DeGive's Opera House was the main venue for opera in the U.S. city of Atlanta from 1871 until 1893.
DeGive's Opera House was the main venue for opera in the U.S. city of Atlanta from 1871 until 1893.
The Atlanta History Center describes how Belgian consul Laurent DeGive purchased an unfinished building at the corner of Marietta and Forsyth and hired architect and civil engineer Max Corput to design the opera house. [1]
The opera house opened on January 24, 1870, [2] and was expanded in 1873–1874 to accommodate over 2,000 people. [3] The opera house was later occupied by the Columbia Theater and later still by the Bijou Theater. The building was demolished in 1921 [4] to make way for the construction of the Palmer Building, which is in turn was replaced in 1976 by an office building at 41 Marietta Street.
Earlier confusion about the location of the original DeGive's stems from two misunderstandings. First, the location was assumed to be the site of the Kimball opera house. However, this building was at the SW corner of Marietta and Forsyth; DeGive's was at the NE corner. [5] Second, it had been assumed that the location may have been on at the corner of Marietta and Broad (not Forsyth) based on Reed's History of Atlanta. [6] However, this reference is only to Atlanta's antebellum Masonic Hall, later destroyed in a fire in May, 1866.
In 1893, DeGive opened the new, larger DeGive's Grand Opera House, which would later become Loew's Grand Theatre, at Peachtree and Forsyth.
DeGive's was not the first opera house in Atlanta. The first shows performed in Atlanta predate the American Civil War and were primarily performed in makeshift facilities modified for the operatic arts. Reconstruction saw the formation of the Atlanta Opera House and Building Association. The association obtained the southwest corner of Marietta Street and Forsythe Street to construct a five-story opera house. By 1868, they were out of money. Instead of hosting great performances, Atlanta's first opera house, the Kimball Opera House as it was later known, was sold at a loss. It served as Georgia's state capitol from January 1869 to July 1889. [7]
Loew's Grand Theater, originally DeGive's Grand Opera House, was a movie theater at the corner of Peachtree and Forsyth Streets in downtown Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States. It was most famous as the site of the 1939 premiere of Gone with the Wind, which was attended by most of the stars of the film.
John Thomas Glenn was the 31st Mayor of Atlanta from 1889 to 1891, and the son of another Atlanta mayor, Luther Glenn, and like his father an attorney at law.
William Arnold Hemphill was an American businessman and politician who served as Mayor of Atlanta from 1891 to 1893.
Evan Park Howell was an American politician and early telegraph operator, as well as an officer in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War.
Thomas F. Lowe was a Georgia musician, businessman, and politician who served as the acting mayor of Atlanta, during the early part of the American Civil War.
The Fairlie–Poplar Historic District is part of the central business district in downtown Atlanta. It is named for the two streets that cross at its center, northeast-only Fairlie and southeast-only Poplar. Fairlie–Poplar is immediately north of Five Points, the definitive center point and longtime commercial heart of Atlanta. It is roughly bounded on the southwest by Marietta Street, on the southeast by Peachtree Street or Park Place, on the northeast by Luckie Street or Williams Street, and on the northwest by Cone Street or Spring Street. It has smaller city blocks than the rest of the city, and the streets run at a 40° diagonal.
Hannibal Ingalls Kimball was an American entrepreneur and important businessman in post-Civil War Atlanta, Georgia.
The Piedmont Exposition of 1887 was the first exposition ever held in Piedmont Park in Atlanta, Georgia.
Opera in Atlanta has a long and uneven history. The first shows performed in Atlanta predate the American Civil War and were primarily performed in makeshift facilities modified for the operatic arts. The main company for the region is the Atlanta Opera, founded in 1979, which produces mainstage opera productions and arts education programs for all ages. The Atlanta Opera is based at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre.
William Pope Harrison was an American Methodist minister and theologian, and was the 48th Chaplain of the United States House of Representatives. He was an author of books on Methodist theology, most notably The Gospel among the Slaves, the first comprehensive accounting of the religious beliefs of African American slaves in the United States.
Godfrey Leonard Norrman, was an important architect in the southeastern United States. A number of his commissions are now listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and in 1897 he was made a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects.
Samuel Martin Inman was a prominent cotton merchant and businessman in Atlanta, Georgia, who is best known for the neighborhood in Atlanta that bears his name. Inman is also commemorated in the name of the Samuel M. Inman Middle School in the Virginia-Highland neighborhood.
The 80th Georgia General Assembly began in Atlanta, Georgia in early 1869. This was the first session after the seat of government was moved from Milledgeville, Georgia following the Georgia Constitution of 1868. A new capitol building had yet to be built so sessions were held in the opera house on Marietta Street rented from H.I. Kimball.
First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta is a congregation of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) located in the Midtown section of Atlanta, Georgia. First Presbyterian Church was founded in 1848, and it was Atlanta's first Presbyterian house of worship. The original church building on Marietta Street was vacated in April 1916 and the property was sold to the U.S. government for the construction of the headquarters of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. The current church building on Peachtree Street was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2020.
Washington Hall was a historic hotel in antebellum Atlanta, Georgia. Built in 1846, the building was one of the earliest hotels built in the city. The hotel, along with many other structures in the city, was destroyed in 1864 during the Battle of Atlanta.
The Globe Theatre (est.1871) was a playhouse in Boston, Massachusetts, in the 19th century. It was located at 598 Washington Street, near the corner of Essex Street. Arthur Cheney oversaw the Globe until 1876. From 1871 to 1873 it occupied the former theatre of John H. Selwyn. After a fire in May 1873, the Globe re-opened on the same site in December 1874. Architect Benjamin F. Dwight designed the new building. From 1877 to 1893 John Stetson served as proprietor; some regarded him as "a theatrical producer with a reputation for illiteracy in his day such as Samuel Goldwyn has achieved" in the 1960s. The theatre burned down in January 1894.
Marietta Street is a historic street in Downtown Atlanta. The street leads from Atlanta towards the town of Marietta, as its name indicates. It begins as one of the five streets intersecting at Five Points, leading northwest, forming the southern border of Downtown's Fairlie-Poplar district, continuing through Downtown's Luckie Marietta district, then entering West Midtown's Marietta Street Artery neighborhood, until terminating at its junction with West Marietta St., Brady Ave., and 8th St.
The Henry W. Grady statue is a monumental statue of Henry W. Grady in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Built by Alexander Doyle in 1891, the statue lies at the intersection of Marietta Street and Forsyth Street in downtown Atlanta and was unveiled shortly after Grady's death in 1889. The statue has recently been the subject of controversy, as several groups have called for its removal due to Grady's support of white supremacy.
Grace United Methodist Church is a Methodist church in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Originally organized as a mission in 1871, the current church building was designed by Francis Palmer Smith and was completed in 1923.
Oglethorpe Park was a municipal park in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The park, consisting of about 50 acres (20 ha), was created in 1869 and hosted numerous fairs, most notably the International Cotton Exposition in 1881. Following this exposition, the park was sold by the city and was converted into the Exposition Cotton Mills, utilizing facilities that had been built for the event. The closure of the park indirectly contributed to the creation of two later parks in Atlanta: Grant Park and Piedmont Park.
