The Great Southern Hotel & Theatre is an historic hotel and theater building in
Downtown Columbus, Ohio. The building currently operates as the
Westin Great Southern Columbus and the Southern Theatre.
It opened on September 21, 1896 and is the oldest surviving theater in Central Ohio and one of the oldest in the state of Ohio. The Southern Theatre is currently owned and operated as a home for live concerts, plays and opera by CAPA (the
Columbus Association for the Performing Arts
The Columbus Association for the Performing Arts (CAPA) is non-profit arts and theater management organization based in Columbus, Ohio.
History
CAPA was formed in 1969 by Robert Karlsberger, Lawrence L. Fisher, Jean Whallon, and Scott Whitlock to ...
). CAPA also manages several other venues in Columbus including the
Ohio
Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
, the
Palace
A palace is a grand residence, especially a royal residence, or the home of a head of state or some other high-ranking dignitary, such as a bishop or archbishop. The word is derived from the Latin name palātium, for Palatine Hill in Rome which ...
, and the
Lincoln Theatres.
The building was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
and
Columbus Register of Historic Properties in 1982. It was also included in the
South High Commercial Historic District
The South High Commercial Historic District is a historic district on High Street in Downtown Columbus, Ohio. The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983 and the Columbus Register of Historic Properties in 1987.
The ...
, added to those registers in 1983 and 1987, respectively.
History
Design
Between 1889 and 1893 a series of fires destroyed five downtown Columbus theaters. As a result, a group of businessmen decided to develop a new hotel and theater with modern construction and safety features on the southern edge of downtown. The building was called "The Great Southern Fireproof Hotel and Opera House", and was designed by the local architectural firm of Dauben, Krumm, and Riebel. Construction began in 1894. Both the theater and the hotel were constructed of "fireproof" tile, brick, iron, steel, and concrete.
The theater's auditorium design was progressive for its day and was reminiscent of
Louis H. Sullivan's 1891
Schiller Theatre
The Schiller Theater Building was designed by Louis Sullivan and Dankmar Adler of the firm Adler & Sullivan for the German Opera Company. At the time of its construction, it was among the tallest buildings in Chicago. Its centerpiece was a 1300-s ...
in Chicago. From the
proscenium
A proscenium ( grc-gre, προσκήνιον, ) is the metaphorical vertical plane of space in a theatre, usually surrounded on the top and sides by a physical proscenium arch (whether or not truly "arched") and on the bottom by the stage floor ...
opening, a series of concentric arches dotted with incandescent electric lights radiate into the house, resulting in superior lighting and excellent acoustics. Built to be self-sufficient, the theater, one of the first commercial buildings in Columbus to use electricity,
generated its own power. Additionally, the building had three
wells
Wells most commonly refers to:
* Wells, Somerset, a cathedral city in Somerset, England
* Well, an excavation or structure created in the ground
* Wells (name)
Wells may also refer to:
Places Canada
*Wells, British Columbia
England
* Wells ...
in the basement, from which it produced its own water supply.
[ The theatre currently seats 933] and is an intimate "jewel box" type theater with two balconies.
In 1982, the Great Southern was added to the National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
.
Theater use
The Great Southern Theatre originally hosted theatrical touring productions. Sarah Bernhardt
Sarah Bernhardt (; born Henriette-Rosine Bernard; 22 or 23 October 1844 – 26 March 1923) was a French stage actress who starred in some of the most popular French plays of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including '' La Dame Aux Camel ...
played in the theater in its first two decades. In the 1910s and 1920s the theater, now called the Southern, featured first run silent films
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, whe ...
and live vaudeville
Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...
. From the 1930s on, the Southern was a popular home for second-run double features. In the 1970s the theater briefly returned to first run fare as the Towne Cinema, showing black exploitation movies. Throughout the 1970s the Southern also hosted a weekly live Country Music Jamboree, sponsored by local radio station WMNI
WMNI (920 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Columbus, Ohio, known as "Fox Sports 920" with a sports format. Locally owned by North American Broadcasting Company, Inc., WMNI serves the Columbus metropolitan area. WMNI's studios are ...
.[
The theater closed in 1979 and in 1986 was acquired by CAPA. After sitting empty for nearly two decades, the Southern was completely restored by CAPA in 1997-98 during an extensive 14-month rebuilding process. The newly restored Southern Theatre reopened on September 26, 1998. The Southern Theatre is now featured on many of Columbus's architectural tours.]
See also
* List of concert halls
A concert hall is a cultural building with a stage that serves as a performance venue and an auditorium filled with seats.
This list does not include other venues such as sports stadia, dramatic theatres or convention centres that may ...
* National Register of Historic Places listings in Columbus, Ohio
References
External links
Westin Great Southern Columbus
The Southern Theatre
{{CAPA
Theatres completed in 1896
Concert halls in Ohio
Culture of Columbus, Ohio
Theatres on the National Register of Historic Places in Ohio
Theatres in Columbus, Ohio
Colonial Revival architecture in Ohio
National Register of Historic Places in Columbus, Ohio
Buildings in downtown Columbus, Ohio
Columbus Register properties
Hotel buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Ohio
Hotels in Columbus, Ohio
Yost and Packard buildings
Individually listed contributing properties to historic districts on the National Register in Ohio
High Street (Columbus, Ohio)
Historic district contributing properties in Columbus, Ohio