Music in Maine

This is the interior of the second floor of Cumston Hall. The head carpenter on the project was Mellen J. Hanscom of Leeds, and the head plasterer was Daniel Kavanaugh of Lewiston.

The following descriptions are excerpted from the Lewiston Journal of May, 1900:
[The auditorium was built in] “opera house style, with sloping floor, balcony, stage and boxes...The prevailing tints in the auditorium are old rose and Nile green; the relief work is in old ivory and pricked out with gold. All the beautiful relief work on the proscenium and the balcony front and in the whole interior is from original design and has been made on the premises. The rococo work is especially noticeable from its exquisiteness. The decorations follow the renaissance effect...The panels in the groining above the balcony are very beautiful and will repay long study. Each contains a spray of flower or flowering frond...This hall will be the first building in Monmouth to be lighted by electricity...The auditorium will seat 452 people and with "extra seats that can be added without obstructing any aisle, will accommodate 520...The balcony design is thoroughly original. There are no supporting columns to obstruct the view. It springs as an arch from side to side of the building, and is locked in a V brace, the whole forming a structure that is as safe as the solid earth. And at the same time it so lends itself to the scheme of construction that the acoustic properties of the hall are helped by it.”

"Hartland has a public hall at last." So reads the headline of the March 3, 1892, Pittsfield Advertiser describing the completion of the Hartland Opera House. Two years previously, the town had voted to loan its credit for $2000 to assist in building suitable accommodations for a public hall with rooms above for civic organizations including the Masons and Odd Fellows. The building was proclaimed to be one of the "finest and most commodious structures of its kind" to be found in the area.

In 1897, the orginal opera house burned, but was rebuilt immediately and for approximately the same cost as the original.

The opera house was the scene for many evenings of entertainment. In 1912, the Hartland Hall Association was granted the right to have movies.

At the 1959 town meeting, voters approved having the town acquire the stock of the Hartland Hall Association so as to have the building as a town hall.

Loane's store and Opera House on East side of Main Street. The Loane's sign on the front of the store announced that they sold hardware and 'sportmens' supplies. Other signs advertised that they sold paint, oils, varnish, carpenter's supplies, builder's supplies and farming tools. Advertised brand name products were Simond's Saws ("Simonds are Best"), Atlantic Ranges ("Atlantic Ranges Always Please"), and Syracuse Chilled Plows ("Syracuse Plows are Best"). Syracuse Plows of Syracuse, New York, later became part of the John Deere Company.

Other stores further along the street are W. J. Campbell Drug Store and E. F. Daniels & Co.'s People's Clothier.

This brightly colored ticket-sized advertisement informed patrons of the cinematic offerings and promotions in a given week at the Bath Opera House in the heart of the city's downtown. On the back, coming attractions were often highlighted. Probably given out when tickets were purchased, these ads allowed the theatre to market the current movies cheaply and effectively, sending customers home with reminders of enticing films on the way. Movie prices are noted at the bottom of the trade cards.

Interior of the Bath Opera House showing the stage.

The City Opera House was located on the second floor of Biddeford's City Building, built in 1860 in place of the burned-down Central Block. It was a grand brick building, built in the Italianate style, just five years after Biddeford had attained cityhood. The stage of the Opera House was 50 feet wide, with rigging of 24 feet, and the auditorium sat 1000. The Opera House's grand opening was on October 20, 1860, with a staging of the play "The Octoroon". The building burned to the ground on December 31, 1894.

Interior of the Bath Opera House in 1926 showing seating and balcony.

Color postcard of the Opera House on Main Street in Bangor.

Presque Isle Opera house and hotel.

The Bath Opera House is shown as it was ready to reopen after surviving the fire of March 1925. The Opera House was built on the site of the 1883 Alameda Hall and originally opened on November 21, 1913. Frank Churchill was the architect and engineer for the project. The land had been sold by the Alameda Association to the Abrams Amusement Co. in 1912.

In the early years, the Opera House hosted traveling musical comedies and novelty acts such as "Odiva, the Samoan Diving Queen" with her school of Pacific sea lions, as well as the increasingly popular moving picture. The Opera House also hosted high school graduations and major news announcements like the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

In the fall of 1971, the building was demolished due to its poor condition and inability to compete financially with newer theaters. Bath's home of popular entertainment, first as the Alameda and then the Opera House, was gone after nearly 90 years.

