(Photos by Zach Patten)
Another set of amazing photos from Zach Patten – who just Thursday sent in a series of new photos from inside the Divine Lorraine.
Today, the subject is the beautiful century-old Philadelphia Metropolitan Opera House, which sits at 858 North Broad street, between Parrish and Poplar streets. Here’s a quick little Wiki-history of the building, if you’re like me and never really knew this place existed:
Built over the course of just a few months in 1908, the Metropolitan Opera House (MOH) was the ninth opera house built by impresario Oscar Hammerstein I. It was initially the home of Hammerstein’s Philadelphia Opera Company, and was originally called the Philadelphia Opera House. Hammerstein sold the house to the Metropolitan Opera of New York City in 1910, when it was renamed. The Met used the MOH through 1920, after which various opera companies used the house through 1934. For over five more decades it remained in constant use in turn as a cinema venue, a ballroom, a sports venue, and a church. The MOH then fell into serious disrepair and was vacated from 1988 until 1995, when it was bought by its current owners and became the Holy Ghost Headquarters Revival Center at the Met. The church has stabilized much of the building and is currently attempting to raise the funds necessary for further historic renovation of the opera house. The MOH has been included in the National Register of Historic Places since 1972.
Zach got to tour the building thanks to the ever-inspired people over at NextCityOrg, so special thanks to them for organizing that!!
And in case you were wondering, here’s an idea of what the place looked like back in its prime…
Streets Dept 
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