owned by O. D. Burnett, was originally used as a roller skating rink. In February 1916, as the roller-skating fad returned in force, owner J. H. Edmondson decided to pull out the seats, lay a new leveled Maple floor, and buy 1,000 pairs of skates to rent to customers. The new Hippodrome Rooler Skating Rink [sic] opened on April 2.
References
- The Tradesman (July 25, 1912), p. 56
- "Orpheum Will Be Opened Once More As Skating Rink" (February 21, 1916) Birmingham Age-Herald