This photo shows the stage of the Tuscan Opera House decorated for the Dixfield High School graduation ceremonies by the Class of 1933. The Dixfield High School did not have an auditorium or gym before the 1970s, so school productions and other events were held at the Tuscan Opera House.

The Class of 1933's motto was "NOT AT THE TOP, BUT CLIMBING," and the class colors were American beauty rose and white.

In 1907 and only two years from the time Woodland was a forested, largely uninhabited wilderness, Charles Murray, an immigrant from Italy, built the Woodland Opera House to provide the then boom town a venue for entertainment.

The St. Croix Paper Mill was built by immigrant Italians, and they loved opera. Murray’s Hall, which became known as the Opera House, was dedicated on December 31, 1907. A special train from Calais took guests to the Grand Ball.

Murray made his countryman, Michael Foggia, its manager and for over half a century the Opera House was the social center of the town. Located just outside the mill gate, it featured vaudeville, plays, dancing, and even prize fights in the early years.

By the roaring 20s moving pictures were the central attraction and, in the 1930s, bowling alleys were added. It hosted high school graduations and school plays in the days Woodland’s school had no gym.

Mike Foggia, who soon bought the building, opened a store on the first floor, which became known for its fresh Italian bread.

The business closed in the late 1950s, and the building was razed. The site became a parking area for the mill.

This photo shows the Tuscan Lodge, No. 22 of the International Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF) on Main Street in Dixfield in the 1930s. Built in 1891, the third floor of this building became the permanent lodge for the IOOF and the Rebekahs. The basement held a kitchen, the first floor was the dance hall and theater, and the second floor was the balcony and dressing rooms. The building became known as simply the Opera House and offered the Town of Dixfield, as well as surrounding communities, a venue to host all manner of social, governmental, and school events for over eighty years.

The stage set up for the graduating exercises of the Biddeford High School at the City Opera House, Main Street, on June 23, 1890.

The class slogan, "Persistere Est Vincere" translates to "To persist is to conquer." There were thirty-six students graduating this day. Initially built in 1860, the City Opera House was destroyed by fire in 1894.

The following is an excerpt from a paper entitled "Opera Houses and Music Halls of Maine," by Donald C. King, 1997, that was to be published in a quarterly journal called "Marquee," out of Washington, DC. This document is in the vertical files at the Lewiston Public Library.

"Julius Cahn and A.L. Grant built the new Empire Theater in Lewiston, opening in 1903.....The theatre was literally blasted into being out of 7000 cubic feet of ledge, just west of the canal on Main Street. The partners were unable to find any other suitable location. It took four months to cut down the rock sufficiently to commence construction.

New York architect, Claufflin, designed the new house. A young Italian painter, F.P. Righetti, decorated the ornate interior.....The empire theatre opened in November 1903 with Raymond Hitchcock in 'The Yankee Consul.'

Parquet (orchestra) seated 594, balcony 348, gallery 509, while boxes held 48 persons. Cahn totals seating capacity at 1480......In 1914 Cahn and Grant sold the Empire Theatre to the Empire Theatre Company, which in turn, leased the house to William Gray's Maine and New Hampshire Theatres. The playhouse was to become a movie house.

On May 20, 1940 the Empire Theatre closed for remodeling. Out went the dancing girls and cupids and the 24 posts which supported the balcony and gallery. The theatre became a movie palace. With the decline of single screen theatres in the fifties, the Empire closed and eventually became a church."

This is the interior of the second floor of Cumston Hall. The following descriptions are excerpted from the Lewiston Journal of May, 1900.

"This is opera house style, with sloping floor, balcony, stage and boxes."
"Of course the eye is first caught by the stage and the proscenium arch. Above the arch are three huge panels containing heroic figures. The panels in order represent Music, Drama [in the center], Oratory."
"The prevailing tints in the auditorium are old rose and Nile green; the relief work is in old ivory and pricked out with gold. All the beautiful relief work on the proscenium and the balcony front and in the whole interior is from original design and has been made on the premises. The rococo work is especially noticeable from its exquisiteness. The decorations follow the renaissance effect."
"This hall will be the first building in Monmouth to be lighted by electricity."

This photograph may have been taken by Harry H. Cochrane.


All the paintings, including the ornate drop curtain, were painted by Harry H. Cochrane.

The head carpenter on the project was Mellen J. Hanscom of Leeds, and the head plasterer was Daniel Kavanaugh of Lewiston.

