Final Version: Harrington Opera House and Bank Block Building

The Harrington Opera House and Bank Block building housed one of the first banks in Harrington: the Bank of Harrington. The building was designed by local construction firm J.R. Burrill and Company and run by local pioneers John F. Green, Marion F. Adams and Albert G Mitchum. The building opened in December of 1904 and housed a bank, a bowling alley, a barber shop, cigar and confectionary shop, the Harrington Citizen newspaper, as well as an upstairs opera house. It cost $25,000 to build the Romanesque brick building which used Harrington made bricks to construct the exterior.

The first show to be produced in the upstairs auditorium was “The Lady Minstrels” on December 16, 1904, and it drew the largest crowd the Opera House would ever see. In the backstage dressing rooms, there are names of past actors/ actresses signed on the walls. Such names include the Jolly Entertainers, Miss Clara Gooley, the Odessa Dramatic Club and Harrington High School. When the auditorium opened, it boasted 350 seats but shows normally drew over 400 guests at one time. To this day, eight scenic canvases still exist dating back to 1906 and were created by J.R. Quinn and the Spokane Scenic Studios. On the back of the canvases, there are hand drawn portraits of people, mainly faces of women, and one Native American chief.

The Bank of Harrington remained open until 1969 when it was bought out by Old National Bank and moved a block away to 3^rd and Main. When the lobby was being renovated, the old teller’s counter was sold to the Spokane Old Spaghetti Factory. The old bank lobby became the lobby for the Opera House and the old barber shop now acts as the town’s historical museum. The building was bought by the Harrington Opera House Society when they were formed on January 11, 1992, for one dollar.  The sale was facilitated by local retired college professor Douglass Rudkoff and other members helped to see the deal through. The Harrington Opera House Society has been maintaining the building ever since. When the building was bought, the South facing exterior wall was sagging and needed to be repaired. The repairs are not very noticeable but make the building more stable.  A new staircase was installed in 2008 in order to connect the main bank lobby and the upstairs auditorium and stay up to fire code. The ceiling of the auditorium was also replaced in 2010.  

Over the years there have been a wide variety of events held at the Harrington Opera House. The infamous movie “Birth of a Nation” was shown in the Opera House in 1917 as well as “The Gay Deceiver” in 1926. The off- Broadway production of “The Imprudent Young Couple” written in 1895 made a stop in Harrington and it’s playbill is hanging in the lobby to this day. The most common events that took place in the auditorium were balls and dances. The last dance that was supposed to be held at the Opera House was scheduled for February of 1942, a Valentine’s Day dance, but it was canceled due to “the war and weather conditions.” After this, there is no record of events taking place in the auditorium and the decorations from that dance were not taken down until the buildings eventual sale in 1992. 

Pictures: 

North Side of the Bank Block building ca. 1920's. Photo Courtesy of the Harrington Historical Society. 

Article from the Spokane Daily Chronicle from August 8, 1970. 

Advertisement for Harrington Opera House's first show "Lady Mistrels".  Photo Courtesy of the Harrington Opera House Society. 

One of the traveling shows that was preformed at the Harrington Opera House. Photo courtesy of the private  collections of Laura Glasgow. 

A bank check from the Harrington State Bank. The checkbook still sits in the Harrington Opera House main lobby. Photo courtesy of the private collections of Laura Glasgow. 

The playbill for the "Birth of a Nation," one of the most controversial movies of its time. Photo courtesy of the private collection of Laura Glasgow. 

Modern day view of the upstairs auditorium of the Harrington Opera House. Photo courtesy of the private collection of Laura Glasgow. 

The playbill for the show "The Gay Deceiver" that came through Harrington. Photo courtesy of the private collection of Laura Glasgow. 

A hand-drawn protiat of a woman ca. 1909. Photo courtesy of the private collection of Larry Cebula. 

Inside the Harrington Opera House auditorium ca. 1950's-1960's. Photo courtesy of the Harrington Historical  Society. 

Bank Block Building on National Historic Register. Photo courtesy of the Harrington Opera House and Ed Haugan. 

Sources: 

• An article written by Karen Allen: http://www.harringtonoperahouse.org/OperaHouse%20May09WL4Web.pdf
• Harrington Opera House Society website: http://www.harringtonoperahouse.org/ 
• Email info@harringtonoperahouse.org 
• Harrington 100 Years (book) 
• Spokane Daily Chronicle (August 8, 1970) 
• Harrington Heritage Museum 

Harrington Opera House and Bank Block

An advertisement for the Bank of Harrington. 

