The Opera Block
18-72 Hanover Street
Manchester, NH 03101
(603) 668-8282

 

History of the Opera Block

 
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   Manchester: formerly Derryfield, was essentially created by the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company in the late 1830's.
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   Elm Street was the principal thoroughfare. It was initially developed with 3 & 4 story brick, gable-roofed business blocks.
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   City Hall, a Gothic Revival Style built in 1849, was built opposite Elm Street's intersection with Hanover Street.
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   By 1870 Hanover Street (in the block between Elm & Chestnut St.) was developed.
•
   Buildings still standing from this period are:
 

Odd Fellows Hall (1871)
Old Post Office Block (1876)
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In 1880 The Opera House Company was organized to finance a modern theater in Manchester.
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   The lot chosen for the project was the site of the Old Hanover Street Church. The land was bought from the church by John Smith and Alfred Quimby. Not long after this Mr. Quimby withdrew from the partnership and Edward W. Harrington took his place.
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   The developers of the block, Harrington & Smith were prominent Manchester figures. Their names appear on the facade of the building.
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   Edward W. Harrington was the son of the former mayor of Manchester. The senior Harrington left his heirs Amoskeag lot # 136. The west half of the site.
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   John Butler Smith of Hillsborough Bridge, NH was a textile manufacturer and investor in Real Estate. He was governor of NH in 1893.
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   Ownership of the block was divided along the centerline of the building. Harrington & his family owned the west half and Smith the east half.
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   In April & June 1880 the land on which the theater was planned was deeded to the Manchester Opera House Company. The entrance was planned through a vaulted corridor along the center line of the main block of the projected office building.
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   The Harrington-Smith Block was completed in January 1881.
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   The building helped enhance the status of the growing city (Pop. 32,000 at that time)
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The building is in the "Modern, mixed Queen Anne Style."
 

The design is characterized by:
 

Contrasting colors and textures (red brick walls, sandstone, terra cotta, granite and red & green slate enrichments)
Its storefronts and entrance bays extend to and above the cornice.
Single and grouped round arch openings on the highly symmetrical façade.

 

 

 

•   Prime contractor was the firm of Head & Dowst.
•   The Opera House was larger than Manchester's other theater: The Park Theater in the Smyth Block on Elm Street (built1835, demolished 1965)
•   It was the city's largest theater until 1919.
•   It became the grande dame of Manchester's "Great White Way" on Hanover Street
   
The first tenants:
   
Storefronts-tailors, dry goods, shoe merchants and a druggist
Second Floor- Offices primarily held by lawyers
Third Floor- West Ell- Occupied by the photographer Lyman Colby
Third Floor was occupied by the building's architect- John T. Fanning.
   
In later years tenants included the Peoples Gas Light Company (1892-1895) and the Manchester Electric Light Company (1895-1927). This company installed electric lights on white poles along both sides of Hanover Street. This advertised their service and helped to establish the nick name "Great White Way" for the Street.
•   John T. Fanning was an architect and civil engineer specializing in hydraulics.
   
He was commissioned by Manchester in 1872 to design its new water system.
In 1874 the water system was completed. He designed the Victorian Gothic style pumping station on Cohas Brook near Lake Massabesic.
He also designed the First Congregational Church on the corner of Hanover and Union St.
The Harrington-Smith Block was his last major building design.
•   In 1884 the Manchester Union, a newspaper owned by Dr. Joseph Moore, moved into the east ell of the Smith section of the Block.
•   Next door (since 1876) was the Mirror newspaper, headed by John B. Clarke.
•   The Manchester Leader bought the Union in 1913. The new Union-Leader moved into the Harrington-Smith Block in March 1914.
•   In 1924 the Union-Leader bought out the now floundering Mirror.
   
   
   
   
   
 

The Opera House offered many plays, operas and shows during its years of operation.
The physical space itself was used first as on opera house and legitimate theater, traveling minstrel shows, vaudeville and later as an early pre-movies (bioscope) house. The theater was modeled on the Tremont theater in Boston.
The Opera House opened with William E. Sheridan and Mrs. Thomas Barry in Bulwar's tragedy, "Richelieu" on January 24, 1881.
Another early extravaganza was Jules Verne's fantastic travels called "Voyagers in Southern Seas."
Among the famous persons who performed here are:
Actor Edwin Booth, singer Madame Schuman-Heinke and march king, John Philip Sousa.
The building became a movie house and was renamed The Strand in 1906 at the outset of the silent films era.
In 1946 both halves of the Harrington-Smith building were sold to the Machinist Family who owned it until 1979. They operated a large department store on the site.
The theater portion of the building declined with the arrival of mega-movie plexes. The Strand started a slow but steady decline until two fires severely damaged the building in 1985. The theater portion and the west ell portion for the building were completely lost at this time.
In 1987, the newly renovated building had been restored to reflect it's grand history. It was named to the National Register of Historic Buildings in 1987.
Today its houses 41 luxury apartments, as well as high-end retail and office space.