The Opera House

In the late 1800's, as John W. Garrett, president of the B&O Railroad, promoted the Oakland/Deer Park area as a premier vacation resort and twelve passenger trains arrived in Oakland daily, growing tourist traffic created support for a high-quality entertainment facility. In response, John Shartzer announced on February 28, 1985, his intention to build a first-class opera house on Second Street, and work on the Shartzer Opera House began in February 1896. Plans called for offices and storerooms on the first floor, office apartments on the second, and a theater on the third with seating for 500 people, private boxes, a sloping floor, a twenty-four-foot ceiling, steam heat, and electric lighting. The grand opening took place on September 9, 1896. Later renamed the Oakland Opera House, it hosted a wide variety of entertainment in the following years, including traveling show companies such as Buckler's Big Stock Company, Jolliffe's Bright Lights, Frank Adams and Company, the German Medicine Company, and the Mortimer Troupe, as well as popular local minstrel shows, including a July 28, 1910, benefit performance for the Oakland African American Church by performers from Oakland and Mt. Lake Park. The building also housed local businesses over the years, including Mrs. K.R. Rasche's School of Music, Grant's Photographic Studio, Guy Orcuitt's Barber Shop, the Preston Lumber Company offices, and Hinebaugh's Restaurant. It continued to provide entertainment until 1911, when the Knights of Pythias built a lodge and theater on Third Street, and it was ultimately torn down in 1967 to make room for the new Garrett National Bank.

Oakland, Maryland · United States