Internet photo: thalianhall.org
The living history of Thalian Hall Story By Abby Cavenaugh Since its opening in 1858, downtown Wilmington’s Thalian Hall has hosted countless theatre productions, concerts, city government meetings, and other parties and events. Thalian Hall has the unique honor of being Wilmington’s City Hall, as well as its entertainment hub. It remains the only surviving theatre designed by one of America’s most prominent 19th-century theatre architects, John Montague Trimble. At that time, Wilmington was the largest city in the state
and was “experiencing unparalleled growth and prosperity,” according to the history of Thalian Hall provided by Tony Rivenbark, executive and artistic director for the Thalian Hall Center for the Performing Arts. Thalian Hall officially opened on October 12, 1858, with “The Honey Moon,” a popular romantic drama produced by the G.F. Marchant Stock Company of Charleston, S.C. One of the highlights of the evening was the unrolling of a painted stage curtain, which is still on display
in the theatre’s lobby. Somewhat surprisingly, Thalian Hall remained in use throughout the Civil War, hosting 254 separate productions in 1864 alone. From 1860 until 1936, the theatre was leased by private entrepreneurs, the most famous of which was John T. Ford, formerly of Ford’s Theatre in Washington D.C. Throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, some big names performed at Thalian Hall, including Lillian Russell, Buffalo Bill Cody, John Phillip Sousa, Joseph
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