TOLEDO
BLADE, FRIDAY, MARCH 17, 1893.
All about town this morning, now that the old Wheeler opera
house is in smoldering ruins, the talk is a new theater. On Change, in the Toledo
club, the Boody House and in the leading public places morning gossip took this
refrain. Every man who lays the slightest claim to capital is besieged.
“Now is your chance,” has rung in the ears of the Reynolds
Bros. All day. But Col. Reynolds only stroked his iron gray mustache and said:
“Well, we’re figuring on a building. A first class theater
and a first class hotel will both be built here inside of eighteen months.
There will be plenty of people to take up the opera house scheme now.”
Then A.L. Spitzer was seen around the Produce Exchange
building early in the day, looking for Jerry Dewey, and so the board of Trade
pointed its fingers at him and said again:
“Spitzer, has Dewey in tow. He is going to change his plans,
and put a theater in the Spitzer building. “
Some said the Wheeler heirs would rebuild on the old site.
This was emphatically denied by Wm. H. Standart, whose wife is an heir of the
estate.
“There is no possibility of the Wheeler being rebuilt” he
said. “The estate is in the courts now for settlement. Some one else may go
ahead and show what Toledo can do toward putting up an opera house.”
So they all turned their attention to Mr. Dewey who is here
from Cleveland with a theater scheme working in his brain. They clapped him on
the shoulder and winked at him and said: “Now you can go ahead.”
There was no regret at the destruction of the dingy old
Wheeler. Condolence confined itself to the financial loss, but not to the loss
of the building. That the fire would come sooner or later and possibly create a
terrible panic had been discussed last night before the burning of the theater
by a number of citizens who to-day are gloating over their remarkable prophetic
powers.
An opera house will be built. A mass meeting will be called
within a few days in the Produce exchange, when all the citizens of Toledo may
go in and present their favourite projects. Whether the result will be the
building of a theater to cost from $65,000 to $80,000, or a theater and hotel
combined, or something else, will be left for them to decide. They will be
asked to take stock and bonds and may reject or choose after deliberating upon
all the propositions submitted. Out of the chaos of talk to-day is certain to
come a handsome, modern opera house which will reflect credit upon the city and
its citizens.
A complaint came to the Blade this morning from engine house
No. 6. The firemen claim that ther is so much rubbish and old iron on the city
dock that it was almost impossible to place the engine and get the hose into
the water. Much time was lost by this reason.
The building occupied by T.D. Parker is owned by Jos. Flynn
and is said to have been without insurance, and Allen, the saloonkeeper, had
none, it is reported.
Insurance men estimate the entire loss to property owners at
over $120,000. Wheeler’s opera house underwriters estimate at $80,000, as per
valuation.