The Harrington Opera House and Bank Block building housed one of the original first banks in Harrington; the Bank of Harrington. The building was designed by local construction firm J.R. Burrill and Company and run by local pioneers John F. Green, Marion F. Adams and Albert G Mitchum. The building opened in December of 1904 and housed a bank, a bowling alley, a barber shop, cigar and confectionary shop, The Harrington Citizen newspaper, as well as an upstairs opera house. It cost $25,000 to build the Romanesque brick building and used Harrington made bricks to construct the exterior.

The original street view of the Bank of Harrington. ca. 1898. 

The inside of the Opera House. 

An article published in the Spokane Daily Chronicle describing  the sale of the tellers table being sold to the Old Spaghetti Factory. 

A drawing of a women on the back of a canvas stage set ca. 1906. Courtesy of the Harrington Opera House Society. 

The first show to be produced in the upstairs auditorium was The Lady Minstrels on December 16, 1904 and drew the largest crowd the Opera House would ever see. In the backstage dressing rooms, there are names of past actors/ actresses signed on the walls. Such names on the walls are the Jolly Entertainers, Miss Clara Gooley, the Odessa Dramatic Club and Harrington High School. When the auditorium opened, it boasted 350 seats but shows normally drew over 400 guests at one time. To this day, 8 scenic canvases still exist dating back to 1906 and were created by J.R. Quinn and the Spokane Scenic Studios. One the back of the canvases, there are hand drawn pictures of faces, mainly women and one Native American chief.

A modern view of the Opera House looking directly at center stage. 

The Bank of Harrington remained open until 1969 when it was bought out by Old National Bank and moved a block away to 3^rd and Main. When the lobby was being renovated, the old teller’s counter was sold to the Spokane Old Spaghetti Factory. The old bank lobby became the lobby for the Opera House and the old barber shop now acts as the town’s historical museum.  The building was bought by local retired college professor Douglass Rudkoff for one dollar in 1992(? need to confirm this date). The Harrington Opera House Society was formed on January 11, 1992 and has been maintaining the building ever since. A new staircase was put in 2008 in order to connect the main bank lobby and the upstairs auditorium. 

The Happenings of a not-so Professional Historian

The side of the Opera Housing, Harrington, WA 

A mural painting on the side of a building. 

The Studebaker shop sign. 

The ticket counter at the Opera House 

So I know we're supposed to do our blog posts on the books we've ready but I thought it would be more fun to talk about the adventure that Arianne and I took this weekend. On our way back from the MAC on Thursday, Arianne said she was going to take a trip to Harrington to get more pictures and information on the stops she's doing and I thought I would tag along. We headed out on Saturday morning and got to Harrington at about noon. We stopped by the Studebacer shop, I needed pictures and we just stumbled upon a gathering of locals having a small BBQ. Jerry and his wife were there as well as the owner of the Studebaker shop and another local man. We asked if we could take pictures of the shop and if there was anyone who could let us into the Opera House. The local man let us into the Opera house and gave us a private tour of the town and some of the old houses in town as well as the cemetery, old churches and the old wheat thresher factory.

One of the original settlers in Harrington.  

This may not seem like a great day but this was so great. I think the best part of history and public history for that matter is learning about the everyday lives and happenings of regular people. We read about famous people in our textbooks and will probably never meet their decedents but going to a place like Harrington allows for that opportunity. The local man we met was the last decedents of one of the original families (sadly I cannot remember his name), and was gracious enough to take us around town and even showed us his personal house along with his prized pictures of him family over the years. this kind of stuff just doesn't happen in big cities or in suburbia. I just couldn't get over how amazing it was that the people of Harrington opened their doors and essentially their lives to us just because we asked... well that and the fact the Jerry remembered us from our class tour.

I think everyone should go to have this kind of experience, being shown around by the locals is the best way to learn the history of a place like Harrington. I also this more hands-on, active way of learning history would make learning way more fun than just reading a textbook. I find the best way to learn something is to experience and live it first hand. Go out and see where people lived, see where battles were fought, stand where famous people stood in order to get a better idea of what they experienced. Horwitz actually kind of touches on this in his book when he talks about going to the Battle of Shiloh site. He could almost feel what the soldiers were feeling and that made it more real; brought history to life and made it relatable. That's what history is about!

