Category:Academy of Music, Allentown, Pennsylvania

Academy of Music (1888) 101 North 6th Street (Stage)

The second theater in Allentown. It replaced Hagenbach’s Opera House at 8th and Hamilton streets, which was deemed inadequate for stage plays and the demands of the public. The new theater was built at the northeast corner of Sixth and Linden Streets at a cost of $40,000 by a group of Allentown businessmen, headed by G. C. Aschbach, who was also the first manager. The name of the theater was first "The Music Hall", changing in 1892 to the Academy of Music.

It's most popular shows were productions of Gilbert and Sullivan operettas in Pennsylvania Dutch. Along with the music and stage theater productions, it was also used as a meeting house for civic affairs. On two occasions, the Pennsylvania Democratic State Convention was convened there.

It was destroyed in a huge fire on Jan. 9, 1901. The fire started under the stage of the theater by unknown causes. It quickly spread and broke through the roof. The building was declared a total loss, It was decided not to rebuild as the new Lyric Theater a half block away could accommodate the performers that were at the Academy of Music.

The structure was subsequently torn down, and a new building housing the Allentown Democrat Newspaper building was completed in 1905; now part of Morning Call Newspaper complex.