Springer Opera House

Theater in Columbus found its finest home on February 27, 1871, when Francis Joseph Springer, originally of Alsace, opened his opera house. The Springer’s forty-foot deep stage held a continuous round of shows of every description. Edwin Booth played Hamlet there on February 15, 1876, on his first Southern tour after the War. Blind Tom Bethune, the Negro musical prodigy born near Columbus, performed there often. Oscar Wilde and Williams Jennings Bryan lectured there; John L. Sullivan, the world champion, gave a boxing exhibition; and Mrs. John Drew, grandmother of the Barrymores, starred in She Stoops to Conquer. In 1928 Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivered a Happy Warrior speech there in behalf of presidential nominee Al Smith. In 1902 the Springer sons completely renovated the opera house. From that time until it became a movie house in 1941, the Springer continued to be the city’s cultural center. In 1959 it closed, and in the spring of 1964 The Columbus Little Theater Opera House Trustees was formed to prevent its destruction. On October 6, 1965, The Little Theater’s musical production of St. Elmo, based upon the Victorian novel by Columbus-born author Augusta Evans Wilson, was presented amid the Springer’s restored Victorian splendor.

Columbus, Georgia · United States