The importance of Being in One Place

So this weeks readers were pretty fun to read and I didn't connect that the the longer video of Shelby Foote until I continued reading and it all made sense. I really enjoyed reading about Horwitz going to Shiloh and meeting all the different kinds of people who are drawn to such a place. I guess I never really understood how a place can hold so much power and draw so many different kinds of people to it. I think because we don't have as many of those kinds of places in this area, that it makes it hard to relate. I did however find myself wanting to visit these places to see if they could inspire the same feels for as they did Horwitz. He talks about having an attachment to these places through childhood fantasies and not through heritage like the other people he met. I don't even have the upbringing that would inspire any kind of emotional response to the Civil War, my family is from France/ French Canada as far as I know, so I am curious, do these battle sites produce the same emotional responses from people whose family had no stake in the war and live on the other side of the country? I hope to one day find out but I also think my view might be skewed because I love history and everything that is tied to some kind of history is amazing to me.

When I was watching the videos, I seem to remember at least one time or another watching one of those episodes in one of my numerous history classes. I had never heard of Shelby Foote until reading this book, or if I had, he was of no importance to my everyday life, but Horwitz makes it seem like he is the best known author of all things Civil War. I wonder how many people in the South know his name or if he too has slipped into history as a forgotten soul. (I would've linked the video but Youtube took it down due to copyright issues.. awkward...)

Sorry it's kind of grainy but here it is, Pearce Hall! 

Another site I enjoyed looking at was Spokanehistorical.org. Because I have work up on the site, I like to go back to it and see if I can find typos in my work or have fun looking around at other stops. Local history that is tangible to the people around it is my favorite kind of history because it gives meaning to the modern day happenings and I guess that's why people have such an attachment to the Civil War sites.  And another one of my stops is a "Featured Story" (!!!!). I know it's not right to brag but having your work front and center for potentially hundreds if not thousands of people to see is pretty awesome!

The Heroic History of Harrington

This week's readings were really interesting to read for the most part until it came to the Harrington 100 Years. I think the information the writers used was valuable but way it was displayed was not helpful at all. The authors kept going back and forth between the past tense and the present tense, making it hard to keep up. I kept thinking, was the author alive back in the 1880's or what? I also laughed when I saw who compiled the information, the Harrington High School Cheerleaders. Why would cheerleaders be compiling information, was it for a class or for fun or what? I also laughed when I got to page 19 and the author stated "...the keeping of pigs within the city limits is prohibited," because as we were driving up to the the Hotel Harrington on Saturday, there they were about 8 pigs in an enclosure right outside the school district building. Oh how times change I guess.

I do think a lot of the information presented in this book was not important like slowing of gas sales in the 1920's. The history of where things were and who owned them was really interesting but I do think there should have been some diagrams to give frame of reference of where those buildings were to outsides who don't know the family names and don't know the street layout of the town. The pictures that were used were good for the most part but needed better descriptions (page 18 and the telegraph operators, who is who, there are 3 women in the center of the picture.)

or they were really hard to see what was happening (page 31 , building destroyed by fire.)

However, I did catch myself spending extra time looking for the Hotel Harrington/ Lincoln Hotel/ Electric Hotel just to see what it looked like 'back in the day.' I've fairly certain I spend more time looking for the Hotel than absorbing the facts the author was telling me. This book also needs to be updated, the information is over 30 years old and many things have changed and it would be interesting to see what has happened since then.

I really like reading The Story of Lincoln County Washington: 1909 because of the way the author wrote. He has a very eliquent way of writing that makes the book more enjoyable. For example, he writes or all the glories of California, "..tumbling torrents teeming with sock-eyed salmon.." This book is just interesting to read and gives information that is helpful understanding formation of the town. The book is signed to the Governor and it is apparent that the book is written mainly for him but it also gives good insight for us now. I love his use of pros as well as facts.

Where did Slavery go?

