Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-01-20

BIJOU THEATER. .......,....... tShe,,
GRAND OPERA HOUSE,. LA Tosca''
ACADEMY OF MUsIC.............. Rentz Santley Co
HARRIS THEATER. s'The Romany Rye,
CASINO MUsEUM-..-......... CuriOsities etc
The above are thetheatrical attractions for
this week.
50
The talk about the transformation of Har-
ris' Theater into a hotel, which means, of
course, the erection of a new building where
the theater now stands, has solid foundation
of facts. Manager Harris is not likely
to be willing partner in this de-
parture, but his opposition cannot count for
much because his lease expires in July $780, or
10 months from now. As yet, however the
project is not beyond the period of discussion.
In fact the heirs of the Coleman estate to
whom the Grand Opera House and Harris
Theater with other property in the same block
belong, have only just been asked to take the
project into consideration. The reason for
such change, SO competent authority de-
clares. lies In the fact that the taxes on the
property as now constituted have reduced the
income of the estate to little more than 2 per
cent. 1t is not unnatural therefore that some
way OF eniarging the revenue should be sought,
and beyond question hotel of the first class
would be paying investment on Fifth avenue.
As has been said Mr. Harris lease does not
expire till July, 1890, and it is still quite poss
bic that he can obtain a new lease at figures
good deal higher than those upon his present
ledse 1t SIMPLY appears improbable Inat tnere
Will be two theaters in the same block after
July, 1890 No determination of the question,
however, is likely to be reached until July
next, and in the meantime there remains more
than possibility that the plan for hotel may
be exchartedfor some other scheme.
If the Coleman heirs should agree to put up
hotel it will probably follow the lines of the
Metropolitan hotel on Broadway in New York,
inside which Niblo's theater rises. The en-
trance to the Grand Opera House would then
be through new lobby in the hotel All the
space on the third story above Harris theater
which is now practically wasted will then be-
come part of the hotel proper.
Although it is an interesting scheme and it
may be- as the managers of the Coleman estate
assert it will be of large benefit to Pittsburg.
Undoubtedly the building of the immense
piles on the other side of Fifth avenue has set
a good many property owners to thinking.
-
Should Manager Harris be compelled to
leave the quarters in which he has coined SO
will let his hold upon thousands of Pittsburgers
60 by the board. But if he builds theater
himself, think it is not unlikely that it will be
Theater of to-day. 1t will be a strange thing,
too, If the prices in that theater tobe built are
not the same as those in vogue at the Bijou.
BY the way, it will be in the summer of 1890
that the second remodeing and improvement
of the Library Hall-now the Bijou-will take
at present formed hold good. 1t is small
work that Messrs. Gulick & Co. contemplate in
their successful theater. Joseph Horne & Co.'s
removal will leave no obstacle in the way of the
managers of the Blot in making their theater
one of the safest. largest and handsomest in
America. 1t will be on the ground floor in
more than one sense then.
HEPBURN JOHNS,