Category:Hagenbuch Opera House, Allentown, Pennsylvania

The Hagenbuch Opera House, also known as the Academy of music, was an ornate structure and was Allentown's first stage theater. It was located on the north side of Hamilton Street, about midway between 8th and Lumber Streets, at the site of the current Kresge Building. It opened on Monday, December 26th 1870.

The theater was the result of the enterprise of the Hagenbuch family, who were descendants of original settlers in Allentown during the 1760s. The Hagenbuch family was also identified with the Cross Keys Hotel, located at the northwest corner of 8th and Hamilton Streets, and had owned a hotel at that location since 1773.

The building had three storerooms on the first floor, with the theater itself on the second floor. The entrance to the theater was between the first and second storerooms, which consisted of a wide staircase. The staircase remained in place for many years after the theater closed and became the Bowen Grocery Store, The front, with its high arched windows and domed roof also remained, making it a very elegant grocery store of the times. The theater had a capacity of 1,500 with parquette, dress circle and gallery, the latter around the sides "serpentine in shape, gold on vermilion background, presenting a bold and magnificent appearance under the glazing jets of gas". Although Allentown had no theater or opera-house so-called parlor prior to 1870, many and various stage performers had visited the community. Performances were made at the Lehigh County Courthouse, or in one of several "halls", the principal of which was "Kline's Hall", located on and upper floor of a building on the southeast side of Center Square, Another hall was the Odd Fellows Hall, on the south side of Hamilton Street, located at where the Lehigh County Community College is now.

The Hagenbuch Opera House was open until 1885 when Allentown opened a newer theater, first known as "Music Hall", and later it was also named the "Academy of Music". It occupied the site at the northeast corner of Sixth and Linden Streets, the current site of the Morning Call Newspaper. Shortly after it closed, it was turned into the Bowen Grocery Store, another landmark of late 19th-Century and early 20th-Century Allentown. Bowen's Grocery closed in 1927 and was rebuilt as the S.S. Kreske 5&10; now individual storefronts in the former Kresge building.

Fourteen years after it closed, Allentown opened another theater, the Lyric, which opened in 1899 and continues today to serve the public as "Symphony Hall".

Object location	40° 36′ 06″ N, 75° 28′ 27″ W	View all coordinates using: OpenStreetMap	40.601667; -75.474167