Sorry this is a little late, I'm working and I got really caught up in the readings for this week. It was so nice to actually read a book that told the history but also connected it to modern day life. The book Confederates in the Attic written Tony Horwitz gives a great account how modern day people of the South deal with remembering the past, specifically the Civil War. He starts out by discussing his introduction to the Civil War, by his grandfather and his father, and then seg-ways into how he starts his journey of enlightenment on how the South continues to celebrate their confederate past. Horowitz starts by spending a night with a group of civil war re-enactors (or hardcores as they call themselves). His interest is peeked and he continues on his journey to Salisbury, NC. He meets a lot of interesting people, including the leaders of the local United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) and the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV). Horowitz gets into the issue of prejudice with a young black hair dresser and gets a great quote from a local saying that she was glad they had the freedom to commemorate the war but they also need to remember that they lost.

Horowitz continues his journey to Charleston, NC, the birthplace of the Civil War and it's Fort Sumter. I think this part of the book really gives the reader perspective on what life is like in the South. For the most part, Charlestonians commemorate the Civil War in the own way but it isn't at the forefront of everything but still has a major stake in a lot of people's lives.

Here is a little blurb on the 152nd commemoration of the Star of the West event. 

Painting of the Star of the West attack on January 9, 1861
Photo courtesy of the Charleston City Paper 

The thing I find most interesting, is that for the most part, the confederates of this day and age don't want to admit that the one of the main causes was Slavery. They say it has to do with states rights vs. federal rights, or Northern aggression but at the most basic of levels, the cause was slavery. Horowitz brushes over the viewpoints of African-Americans in the South but there isn't really any mention of slavery. I also couldn't help but think about my possible move to Florida if I would see confederate flags stuff like that. I know that not a whole lot happened in Florida during the Civil War but Pensacola is close to the boarder of Alabama so I'm not sure. I looked up some history of the state in the war which showed Florida's limited contributions.  

I also couldn't believe the article we read about the lack of slavery discussions in plantations and museums in the South but as I continued to read the author makes a good point that most historic places "whitewashed" history. I know that so many places want to focus on the things that were good during history, not things that were bad because who would want to visit a historic place if they knew their families had been slaves or worse. 

I think the best part of this weeks readings wasn't a reading at all, it was the satirical video about the Confederate soldiers getting a pep-talk from a Lieutenant. It makes fun of the Confederates and their "irrational" ways of thinking. I think my favorite quote from this video is: "'The South never won no war getting caught up in no logistics.' ' The South never won no war..' 'Exactly!'" This just cracks me up and then reading the comments people posted is just a funny. 

The Power of Place in Our Everyday Lives.

This week’s readers were gave us an interest look at how place effects different aspects of history. The book we read is titled The Power of Place: Urban Landscapes as Public History by Dolores Hayden and gives a new perspective on how to deal with history and preservation from not only a historian’s point of view but from the point of view of an architect as well as a sociologist. As history majors,  we get so caught up in the idea that we know how the world should interpret history but we do not really take into consideration what other fields have to say about the history. According to the story in the beginning of the book about an architect and a sociologist going head to head about why certain buildings should or shouldn't be saved, historians aren’t the only ones who only understand their point of view. Another interesting thing that the author talks about is the complete disregard of ethnic groups and women when it comes to the discussion of place. Hayden states that it is only in the last 10-20 years that places have started trying to preserve places that hold significance to the civil rights movement and women’s rights. (Here is a website created by the Park Service to document and display significant women's rights monuments and places.) 

I also thought it was interesting the idea of place memory. I guess I never really thought about it but places do evoke memory even if they were seemingly insignificant memories. Hayden says “Because the urban landscape stimulates visual memory, it is an important but underutilized resource for public history”. (pg. 47) she continues on to give an example: a curator in Baltimore complained that the every oral history interview she did, the person only talked about place. If we stop and actually think about what emotions and memories our childhood home, or school or some physical place evoke within us, it should make sense that places are all people ever talk about. Places like the Statue of Liberty have place memory for the whole nation but on a more personal level, what holds place memory for you? For me, it's my house, the places I have worked over the years; any place that holds any kind of memory for me. 

Picture from the World Historical Places Blog

The author then goes into a detailed kind of case-study about Los Angeles, CA and how they are having a difficult time understand and documenting their social history. She describes the diversity that characterizes LA and how that shapes the history that is told about Los Angeles. It is interesting to read about the troubles that surround documenting the history of LA and I wasn’t really sure why it was relevant, and then I read the back cover of the book. Hayden does a lot of her work on Los Angeles so I guess it kind of makes sense to add.