Meiggs' Music Hall

SE corner of Bush St. and Montgomery St. | map |

Opened: 1853 as a project of lumber baron Harry Meiggs.

 

The site was across the street from the location of the later Platt's Hall, which opened in 1860 about six and a half months after Meiggs' was destroyed. Later in the next block west on Bush there was Congress Hall (later called the Standard Theatre), opening on the north side of the street at 318 in 1865. Across the street from the Congress, the Alhambra Theatre would open in 1868 at 325 Bush.  

Seating: 1,000, all on a single floor.  

Upcoming performances at the new hall were noted in the June 29, 1853 Sacramento Union:

"The Concerts. — We take pleasure in announcing that Mrs. L. A. Jones, Miss Leach and Messrs. Beutler and Smith will shortly commence their concerts at Meiggs' new Music Hall in Bush street. The reputation of this talented troupe warrants us in promising a series of rare musical entertainments to our readers. Their quartettes, selected from the oratorios of Haydn and Mozart, are the most chaste and finished specimens of the kind we have listened to for years. — Whig."

The construction was noted in an item in the July 9, 1853 Sacramento Daily Union: 

"The new Music Hall on Bush street, just below Montgomery, is rapidly drawing towards completion. It is to have no galleries, but will seat 1000 persons on the first floor. Such a room as this has long been a desideratum in San Francisco. It will not only be convenient for balls, but especially so for mass meetings during the coming campaign. - Times & Transcript"

The "Our San Francisco Correspondence" column in the July 28, 1853 Sacramento Daily Union provided some information about the hall:

"Extensive preparations are being made for the ball to be given by the Marion Rifles of this city to-morrow evening. The new Music Hall on Bush street, has been engaged, and will be decorated in magnificent style. It is expected that this affair will surpass all similar attempts ever witnessed in California. 'The Pacific Musical Troupe' made their first appearance last evening at the new hall on Bush street, near the corner of Montgomery. A large audience was present and the singing was applauded by all. They were assisted by a number of the members of the San Francisco Philharmonic Society, under the direction of Mr. Geo. Loder. The Hall is of excellent proportions and is well adapted for a music hall— and for ventilation the arrangements are not equalled by any similar hall in the States."

And after the use of the Music Hall for a charitable event, this appeared in the letters column of the December 12, 1853 Sacramento Daily Union:

"Thanks. — Archbishop Alemany requests that Messrs. Peachy and Billings will accept his best thanks for the generosity with which they placed the great room of their new building on the corner of Washington and Montgomery streets— contingently on the consent of Messrs. Meiggs and Kildutt— at the disposal of the Catholic Committee, for the purpose of holding 'The Ladies' Fair,' recently held in the Music Hall. To Mr. Meiggs he also returns his grateful acknowledgments for giving the Music Hall, for that occasion, free of charge. The ladies by whom the fair was conducted, have requested him to tender to the above-named gentlemen the expression of their grateful thanks, and this would have been done sooner, but that it was deemed advisable to wait until all the accounts connected with the fair should have been settled..."

 

Thanks to Art Siegel for locating these newspaper items. They can all be viewed on the website of the California Digital Newspaper Collection. 

 

 

This information about the building appeared on page 188 of the 1854 city directory. Thanks to Art Siegel for spotting this. Note by this time two extra letters have appeared with the name becoming the Musical Hall. 

Dancing teacher Madame Pique planned a recital to show off the accomplishments of her students in September 1854. The event is discussed by John Lumea in "Emperor Norton at Madame Pique's," a 2019 post on the site Emperor Norton Trust. John includes this ad that appeared in the Daily Alta California on September 5, 1854:

 

 

John notes that Emperor Norton planned an event at the Musical Hall for February 1, 1860 and cites the proclamation published in the San Francisco Daily Evening Bulletin on September 17, 1859:

"I…do hereby order and direct the representatives of the different States of the Union to assemble in Musical Hall, of this city, on the 1st day of February next, then and there to make such alterations in the existing laws of the Union as may ameliorate the evils under which the country is laboring, and thereby cause confidence to exist, both at home and abroad, in our stability and integrity."

Closing: Meiggs' Musical Hall was destroyed by a fire on January 23, 1860. Emperor Norton had to relocate his February event to the Assembly Hall on Kearny St. at Post.

The January 24, 1860 Sacramento Daily Union had this report "By The State Telegraph Line" where they declared it to be arson: "the work of an incendiary":

"Large Fire... A fire broke out this morning in the Albion House, on Montgomery street, near Bush, which destroyed four buildings, among them the Musical Hall. Supposed to be the work of an incendiary. The losses are put down as follows: Buildings owned by Peter Donohue and Marktrell & Otto, $16,800; Mrs. Dubois, proprietress of Albion House, $1,800; Mills & Bowlestone, cabinet makers, $850; Waldron Shear, variety store, $700; C. Lansenberg, painter, $150; Mrs. Robinson, milliner, $900; B. Collins, jeweler, $650; Mrs. Blankenstein, milliner, $800; J. O. Kane, boot maker, $160; P. Flynn. boot maker, $100; Mrs. Price, $400 — total loss, $22,000. Musical Hall was under lease to L. E. Ritter for a term of years for $500 per month. New brick buildings are to be put up by Donohue in case he can get the release. The Albion House was fired three times last night."

