State Theatre (453 Northampton St

7

State Theatre

(Photo by Virginia Lawrence-Hope)

State Theatre (453 Northampton St.).

Located on original town Lot No. 223 (and, with the gallery, on Lot No.224), as surveyed by William Parsons when Easton was established in 1752.[1] Lot No.223 was sold by the Penn Family to John Mush in 1802.[2] Mush was a shoemaker[3] and saddler,[4] who had lived on the property since at least 1772. He was Northampton County Treasurer during the Revolutionary War, from 1776 until 1781. He sold the vacant western half of the property to Peter Miller in 1803 for $500,[5] and the eastern half of the property, with a “small Log House”, for $1,000 in 1807.[6]

In 1873, E.E. Hemingway’s saddlery and hardware business was listed at 195 Northampton Street, with his residential house at the same address.[7] This is probably a reference to the NE corner of Northampton and 5th Streets.[8] With the inauguration of the modern street numbering scheme in 1874, the residence of E.E. Hemingway was assigned the address of 5 North 5th Street. His silverplating business was listed at 31 North 5th Street.[9]

In 1854, David Wagener’s estate advertised for sale the “Second lot east of Juliana street”, with a 30’ frontage on Northampton Street and 220’ deep, with an adjoining 30’ X 30’ parcel with a “frame Store House” on it.[10]

The current theater building was first built in 1873 as Northampton Savings Bank (which later became the Northampton National Bank). That was the same year that the Abel Opera House opened lower down and across Northampton Street.

·  At that time, it was listed as 179 Northampton Street under the street numbering scheme then in effect.[11]

A picture of the Bank building c.1909 shows that, aside from the awning and marque, the basic form of the building’s front façade has remained intact over the years.[12]

In 1910, the Bank became the Neumeyer Theater for vaudeville/silent films,[13] and also housed Chubby’s Café and a shoe store.[14] The theatre’s name was changed in 1914,[15] and vaudeville was eliminated leaving only movie showings.[16] Earlier that year, the building also included the Hay School of Music, which offered instruction in a variety of musical instruments.[17] In 1916, the theater was acquired by the Wilmer & Vincent Theater Circuit (with John Frederic “Fred” Osterstock as Easton city manager). It was completely remodeled, and renamed the Colonial Theater.[18]

In 1925-26, Wilmer & Vincent had the theater redesigned as a vaudeville house by architect William H. Lee, and re-opened it as the State Theatre on 8 March 1926.[19] The interior decoration was inspired mostly by the “atmosphere of Old Spain”, but included “a number of Italian ornaments” including painted wall treatments inspired by the Davanzanti Palace of Florence, Italy.[20] In its brief run with vaudeville before 1929, the State Theatre hosted Milton Berle, Fatty Arbuckel, Eddie Foy, magician Harry Blackstone, and ventriloquist Edgar Bergen (with, of course, Charlie McCarthy).[21]

·  Contrary to popular wisdom, noted theatrical manager John Frederick Osterstock (1884 – 1957) was never the State Theatre’s manager alone. When associated with the State, he actually held the superior position as Easton city manager in the Wilmer & Vincent organization, presiding over several theaters. He did, however, operate for many years out of an office in the State Theatre building.[22]

·  Osterstock was the son of stove merchant and Civil War veteran Joseph S. Osterstock[23] He spent three seasons as the manager of a theatrical road company, and then in 1906 accepted a job for the Wilmer & Vincent organization as manager of a theater in Richmond, Virginia. That company brought him back to his boyhood home of Easton in 1907 to manage the Orpheum, and he became city manager when the Able Opera House was acquired in 1910. He continued in that position when the organization acquired the Neumeyer Theater in 1916 and remodeled it as the Colonial; and then remodeled it again in 1925-26 as the State.[24]

The State Theatre was remodeled to play sound movies in 1929, one of the last theatres in Easton to do so. It was then used to showcase first run movies, sometimes run in connection with big bands or revues. Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra both sang at the State.[25]

·  Osterstock apparently became Wilmer & Vincent’s regional manager in 1936.[26] He remained in that position when Fabian management Corporation bought out the operation in 1944, and continued on until 1957, the year of his death.[27]

The State Theatre featured rock concerts as the “entertainment of choice” during the 1970s. “By 1981, all of the frescoes were covered with brown and blue paint.” The building faced “possible demolition” in the early 1980s.[28] However, it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on 4 March 1982,[29] and was restored by a citizens group in 1985 – 1990,[30] with fundraising campaigns that brought in “nearly $4 million”. “In 2001, its 75th season, the State staged more than 100 performances in a year for the first time.”[31] Today (2009) it continues to hold a full theatrical season each year. It is a major Easton attraction. (Map Reference M) Among other things, it has since 2003 hosted the annual “Freddy Awards” to showcase high school theatrical productions. In 2005, the Freddy Awards program on WFMZ Channel 69 won the Mid-Atlantic Emmy Award for outstanding performing arts programming.[32] The Awards were named for “Fred” Osterstock (see above), whose ghost, “Fred”, is now thought by some to haunt the theatre as “caretaker”.[33]

