O'Brien's Opera House
The O'Brien Opera House (or O'Brien's Opera House) was a "gas light" theater located at the northwest corner of 1st Avenue and 19th Street North in downtown Birmingham. The theater was constructed for traveling vaudeville shows by Frank P. O'Brien, who would later be sheriff and mayor. The inaugural performance was a production of Charles Barras' The Black Crook staged on November 14, 1882.
The venue was also used as a meeting house for many different groups. The Birmingham Chamber of Commerce was organized at the O'Brien on May 14, 1887. The Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention was created during a conference at the O'Brien on May 11, 1891.
Around the turn of the century, a newer venue was built one block over, and the vaudeville shows and group meetings that would have gone on at the O'Brien chose to go to the Jefferson Theatre on 2nd Avenue North. The O'Brien soon changed its name to the Gayety Theatre and became a burlesque house. The Gayety held on until 1910, and was razed in 1915.
References
- Showplaces of the South Pt. 2 at Birmingham Rewound, accessed August 8, 2007.
External links
- Gayety Theatre at bplonline.com