Mark Simonson, Oneonta City Historian

The new motto of The Oneonta Theatre is “Showing Oneonta A Good Time Since 1897.” The same intent had to have been on the mind of Willard Yager when he set out to build a new theatre that year on what was a vacant lot, across the street from the Windsor Hotel. NBT Bank now occupies the site of the former hotel.

Even before the theatre opened, Yager provided Oneontans a good time, in their keeping up with the progress being made.

Readers of The Oneonta Star first found out about Yager’s plans on April 7,1897, and how he had purchased the lot from Morris Brothers, who until recently had a feed business across Chestnut Street, having since moved to a larger site on Market Street. The Morris Brothers liked Yager’s plans so much—they turned out to be the largest investor in stock for the theatre when Yager sold subscriptions to the public, at a hefty $8,000. The first subscription drive raised over $25,000.

Willard Yager did his homework when it came to planning out this theatre, intended for opera and Vaudeville acts. Along with William H. Morris, the two went to several upstate New York cities to see what other theatres had done, and planned to create something even better for Oneonta.

Yager recruited the best architect of the time, Leon H. Lempert, of L.H. Lempert & Son, theatrical architects, of Rochester. Bids for construction were let, and Barnes, Butts & Ingalls won the contract in September 1897, with construction starting about October 1. The theatre became part of Yager’s two-building brick block on Chestnut Street, which would also serve as a few storefronts, and living space above.

It had been hoped the theatre would be ready by January 1, 1898, but as construction projects always seem to go, there were some delays. The contractors came respectably close, as February 28 became the deadline, as the first show was booked. Yager leased the building for $1,500 a year to a Mr. W.D. Fitzgerald, who was the first theatre manager.

Star readers followed the race to the completion of construction, as the seats had arrived on February 12, and house scenery came in a railroad car on February 16. It was reported on February 24, that “the electric lights…were turned on last evening and those who were privileged to view the building were lavish in praise of the beauty and artistic appearance of the interior and its furnishings.” Curley’s Orchestra was hired to furnish music at the theatre and held a rehearsal on February 26 to test the acoustics. “The result was delighting,” it was reported the next day.

Then came the big event. The Sporting Duchess opened on Monday evening, February 28. The production was touted as having a cost of $50,000 and the featured star was Miss Ffolliott Paget.

“The new Oneonta theatre,” the Star reported the next morning, “was complete only when the large and fashionable audience was seated for the opening performance. The scene was so unlike any ever witnessed here before that one could hardly realize they were in Oneonta. A modern theatre, so long wished for and hoped for, hopes and wishes which have been several times blasted, is at last a reality.”

With the floor seating, balcony circles, balconies and gallery benches, an audience of 825 could fill the house in the opening years. Once the Oneonta Theatre opened, the competing Metropolitan Theatre, which was then found on Dietz Street near the present lower level of Huntington Park, was doomed.

Vaudeville shows, plays and other live, traveling entertainment graced the stage in the early years. Silent movies began to be shown here in 1913, with “Birth of a Nation” being one of the first. Three other movie houses competed in the downtown business district during the 19-teens.

The Oneonta Theatre was almost constantly being renovated, improved, or enlarged in the early 20th century. Work was underway in the fall of 1919 to build an addition, to double the seating capacity on the floor. A new and modern central entrance to the theatre had been constructed just a year earlier, previously being an entrance to the left as you faced the building.

The first talking movie in Oneonta played here in 1926, the epic “Don Juan” starring John Barrymore. John Phillips Sousa performed here during the 1920s and Will Rogers appeared in 1927.

The theatre kept improving, as in 1930 a new life size movie screen was installed, as well as new projection and sound equipment, new seats and marquee. It was also that year the theatre, then owned by the Fox Theatre Corporation, began petitioning for the showing of movies on Sunday, which had been strictly taboo for decades. Even at the height of The Great Depression, people still enjoyed their entertainment.

During World War II the locals kept up with the newsreels of what was going on in Europe and the Far East, while at the same time perhaps trying to get their mind off the war for a few hours. Many a war bond fund raising event took place here.

In the late 1950s, Harold “Spike” Carey, then manager of the Oneonta Theatre, who had been in the business with the Schine Theatre group for 35 years, estimated that he had probably seen about 5,500 movies in his time here.

For generations and up until 1964, the theatre was the site of high school graduations. Students lined up at Oneonta High School, then found on Academy Street, and marched to the theatre.

When Oneonta’s urban renewal program was introduced in the mid-1960s, the theatre was in the path of the planned destruction. Harold deGraw bought the theatre in 1966, and stopped the destruction after announcing plans to rehabilitate the theatre and its Chestnut Street storefronts. This gave it the present white aluminum marquee and façade. It was funded privately by Mr. deGraw and was completed in 1969.

deGraw announced in 1980 that the balcony of the theatre would be converted into a second theatre by the end of summer, to seat 200. The floor section could then seat 700. First run movies showed in these theatres until 2006. During the 1980s, ‘90s and early 21st century the theatre was also home to Orpheus Theatre, and served as a venue for First Night Oneonta.

Harold deGraw retired and sold the theatre, and subsequent owners have been Peter Van Woert, Phil Colone and Terry Mattison. It should be noted that Colone procured the placement of the theatre on the National Register of Historic Places. This gem of a downtown building is now owned and guided by business partners Tom Cormier and Jon Weiss.