The building also includes an Art Gallery (in the western wing at the corner of Fifth Street), which was renovated from the old Best Market building and opened in 1991.[34]

Behind the rear of the State Theatre, across Church Alley at the NW corner with West Street, is currently a parking lot used by the Express-Times newspaper. Beginning in 1886, this was the site of the “first exclusive flag factory in the United States”,[35] ultimately known as the American Flag Manufacturing Co.[36] It was opened by William J. Heller, an Easton sign painter who happened to notice “the decoration of a public school building for a celebration” when “it occurred to him that the nation’s emblem should be seen used over school buildings of the country in order to foster a spirit of patriotism among the children of the land.”[37] By the early 20th Century, Heller claimed to manufacture “nearly one-half of the flags used in this country.”[38] He began discussing with educators the idea of flying the American flag on public school buildings, and founded a movement to that effect “which swept over the country in 1892”.[39] The American Flag Manufacturing Co. also had the distinction of making the largest flag in the world in its time: 200 feet by 100 feet, made for the City of St. Louis, and flown on a 500-foot flagpole at the San Francisco Exposition.[40] [Larger US flags have been made since Mr. Heller’s time.[41]] The company also claimed to have posted the longest advertisement in the United States, painted on a 10-foot high wall nearly a mile long beside the trolley route from Easton to Doylestown.[42]

Heller was also a prolific local historian. He was a member of the Executive Committee of the Northampton County Historical & Genealogical Society when it was founded in 1906, and he became President of that Historical Society in 1912.[43] Heller’s book Historic Easton from the Window of a Trolley-Car[44] was “widely read” when it was published in 1912,[45] and is still studied. His History of Northampton County and The Grand Valley of the Lehigh[46] is also consulted. Mr. Heller was, in particular, a student of local Indian history.[47] He popularized the history of his ancestor Elizabeth Bell (“Mammy”) Morgan, and personally placed the Indian grindstone that marks her grave across the parking lot from the Easton Area Public Library.[48] In addition, Heller was the “man most responsible for the development of the theory that the Easton Flag is the same one unfurled in Easton on July 8, 1776 and may be the earliest “Stars and Stripes”.[49] Heller included his theory in his lecture “The Evolution of Our National Ensign”, which he gave at many places throughout the nation during the 1890s.[50] He was a member of many historical societies,[51] and a supporter of women’s organizations.[52]

Heller died on 1 April 1920, while on a train in Wyoming returning to Easton from a trip to San Francisco.[53] His will directed that the American Flag Company be made into a corporation, with control left to Mrs. Lillian Franklin Sterner (his secretary, and Executor of his Will) and Elizabeth Miller[54] (“for many years was forelady of the plant”[55]), although a majority of the shares were left (some in trust) to the benefit of Heller’s widow (Matilda A. Heller[56]), daughter (Bessie H. Roberts) and grandchildren.[57] Heller’s widow and daughter threatened to challenge the will, but a negotiated settlement was reached.[58] Mrs. Sterner resigned as Executor on 7 Dec. 1920, and was replaced by Heller’s daughter.[59] Heller’s son-in-law, Dentist Rufus J. Roberts, thereafter took over control of the operation of the flag company, and relocated its office from the factory, ultimately to his own dentist office by 1930.[60] The parking lot where the factory once stood is now owned by parent company of the Express-Times newspaper, whose headquarters is located across West St. (fronting at 30 North Fourth Street).

[1] See A.D. Chidsey, Jr., The Penn Patents in the Forks of the Delaware Plan of Easton, Map 2 (Vol. II of Publications of the Northampton County Historical and Genealogical Society 1937).

[2] Deed, John and Richard Penn to John Mush, A3 116 (9 Oct. 1802)(sale price £ 37 11s. 10d. “in specie” for Lot No.223 measuring 30’ X 220’).

[3] A.D. Chidsey, Jr., A Frontier Village: Pre-Revolutionary Easton 253 (Vol.III of Publications of The Northampton County Historical & Genealogical Society, 1940)(Building No.36).

[4] Deed, John (Elizabeth) Musch/Mush, C3 334 (19 May 1807)(recital).

[5] A.D. Chidsey, Jr., A Frontier Village: Pre-Revolutionary Easton 234-35, 253 (Vol.III of Publications of The Northampton County Historical & Genealogical Society, 1940)(Building No.36).

[6] Deed, John (Elizabeth) Musch/Mush, C3 334 (19 May 1807); see A.D. Chidsey, Jr., A Frontier Village: Pre-Revolutionary Easton 234-35, 253 (Vol.III of Publications of The Northampton County Historical & Genealogical Society, 1940)(Building No.36).

[7] Jeremiah H. Lant, The Northampton County Directory for 1873 80 (1873).

