BOOK SIGNING: Hot Time in the Old Town

Hot Time in the Old Town
Columbia historian recalls an iconic entertainment mecca in The Last Opera.

(Columbia, PA — April 1, 2023)    For the better part of a century, the true measure of an American city was whether it could construct and support a first-rate entertainment space. Not only was this a matter of civic pride, often it became the epicenter of local business and culture. In 1875, the Columbia Opera House opened its doors to the public and, through good times and bad, functioned as the beating heart of the Susquehanna River town until it went up in flames in 1947. 

The Last Opera: A History and Tribute to the Columbia Opera House, by Jerry Wasche, recalls the glory days of the Columbia Opera House and chronicles its ability to adjust to changing times and entertainment trends prior to its untimely demise in the years after World War II. 

On Saturday, April 8th from 9 to 3, the author will be signing copies of The Last Opera in the bustling Columbia Market House at 15 South 3rd Street—adjacent to Columbia’s municipal building, which occupies the refurbished first floor of the old Opera House.

“That was all the town was able to save,” says Wasche, who was born and raised in Columbia in the years after the fire. “It’s a shame because, in its day, it was the largest opera house in Pennsylvania.”

The opulence and grandeur of the Columbia Opera House reflected the ambition of an industrial power on the rise. As Wasche explains in his book, when Columbians decided to construct their own opera house, their goal was to build something “bigger and better” than the Fulton Opera House in Lancaster.

“And they did,” Wasche says. “Over the years, I often felt that this phenomenal building deserved more recognition. It was utterly unique. That was the impetus for the book.”

The Last Opera took him more than two years to write, in part because decades of records, photos and broadsides were destroyed in the 1947 blaze. Even so, through meticulous research and interviews with old-time Columbians, he was able to piece together a comprehensive timeline that includes the many world-class performers that came through town—as well as the unusual circumstances surrounding the fire and its aftermath.

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Jerry Wasche is a board member of the Columbia Historic Preservation Society. A portion of the $25 cover price will be donated to the society. For more information on The Last Opera contact the author at gfw1955@comcast.net or (717) 368–2243.