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Opera House, PA
The Opera House in Jim Thorpe, PA is known as "The Mauch Chunk Opera House", named after the original town name. Initially, The Mauch Chunk Opera House was designed to meet community needs with both an open-air farmer’s market on the first floor and a second story concert hall. Addison Hutton, a Philadelphia architect, who often came to Mauch Chunk, designed the building. The dedicated citizens of Mauch Chunk paid for and built the structure so they could enjoy professional performances in their own town. The hall was formally opened on the evening of Feb. 4, 1882.
Al Jolsen performed there regularly as well as John Phillips Sousa who delighted audiences with an annual show. In 1927, the building was purchased by the Comerford amusement chain, who renovated extensively. During the next three decades the Opera House became known as the Capitol Theater, a movie house. The movie house officially closed on April 27, 1959. The local newspaper reported, "The Capitol Theatre closed its doors here last night, perhaps never to open again... the film entertainment on West Broadway has been dying a slow death at the box office. Its once heavy patronage reduced to a mere trickle by television and other entertainment media..."
The building was then purchased by Berkeley Bags Company, a pocketbook manufacturer, and used for many years as a warehouse. After this time and years of neglect the Mauch Chunk Opera House was taken over by the Mauch Chunk Historical Society. The Mauch Chunk Opera House now features nationally-recognized musicians and bands in a diverse program spanning folk and singer-songwriters, rock, jazz, big band, celtic, Irish, and classical music to the delight of audiences of all ages.
Evidence
One of the claims was eerie sounds of a piano playing, below are 2 EVP's with what appears to be just that!! The first one was heard at the time by the Investigator (Lynn), The second recording was picked up later in the same session.
Note: our history is from a group known as Genesis Paranormal Reasearch and Investigations and the evidence presented here is from that group. A special thanks to Andrew for allowing us to share this evidence.
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