The age-herald., 1899-06-09
Building Will Be Thrown Open During
 October. A MAGNIFICENT STRUCTURE With Handsome Stage Forty Feet
 Wide. ROOF GARDEN IS CONTEMPLATED Entrance Will Be on the Ground Floor, and House Will be Equipped With Ladies' Cloak Room and
 Other Improvements
A MAGNIFICENT STRUCTURE
ROOF GARDEN IS CONTEMPLATED

''It is proposed to have the new theater
 completed and open to the public some
 time during October" said Thomas II.
 Motion last night.
 MT Motion is the agent of J. R. Smith
 and Charles Smith, who have bought two
 lots on Second avenue between Seventeenth
 and Eighteenth streets, and who have be- | gun other preparations for the erection of
 a first class theater for Birmingham. Most
 of the facts concerning this deal were told
 exclusively in yesterdays Age-Herad
 "Since the building is to be erected"
 continued MT. Motion. "there is no use de-
 laying over it. We ought to get plans
 completed some time this month, and then
 the building should be finished in about
 four months. Contracts for the building
 itself, for painting all of the scenery. for
 the chairs and interior furnishings, can be
 let and the work of finishing them can be l going on all summer.
 l Klaw & Erianger Will Manage It ''Yes, Klaw & Erlanger will have control
 of the new theater for a term of five years 1 They were glad enough to exchange their
 lease on oBrien's opera house for one on l the new theater. Their lease the old
 house was for S4,OOO a year, and the new
 lease is at a slight increase over that price. 1 The theatrical season will open next fall | about the first of September, and for about | two months Klaw & Erlanger will put on | all of their shows at O'Brien's, after which l time that place will be closed, and every
 thing will go to the theater l have l been keeping the bool1ins for next season, | temporarily and those who are thoroughly | familiar with the theatrical world, tell me that by far they are the best shows that have ever come to Birmingham.
 'No name has yet been selected for the new theater, but 1 should think Smiths opera house would be a very practical name, if not a very fancy one"
 From MT. Motion the following details of the new theater were obtained. In the first place the Smiths will be compelled to pay $i,50O extra for the lots in Second avenue, if they do not begin erecting the theater within six months; the property will not be forfeited, as has been stated, in case of failure to build within that time.
 Cost s6,OOO to Improve old House
 About three weeks ago Klaw & Erlanger paid Thos Sully, of New Orleans, one of the best architects in the south a hand some fee to come to Birmingham and see what improvement would be needed to put O'Brien's in first-class condition. He said that at least $6,000 would be required for this work, and even then the theater would still be a second-story affair, with seating capacity of only about nine hundred at greatest. He recommended a new building with a seating capacity of be- tween 1,5OO and 2,000. He said that an opera house larger than that would be failure. He said that the proposed plan of con- verting the auditorium into regular thea ter would spoil a splendid auditorium and make poor opera house.
 MT. Sully, by the way took his first les- sons in architecture in the office of Charles Wheelock. of this city, when the latter was living in Austin, Tex, fifteen years ago. From that time he has risen rapidly to one of the foremost of southern architects. He designed the Crescent and Tulane theaters for Klaw & Erlanger in New Orleans, the new theater now being erected at Mobile. the St. Charles hotel in New Orleans and a number of other of the finest buildings in the south.
 The new theater will be situated just a half block beyond the government building which is not bad location at all. It Is convenient to all of the street car lines ill the city, more so than the Auditorium, and is within two blocks of the very center Of the city. It is very probable that Second
 avenue between Seventeenth and Eight
 eenth streets will be paved with asphalt or vltrihed brick some time fhis summer and the sidewalks put in first-class condl-
 ton.
 Stage Sew mt F sct Wide
 The auditorium of the theater will be fiat xuith nor
 quet circle a dress circle and a gallery.
 The stage will be 70 feet wide, with dress ing rooms on either side of 1t, and not underneath. It is not known yet exactly how wide the proscenium arch will be, but 1t is supposed nearly fifty feet. Under the stage there will be a 45x10o-foot cellar, which can easily be drained into the Sec- ond avenue storm sewer, and into which can be placed all of the heating apparatus, and which can be used for storage rooms and other purposes. Provisions will be made for giving the auditorium the best of ventilation and plenty of fresh air.
 The front of the building will be dis tinct novelty in Birmingham. The en- trance will be twenty-five feet wide, and opening into wide foyer On the left will be the ticket office and the managers of flee, and on the right or the entrance Will l be the theater saloon. Entrances to the | gallery will be at each of the front corners | of the building. On the second floor above | the entrance there will be an elaborately | fitted up ladies' cloak room and other such | features of the modern theater.
 MT Douglas, of Memphis, who has for several years past been Klaw & Erlanger's manager in that city, will have charge of the new theater. He is manager of much experience, and during his recent visit to