In the July 19, 2022 issue of Chatham This Week I told you about Charlie Edelstein and his rescue of the ancient Grand Opera House.

In this issue I’d like to briefly explain its past and tell you about a man associated with it.

Originally known as the Chatham Music Hall, it was erected in the mid 1870s at a cost of $8,000.

It was the equivalent of five floors in height and could seat 1,200 people.

The first floor was devoted to street front retail with the theatre portion extending from the second floor to the ceiling – all was open area including balcony seating.

It was a magnificent facility.

Over the decades it went by several names including Scane’s Opera House, the Grand Opera House and the Brisco Opera House.

When silent films became the popular mode, the Brisco family infilled the interior with rooms and converted the theatre to a hotel, but its days as a hotel were eliminated when the Ontario Temperance Act excluded alcohol from the legal marketplace and the now aging building became a rooming house.

In the late-1930s Charlie Edelstein bought the building and was immediately confronted with a decaying superstructure; the top........

© Sarnia Observer