The January 25, 1860 Marysville Daily Appeal had this report of the fire in their "San Francisco Correspondence" column: 

"Sᴀɴ Fʀᴀɴᴄɪsᴄᴏ, Jan. 23, 1860. Eᴅɪᴛᴏʀ Aᴘᴘᴇᴀʟ: —Musical Hall has gone the way of all wooden buildings.— At 3 o'clock this morning, a fire broke out in the Albion House, Montgomery street, a few doors south from the southeast corner of Bush street. Four houses, fronting on Montgomery, were destroyed, and the wind being from the westward, Musical Hall was soon involved in disaster. It is a complete ruin. The Hall was built by Harry Meiggs, in the latter part of 1852. It was subsequently mortgaged by him to L. E. Retter, upon whom the loss falls. The ground—50 vara lot— was recently purchased by Peter Donohue for $50,000. Musical Hall was good paying property. It was constantly in use, for public assemblies, balls, concerts, public meetings. &c., and its destruction is looked upon as a public disaster. The stores on Montgomery street were occupied by Mrs. Shear, millinery; Miller & Roulstone, furniture, and Kemp, ladies' shoes. A considerable portion of the stocks were saved."

The January 25, 1860 Daily National Democrat also had a report in their "Sacramento Correspondence" column: 

"The Fire in San Francisco.—The Bulletin speaking of the fire on Monday morning, says: 'The fire communicated from the rear of the Albion House to Musical Hall, which was also totally destroyed, with the exception of the fronting hall on Bush street. Musical Hall was in possession of Mr. L. Ritter, who paid a ground rent of $500 per month. The ground occupied by the hall, as well as by the buildings destroyed on Montgomery st., is owned by Mr. James Donahue. The lease on the ground extended for three years from December last, and if now given up by the lessee, it is the intention of Mr. Donahue to build a row of fine brick buildings immediately. There were about thirty boarders in the Albion House, most of whom lost everything they possessed. Mrs. Dubois was proprietress of the house, and lost furniture, etc., valued at $1,500."

Art Siegel notes that by September 1861 the lots along Montgomery St. were under construction for the Cosmopolitan Hotel (later renamed the Occidental) which stood until 1906.

Later discussion: The Music Hall was mentioned in "A Terrible Fire," an article located by Art that appeared in the October 16,1885 Napa Register:

"Early Thursday morning a most disastrous fire occurred in San Francisco. The large stationery and printing house of H. S. Crocker & Co, with entire contents, was totally destroyed and two brave firemen, Messrs. Hannah and Haley, lost their lives. The building was apart of the old Cosmopolitan Hotel property, and was originally the Grissam House which was later made a part of the Cosmopolitan. When the property was bought by Charles Crocker the Grissam House was separated from the hotel building and fitted up for H. S. Crocker & Co. 

"It was originally built by Harry Meiggs, in 1853, and was well known to all old Californians, as it contained a music hall, in which were given concerts and dances, and was used generally as Platt's Hall is now. Mr. Grissam, who made a fortune during the Washoe excitement, bought the property about 1860, and subsequently sold it to Wm. Sharon, who added it to the Cosmopolitan Hotel. In 1876 the property was sold by Mr. Sharon to Charles Crocker, who remodeled it at great expense. Geo. Shreve & Co., jewelers, occupied the upper floor and Chamberlain & Ingalsbe, as engravers, also had rooms in the building. Their loss, together with that of Crocker & Co., is complete. The last named firm had $100,000 insurance on the estimated $400,000 worth of property destroyed."

 

The lots where Meiggs' Hall had been are seen in the center of the image as the buildings labeled Occidental Hotel, sprawling along Montgomery and stretching as far east on Bush as the premises of C.S. Crocker & Co. It's a detail from image 13 of the 1887 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map in the Library of Congress collection. Platt's Hall, opened in August 1860 on the northeast corner of Montgomery and Bush, is seen in the upper center of the image. 

Meiggs and his Music Hall were discussed in "Col. Strong's Recollections: The Old Timer Continues His Reminiscences Of Men And Events in the Fifties," an article by Ernest C. Stock that was located by Art Siegel in the July 21, 1895 San Francisco Call: 

"... Harry A. Meiggs, who was a very progressive man in his time, started a sawmill almost opposite where he built the wharf and went into the lumber business, but he needed a place to land the logs he intended to cut up... so he built the wharf early in the fifties... There his and other vessels landed their cargoes of logs, which were run up to the mill and converted into lumber... until hauled away to build houses in the rapidly growing city... Meiggs was a man who was full of enterprise, and if he had not been unfortunate in some of his business affairs he would have done a great deal of good for San Francisco. 

"He was the one who built the first large music hall in this City. That building, which was called Music Hall, stood on the southeast corner of Montgomery and Bush streets, where the Occidental Hotel now stands. It was built in '53 and had a frontage of some eighty feet on the main street, with a depth half way down Bush street, where it had for next-door neighbor the Happy Valley District School... I have given you the size of this hall to let you know that more than mere shanties were built in the '50's. Meiggs, who had his office on Montgomery street, near Sacramento, and his residence in the fashionable part of the City, Broadway and Montgomery street, became involved in financial difficulties, was pressed by his creditors and had to leave the country, but he went to South America, where he built a railroad, became very rich, and, be it said to his credit, settled every debt he left behind when he left. He was a man of great push..." 

Acknowledgements: Thanks to Art Siegel for all his research about the Music Hall.

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