The Grand Opera House and Hotel Grand were erected in 1894 in a regional version of the Romanesque Revival style. The Grand Opera House block, including the adjoining Grand Hotel building, was completed in late 1894 at a cost of $67,548. The front of the building is encased with St. Louis pressed brick and trimmed in buff stone and contains ornaments of Terra Cotta. The architect was Frank Cox, of Cox Brothers, a New Orleans architectural firm . In addition to the structure itself. Cox also designed the interior decorations of the structure and the scenery for the theater. The Opera House was opened to the public on January 3rd, 1895. The double function structure is somewhat unique in that a narrow space separates the opera house from the hotel and the two are connected only at the main entrance located at the west end of the building.
The main facade or street elevation , reflects the four story Hotel Grand. The elevation of the building is divided into six bays with the end bays on the east and west treated as corner pavilions. The center four bays are vertically grouped in Richardsonian fashion with shops on the ground level and the upper three levels - treated as the shaft of the column - are separated by pilasters and surmounted by double arches. A brick cornice has projecting engaged colonnettes demarcating the bays.
The entrance Pavilion is accentuated by a Mansard tower set on a brick arcade with projecting corner colonettes. The Mansard roof has oeil de boeuf windows. The street entrance to the opera house is through a large semicircular arch which evidences Sullivanesque influence in its form and carving. This arch has been covered in recent years, but remains intact.
The double structure is located on a lot 128 feet wide and 120 feet deep. The hotel occupies the portion of the lot adjacent t o Postoffice Street and is the width of the street front and forty - three feet deep. An air space five feet wide separates the hotel and the opera house on the rear of the lot.
The ground floor originally contained hotel offices, cafe, and additional store space. The hotel has seventy five rooms, most of them "ensuite", located on the upper three floors . The opera house auditorium, which seats nearly fifteen hundred, was one of the first to use modern theories of acoustics in its design. "The general plan tended to eliminate echoes and gave excellent acoustics by avoiding square corners. Another tradition broken was that the ground floor was not separated into a dress circle, family circle , and pit , but all seats were in a curve and stepped downward towards the stage. The entire floor was called the parquette. In
this new theater the older form of a horse-shoe gallery was not used, but instead the gallery repeated the curve of the balcony." (CM. McConnell, The Transition of Galveston's Grand Opera House, p.44,45)
The opera house contained the most advanced mechanical equipment available in its day. Both gas and electricity were used for lightning; the stage for reason of fire safety was lit entirely by electricity. Two hot - air furnaces were contained in the basement, one heated the auditorium and the other heated the stage. A ventilator in the ceiling and an ample number of windows allowed the air to circulate through the building .
With its opening in January, 1895, the Grand Opera House in Galveston replaced a smaller theater, the Tremont Opera House, and provided the city with the best in opera and various dramatic performances at the height of theatrical popularity in the United States. The theater only served its original purpose a short time before the emergence of the motion picture. The story of this theater, however, did not end with the rise of film entertainment as did similar performance theaters. The Grand Opera House, now called the State, adapted to the changes of the time, and remains a record of the transition from a stage theater to a movie theater.
As Texas' leading city in the mid nineteenth century, Galveston wanted to begin to provide its citizens with cultural entertainment. Neitsch's Theater, a three story structure built in 1854, was Galveston's first theater. The people failed to support this initial attempt to provide dramatic performances, however, and the building was converted into a livery stable . Mrs. Harry Hunter, an actress interested in revitalizing the building to its original purpose, restored and reopened the third floor of Neitsch's in 1866. A few weeks after the completion of its restoration, Mrs. Hunter rented the theater to an opera troupe, who brought the first opera performance to Texas. Not until the Greenwall brothers took over management of Neitsch's in 1867, however, did it finally begin to attract audiences. The theater continued successfully until the building burned in 1869.
A second theater, the Tremont Opera House, modeled after Booth's Theater in New York, opened its doors to the public in February 1871. Henry Greenwall, one of the brothers who had reopened Neitsch's, became the lessee of the Tremont. For twenty-three years the Tremont staged opera, plays, vaudeville and musical comedies as dramatic performances continued to gain popularity with in Texas.
By the 1890's the Tremont had become overcrowded and needed extensive renovation. Henry Greenwall, widely known throughout the country as one of the leading theatrical magnates, began to call for a larger and more adequate structure . Greenwall had now extended his fame and influence throughout the United States. He established the Greenwall Theatrical Circuit , which had theaters located i n many states. He controlled opera houses in New Orleans, Galveston, Waco, San Antonio, Nashville, Louisville, Memphis, Atlanta, Ft.Worth, Dallas, Houston, Austin, and Little Rock. He was also the manager of the Texas Circuit including Galveston, Ft. Worth, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Austin and Waco. Thus, when Greenwall threatened to cancel the Galveston circuit, unless safer and more deserving facilities were provided, the citizens of Galveston responded quickly. Being one of Texas' major cities, Galveston businessmen were eager to encourage people to seek amusement in their city instead of going to New Orleans. Greenwall concentrated his efforts in securing funds for a new theater by selling stock. Leading businessmen and financiers of Galveston - Leon Blum, C. H. Moore, R. B. Hawley, John Sealy, George Sealy, Charles Fowler, David Fahey - invested in the Grand Opera House Company and enthusiastically gave their support to the new theater.
Frank Cox, the architect for the Grand Opera House, designed the structure and the interior decorations and scenery. Barnes and Palliser of Galveston began construction of the building in 1894. The completed structure was four stories on the front side where a hotel was located. The ground floor had a hotel office, cafe and space f o r other stores. The theater was located behind the front section with an entrance from the street at the west end of the building. The auditorium had all the latest improvements and equipment and was one of the first theaters to use modern theories of acoustics. The basic structure remains intact today. The original decorations are painted over and the boxes have been removed, but the building as a whole remains the same as it was originally . The rebuilding after the 1900 storm did not alter it except for minor changes in the decorations.
From its opening in January 1895, the popular Grand Opera House staged melodrama, musical comedy, operettas, operas, plays, and concert artists with continued success for twenty-four years. However, a new form of entertainment, the motion picture, began exceeding the popularity of theatrical performances in the early part of the Twentieth century. The Grand Opera House actually showed its first film, a bullfight, in 1896 in addition to the production of Carmen. In 1897 stock companies at the Grand used the early forms of motion pictures as
entertainment between acts.
By 1908 the moving pictures were causing a revolution in entertainment and several movie houses had sprung up in Galveston. At the Grand Opera House, however, films continued to be shown only in addition to the featured theatrical performances. This began to change in 1915 when the motion picture was improved. In Galveston the new form of motion picture arrived in October 1915, when the Grand Opera House exhibited D. W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation accompanied by a symphony orchestra playing the special score written for the picture.
Despite the fact that the Grand Opera House began to book an increasing number of films and fewer theatrical performances, the theater retained its original name until 1924 when it new owner Mr. A. Martini gave his name to it. At this time the building was remodeled, an organ was added to provide music for the silent films, and two modern picture machines were installed . The theater still booked vaudeville as well as feature pictures. Martini claimed that he had the only theater in the South equipped to handle "feature pictures , majestic vaudeville and traveling road shows." In 1937 Martini built a new theater and he gave the former Grand Opera House its present name, the State.
The Grand Opera House was the only theater in Galveston that offered legitimate drama around the turn of the century. As the motion picture became popular several movie houses began to open. Instead of trying to compete with the films and failing as did many theaters
throughout the United States, the Grand Opera House joined the movement. Thus, it represents the evolution of an old building that has maintained its original integrity as a theater by adapting to the changing times.