[8] This is because the next higher odd address, 97 Northampton Street, referred to Daniel Herster’s meat market established in the Col. Hooper House at the NW corner. See Fitzgerald & Dillon, Easton Directory for 1870-71 50 (Ringwalt & Brown 1870)(D. Herster, meat market, 197 Northampton Street); Jeremiah H. Lant, The Northampton County Directory for 1873 80 (1873)(Daniel Herster, butcher, at 197 Northampton Street); separate www.WalkingEaston.com entry for Col. Hooper House at 501 Northampton Street.

[9] Article, “The New Numbers”, Easton Daily Free Press, Wed., 26 Nov. 1873, p.3, col.4.

[10] Advertisement, “Brick Dwelling House for Sale”, Easton Argus, 11 May 18[54], p.1, col.3 (also identified as “the Second lot east of Julianna street”, measuring 30’ X 220’, and an adjoining lot measuring 30’ X 30’ with a “frame Store House” on it).

[11] Leonard S. Buscemi Sr., The 2000 Easton-Phillipsburg Calendar unnumbered p.86 (Buscemi Enterprises 1999).

[12] Leonard S. Buscemi Sr., The 2000 Easton-Phillipsburg Calendar unnumbered p.86 (Buscemi Enterprises 1999).

[13] State Theatre Homepage, www.statetheatre.org, “State Theatre History” (accessed 3 Jan. 2005); Kenneth L. Klabunde, “PostKard Korner: Easton’s Grande Dame Turns 81 – ‘A Prologue to a Plaster Palace’”, The Irregular, March 2007, p.2; see Charles M. Barnard (compiler), West’s Directory for City of Easton 1912 (The West Job Printing House 1912)(alphabetical listing for Neumeyer Theatre).

A picture as of the theater opening day on 29 Aug. 1910 appears in Leonard S. Buscemi Sr., The 2000 Easton-Phillipsburg Calendar unnumbered p.86 (Buscemi Enterprises 1999).

[14] Klabunde, “PostKard Korner: Easton’s Grande Dame Turns 81”, supra at 2; Leonard S. Buscemi, Sr., The Easton-Phillipsburg 2003 Calendar unnumbered p.33 (2002).

[15] Leonard S. Buscemi Sr., The 2000 Easton-Phillipsburg Calendar unnumbered p.86 (Buscemi Enterprises 1999)(name change on 17 Sept. 1914).

[16] Klabunde, “PostKard Korner: Easton’s Grande Dame Turns 81”, supra at 2.

[17] Advertisement, “Hay School of Music”, Easton Express, Sat., 21 Mar. 1914, p.3, col.6 (at 451-55 Northampton Street).

[18] Kenneth L. Klabunde, “Postcard Corner: John Frederic (Fred) Osterstock”, The Irregular, April 2008, p.5; Klabunde, “PostKard Korner: Easton’s Grande Dame Turns 81”, supra at 2; see Leonard S. Buscemi Sr., The 2000 Easton-Phillipsburg Calendar unnumbered p.86 (Buscemi Enterprises 1999)(renamed the Colonial Theatre on 10 Oct. 1916).

[19] Kenneth L. Klabunde, “Postcard Corner: John Frederic (Fred) Osterstock”, The Irregular, April 2008, p.5; Klabunde, “PostKard Korner: Easton’s Grande Dame Turns 81”, Part I, supra at 2-3; see State Theatre Homepage, supra; William Peterson, Eagle Scout Project: Historic Guide of Easton, Site #22, available through Easton City website, www.easton-pa.com (via “History” link). See also A Brief History of EASTON, “State Theater”; Kenneth L. Klabunde, “Happy 72nd Birthday, State Theatre!”, The Irregular, March 1998, p.1; Article, “Happy Birthday, State Theatre!”, The Irregular, Feb. 1998, p.3.

A picture of the State Theatre on opening day, 8 March 1926, appears in Leonard S. Buscemi Sr., The 2000 Easton-Phillipsburg Calendar unnumbered p.86 (Buscemi Enterprises 1999).

[20] Klabunde, “PostKard Korner: Easton’s Grande Dame Turns 81”, Part I, supra at 2-3.

[21] Kenneth L. Klabunde, “PostKard Korner: Easton’s Grande Dame Turns 81 – ‘First Vaudeville, Then Movies, Now A Center For The Arts’”, Part II, The Irregular, April 2007, p.2.

[22] Kenneth L. Klabunde, “Postcard Corner: John Frederic (Fred) Osterstock”, The Irregular, April 2008, p.5.

[23] See Eleventh U.S. Census, 1890 (Joseph H. Werner, assisted by Geo. W. West 1891), I-P transcribed online at www.bethlehempaonline.com/beth1890/eastonjtop.html (Joseph S. Osterstock, merchant, at 216 Ferry Street with Sarah A. Osternstock and John Fred. Osterstock – apparently his wife and son); see separate entry for 212 Northampton Street.

[24] Kenneth L. Klabunde, “Postcard Corner: John Frederic (Fred) Osterstock”, The Irregular, April 2008, p.5; see Klabunde, “PostKard Korner: Easton’s Grand Dame Turns 81”, Part II, supra.