Harris Musee Theatre

The Mckeesport Musee was opened in 1892 by the Harris Brothers as a low-brow curiosity entertainment venue. The location was a space converted from the former McKay’s Restaurant. But in 1897, the Harris Bros. struck gold in their dime museum when they installed a Lumière Cinematograph and the rest was history as they installed one at their Avenue Theatre location in Pittsburgh. The nascent love affair with motion pictures was on in the late-19th Century in America.

John P. Harris took over the McKeesport location in 1897/8 which would be renamed the Harris Musee Theatre and the motion picture business was so stout that in 1905 he would go exclusively films and would refer to the location as a “nickelodeon”. That’s the name they would use in Pittsburgh to create the first Nickelodeon in the built solely for that purpose. But theaters improved and the badly-outdated Harris Musee Theatre would be closed. The building was torn down after World War I and replaced with the Hotel Dandar.

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