Lyceum Theatre
35 Main Street,
Bradford,
PA
16701
35 Main Street,
Bradford,
PA
16701
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A theatre next to the Grand Theatre and was one of the ‘Bradford Big Three’ in the silent era of cinema. The Lyceum Theatre is discontinued as a theatre not long after converting to sound. After periods of infrequent use between 1931 and 1940, the Dipson Circuit is ready to take on the theatre and decides against it with the theatre used for church services and rare events.
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The Lyceum Theatre was built in 1878-79 as the Bradford Oil Exchange, and was later known as the Exchange Lyceum or Bradford Lyceum before becoming the Lyceum Theatre. A notice in the October 1, 1892, issue of The New York Clipper said that the Bradford Lyceum was “…being remodeled and fitted up for public entertainments.” The notice said the house would seat 600 and have a stage 23x30 feet.
The Oil Exchange building was designed by a largely self-taught architect named Enoch Arnold Curtis who, despite his lack of formal training, enjoyed a long and successful career. He also designed the 1891 Fredonia Opera House in Fredonia, New York. I’ve been unable to discover who was the architect for the conversion of the Lyceum for theatrical use.
In 1901, the ax-wielding anti-saloon crusader Carrie Nation gave a talk at the Exchange Lyceum on October 2. The Lyceum Theatre was showing movies regularly by 1916, when it was mentioned in the April 15 issue of Motography.
One of the “public entertainments” was the May 12, 1915 boxing match between Special Delivery Hirsch and Sammy Baker.