Columbus’ First Theater

Columbus’ First Theater. . (Side 1): , A pioneer theatrical entrepreneur, Sol Smith, 1801-1869, built many theaters in the Deep South, including New Orleans and Mobile and the first permanent theater west of the Mississippi in St. Louis, a city that he and partner Noah Ludlow dominated. Smith came to Columbus in 1831 to a primitive log structure in the 800 block of Broadway, which builder Asa Bates had completed in one week. “Pizzaro” was his company’s first production there. Later, Smith toured Georgia’s theater circuit accompanied by friend Mirabeau B. Lamar, founding editor of the Columbus Enquirer and later second president of the Republic of Texas. , (Side 2): , Early Theatres, The Springer Opera House, 1871, was the sixth legitimate theater in downtown Columbus. Previous were the Sol Smith, Crawford Street, Lyceum, Concert Hall and Temperance Hall. The early theatrical circuit followed the Old Federal Road through Columbus, as did many well known personalities like English novelist William Makepeace Thackeray and Swedish violinist Ole Bull. During an 1850 visit here by the Canning Company, its manager accidentally wounded John Wilkes Booth, an actor more notorious for assassinating President Abraham Lincoln at Washington’s Ford Theater than praised for his histrionics.