Source- Arthur Morgan Griffiths, Centennial History of Cumston Hall Monmouth, Maine (Monmouth, Maine, The Monmouth Press, 2000), pp. 14-16, quoting Lewiston Journal, May, 1900.

Cumston Hall was built as the Town Hall and the Library in Monmouth. Harry H. Cochrane completed the plans in March 1899. The formal dedication took place on June 27, 1900.

It now serves as the Monmouth Theater and Town Library.

It was the first building in Monmouth to be lighted by electricity and was designed with its own private plant, supplied with power by a shinglemill.

The small building on the left was designed as the Selectmen's office. Next is the carriage porch. The architecture is a blend of Romanesque and Renaissance. The windows are leaded stained glass. The tower encloses the staircase leading to the second floor opera house.

Harry H. Cochrane, who designed the building, was not an architect, yet his plans were so thorough, barely any changes were necessary. Cochrane may have taken this photograph.

Main Street in Caribou with the Powers Theater at the right. "Bubbles" with Mary Anderson is showing at the theater. The Powers, which closed in the early 1970s, had started as the Gem Opera House in the 1920s.

Caribou was incorporated in 1859 and had 5,377 residents in 1910. It had a variety of water-powered mills and was a major commercial center of Aroostook County. The water power came from Caribou Stream and the Aroostook River.

The town's first potato starch factory began operating in 1871 and became one of the nation's largest starch operations.

This is one of the main streets in Millinocket, showing some businesses and the opera house circa 1950.

This photo of the corner of Main and Church Streets in Calais was taken about 1900. The stars-and-stripes bunting on the Hill-Pike Building to the left suggests that this photo was taken near the fourth of July. This building was used as a chandlery and as retail space for other merchants serving the waterfront trade.

Beside it is the Emmans Hotel and looking further east on Main Street can be seen the many carriage makers and stables that provided transportation in Calais in the days before the automobile.

The brick building to right was then called St Croix Hall and later became the Opera House.

This circa 1920 photo of Main Street in Machias shows a busy downtown. Although the horse-watering trough still stands at the intersection, automobiles dominate the commercial district.

The large building with the mansard roof on the right is the Phoenix Opera House, which had commercial establishments on the ground floor. Its listing in the 1913-1914 Cahn Leighton Official Theatrical Guide reports the second-floor hall had a seating capacity of 430, with 150 seats in the balcony. The Phoenix showed live entertainment as well as motion pictures. On January 23, 1927 the building burned to the ground.

The other buildings along Main Street are an assortment of the many establishments doing business in the community. It has been reported that at one time over 45 stores lined Main Street. The buildings on the left are now gone as far as the Customs House, which became part of the bank.

Ridlonville was once part of the town of Mexico. This image of Main Street faces south.

The second building is the Howard Hall Opera House, built for recreation and dancing by John L Howard. It featured a covered stairway. In 1926, the Strathglass Pipe Band of Rumford and Mexico practiced playing and marching in the hall. The hall was later used for basketball games and also as sixth grade classrooms until the Abbott School was rebuilt. On the first floor of the hall was Archie Mann's Bakery and Knauer's Beer Garden.

The building on the south side of the hall is A. E. Davis Dry Goods, established about 1901. It burned in 1907 and was rebuilt with brick. Howard Hall also burned down in 1978.

As of 2013, the Far East Restaurant is housed in the A. E. Davis Building and uses the lot where the hall once stood for parking.

Lisbon Street in the late 1800s.

As late as the 1840's what is now Lisbon Street was undeveloped, but the community soon changed. Boston investors, including Benjamin E. Bates, financed the construction of the canal system and several textile mills. Many Irish immigrants were employed in the construction, under the supervision of Capt. Albert H. Kelsey. These mills prospered during the Civil War, as the owners correctly foresaw that the war would be long; they had stockpiled sufficient cotton to maintain production.

in the 1860s and 70s Central Block on the corner of Lisbon and Main Streets became the anchor for development of the downtown area and housed city offices. Lisbon Street became the main commercial center. A new impressive city building was constructed in 1873 across from a park donated by the Franklin Company; after an 1890 fire, the current city hall replaced it.

After fire destroyed several stores on Lisbon Street, leading citizens decided to construct "the best opera house east of Boston." The Music Hall was built in 1877 at 69 Lisbon Street. The offerings here, at the Empire Theater, and in many other halls generally featured traveling stock companies, minstrels, drama and melodrama.