The Southern Theatre

A run of downtown fires between 1889 and 1893 left Columbus wanting a building that would not burn, and in September 1896 it opened one: the Great Southern Fireproof Hotel and Opera House, designed by the local firm of Dauben, Krumm and Riebel. Sarah Bernhardt appeared there in the touring years. Silent film and vaudeville followed, then second-run features, then a spell in the 1970s as the Towne Cinema, with a weekly country music jamboree keeping the lights on. The theatre closed in 1979 and stood empty for nearly two decades. The Columbus Association for the Performing Arts acquired it in 1986 and completed a fourteen-month restoration of the jewel-box interior — 933 seats under two balconies — reopening the doors in September 1998. Concerts, plays and opera share the stage today.