Local history is my passion. I write about it on this blog, serve on the board of the Delaware County Historical Society, and take pride in editing our newsletter, the Society Quarterly. That’s all well and good, but there are moments when I feel like an impostor: compared to my peers, my collection of historical artifacts is modest with few postcards and even fewer trinkets. Fortunately, I do have a series of tickets from an event at Muncie’s old Wysor Grand Theater. They make me feel like less of a phony.
Muncie has no shortage of stellar venues and places to congregate. The Muncie Fieldhouse, Emens Auditorium, and Canan Commons host a variety of compelling events these days, but the Wysor Grand Theater was the place to see Muncie’s biggest attractions in the early part of the twentieth century.
The story of the Wysor Grand began in 1872 when a Forty-Niner named Jacob Henry Wysor built Wysor’s Opera House at the corner of Main and Walnut Streets in downtown Muncie1. In 1891 his son, Harry, announced plans to supersede his father’s structure with “the finest opera house in the state2.” It was a fitting sentiment for a town soon to be known as the Queen City of the Gas Belt.
The Wysor Grand Theater officially opened on September 15, 1892, with a presentation of the Shakespearean drama Richard III. No less than the esteemed actor Thomas Keene was reported to have been impressed by the playhouse3. “Never have I in my professional career entered a more beautiful or perfect theater than the Wysor Grand,” he told the Muncie Daily Times. “Liberality of heart and purse make it what it is4.”
The Wysor Grand was, indeed, a spectacular building. The pressed brick and stone structure stretched sixty-three feet along the southwest corner of Mulberry and Jackson Streets and featured a fifteen-foot entrance. The main auditorium accommodated 560 people, while 760 more could fit into the balcony and, even further up, a semi-circular gallery5.
Over its seventy-one-year run, the Wysor Grand presented dramas, musicals, vaudeville, high school graduations, and even a handful of burlesque shows. In the 1920s, the theater started playing movies5. George W. Pierce and Frank Gilkison Jr. purchased the Wysor Grand from owner-operator George S. Challis in 19616.
Unfortunately, movie palaces like the Wysor were old hat by then. Two years later, Pierce and Gilkison demolished the theater to make way for a parking lot. Fortunately, some reminders of the Wysor Grand remain today, like my souvenirs. The Grand used a color-coded ticket scheme for its orchestra, upper loge, balcony, and second balcony seating areas under Challis’ ownership.
I was given these tickets a few years ago by the then-Executive Director of the Delaware County Historical Society. I was just a volunteer then. As I held them, I was struck by a surprising connection to Muncie’s history! I didn’t expect to touch something so tangible from our city’s past, and I’ve cherished the tickets ever since. They’ve served a practical purpose as well: they really saved my bacon when I had to fill in for the “Artifact Corner” column of our latest newsletter!
Sources Cited
1 Owens, E. (1963, July 17). It’s the NEW, Not the Old Wysor Grand That’s Being Razed. Muncie Evening Press. p. 4.2Greene, D. (1963, June 16). Wysor Grand Knew Days of Glory When Theater Greats Acted Here. The Muncie Star. p. 29.
3 Greene, D. (1961, August 23). Seen and Heard in Our Neighborhood. The Muncie Star. p. 4.
4 (See footnote 2).
5 (See footnote 2).
6 Theater Property Bought by Two Muncie Attorneys (1961, December 31). The Muncie Star. p. 1.
Your fascination with history combined with your attention to detail and desire to accurately document as much as possible means that you are not an imposter.
You are a fine historian.
Say it with me: “I am not an imposter.”
I am not an imposter. Haha! That was fun!
lol. Repeat as often as needed.