Much of my research chronicles Dayton landmarks that have been lost over the years, but there are also many buildings that were threatened with demolition and seemed soon to be lost before a dedicated preservation effort eventually won out.
One of the more interesting cases involves a center for the arts in downtown Dayton. Originally the Turner Opera House when it was completed in 1866, the structure that today houses the Victoria Theatre has seen disaster and rebirth more than once, prompting CinemaTreasures.org to say that “if a theater has nine lives, this theater has spent them all.” But despite all of its challenges, it lives on as one of the oldest continually operated theaters on the continent.
Joseph and William Turner were distillery owners from Salem, OH (now part of Clayton) who were looking to get into the theater business. To build their magnificent opera house the brothers hired John Rouzer, who would go on to build the Callahan Building as well as Steele High School.
After opening to great fanfare with an event described by the Dayton Journal as “the social event of the season,” the Turner Opera House would be hailed as “the most beautiful theater west of Philadelphia.”
Its first performance was the drama Virginius starring Edwin Forrest, considered by many to be the first great American actor, who was recruited to come to Dayton for two weeks of performances. Other shows by Forrest during the opening included Othello, Hamlet, King Lear, and a popular comedy called Honey Moon.
But tragedy struck on May 16, 1869, just three years after its opening, when the theater burned down in a suspected arson.
The damage totaled $550,000, of which only $128,000 was covered by insurance. Architecturally, all was lost except the front facade, but the theater was quickly rebuilt and reopened in 1871, albeit a few stories shorter. The theater soon went through its first of many name changes, as it would be called “The Music Hall,” the “Grand Opera House,” the “Victoria Opera House,” and in 1903, two years after the death of Queen Victoria, as the Victoria Theatre.
A decade later in 1913 the Great Flood would hit Dayton, greatly damaging the ground floor of the theater. It was quickly rehabilitated, but not much time passed before the specter of fire would return: a blaze on January 16, 1918 destroyed large portions of the building.
Due to the ongoing world war, materials were scarce so it took longer to fix the damage this time, and when the theater finally reopened it adopted a name celebrating the eventual success of the war effort: the Victory Theatre.
During its early years, the theater was a prominent stop for traveling theater and stock companies, and the entertainment was diverse in nature. Vaudeville, minstrel, and burlesque shows all played, but these did not find much popularity. Buffalo Bill Cody appeared more than seven times in the 1870s.
A recurring feature from 1893 to 1916 was a full-week “dance extravaganza” called Kirmess. In addition, the theater hosted lectures by the likes of Mark Twain and Oscar Wilde. Later on, performers would include Al Jolson, The Marx Brothers, Helen Hayes, Fannie Brice, George M. Cohan, Lynn Fontayne, Gertrude Lawrence, Alfred Lunt, and Harry Houdini.
In the early decades of the 20th century the theater was the home of several stock companies including the Manhattan Stock Company, the Brownell-Stork Company, the Victory Players, and the Wright Players.
In 1930, it expanded from live entertainment into a venue that showed talking pictures as well, equipped with the latest screen and sound equipment.
By the 1960s, however, an increase in suburban development and the resulting lower attendances at downtown theaters forced them into a steady decline. Costs for renting films had also risen, as well as fire insurance rates.
The Victory closed in August 1971 and was threatened with demolition, but preservationists had it added to the National Register of Historic Places the following year, an act which did not guarantee the building’s survival but did make it more difficult to demolish, as well as open up new funding opportunities.
After that, a proposal in 1975 would have razed the theater’s auditorium for a parking lot, while the Main Street portion would remain equipped for retail stores (at the time, tenants included the Old Vic pub, a shoe repair store and a modeling agency).
Bolstered by an outpouring of support from the community, a non-profit organization was formed, and Daytonians banded together to raise enough money to save the theater, with help from the Montgomery County Historical Society and the Chamber of Commerce.
The Victory Theatre Association performed restoration work on the portions of the structure that were in disrepair, and in 1978 it was able to purchase the building from the real estate entity it had been renting from.
This wasn’t achieved without some tense moments, as one chamber of commerce member recalls “being informed on a Friday afternoon that the Victory would be destroyed if $3,000 was not delivered on Monday” for rent. A quickly-arranged appearance on an afternoon radio show got the word out and volunteers were able to scrape the money together.
The theater went through another major renovation in 1989, during which the retail spaces were converted to a grand lobby and many elements of the theater was returned to their original appearance. When it reopened in 1990, the theater re-adopted its current name of the Victoria.
Today the 1,154 seat theater is joined by the Schuster Center, the Loft Theater and the newly-opened Arts Annex, all of which are operated by the Victoria Theatre Association and combine to host a variety of performances right in the heart of downtown Dayton. The Victoria Theatre celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2016, and will hopefully continue to thrive for many decades to come.
Historic images courtesy of Dayton Metro Library
Sources
Now Playing: An Informal History of the Victoria Theatre. Bruce and Virginia Ronald
When Dayton Went to the Movies. Curt Dalton.
Hi, I worked at the Glamour Modeling Agency upstairs in the Victoria in1977 thru 1979. Do yóu know what became of them? I would like to find some of my old photos to pass down to my granddaughter. So far I can’t find anything on them. The owner was a woman and I think her husband was the photographer. If you have any information, it would be much appreciated. My name was Theresa K Bryan at the time.