STEPPING OUT

Despite what today we would consider primitive living conditions such as the lack of plumbing and dirt roads, in 1879 “high society” still flourished. And when people went to the theater, they did so in style. The Urban Trail memorializes the arrival of theater in Asheville with Station #3 titled “Stepping Out”. The artwork consists of a top hat, cane, and gloves, cast in bronze to recall the theaters and the Grand Opera House that once flourished along Patton Avenue, making this hilltop street the early center of commerce and culture.Think what it would have been like to live in Asheville in the 1800s. Keep in mind that most of the things we use today had not been invented or if invented had not reached homes, businesses, or the individual. Radio broadcasting did not begin until 1920 and the percent of homes with a radio did not reach 60% until 1930. Silent movies begin arriving in 1880. It was 1927 before we had talkies. And TV did not begin showing up in homes until 1950. But people wanted entertainment. Their answer was an Opera House. Every town of any size had to have an Opera House. Traveling performers put on live productions.From the mid-1870s until about 1915, any building used for presenting entertainment on stage was usually called an "opera house." The term lent an air of respectability to the act of play-going. Despite its moniker, the attractions, as they were usually called, were hardly Grand Opera. The North Carolina Historical Review includes the following:The Carolina Citizen on April 17, 1879 reported that the third floor of the Courthouse at Pack Square was leased for a first-class theatre that will be fitted up in handsome style.On May 6 and 7th Thorne Company again presented two pre-opening performances with Ten Nights in a Bar Room and Rip Van Winkle. Then the new Opera House was formally opened on Tuesday June 3, 1879 with Fanchon the Cricket. Before the performance Miss Bonnie Meyers of the Thorne Company made a dedicatory speech.The Grand Opera House was only the beginning of Theater in Asheville because once movies were invented, movie houses to show them streamed into the city. The Strand Theatre, at 17 Patton Avenue, was opened August 2, 1915. It was renamed State Theatre on February 14, 1934. The ‘Strand’ name was later used on the theatre located at 36 Biltmore Avenue, now known as the Fine Arts Theatre, which is the only cinema still operating in downtown Asheville. The Imperial Theatre, at 32 Patton Avenue, followed opening in 1922 and closing in the late 1970s. Two years later, January 12, 1925, the Plaza Theatre, located in the heart of downtown Asheville in Pack Square, opened with Douglas Fairbanks in “The Thief of Bagdad” and operated until sometime in the 1980’s. Other downtown theaters followed only to be demolished in the 1970s including the Vance, Princess and Paramount Theatres. The last to close, the Imperial, was demolished in 1980.The “Stepping Out” monument at Station #3 was created by students at the University of North Carolina at Asheville under the leadership of Professor Dan Millspaugh.