Editor’s note: This is another in an ongoing series of articles we call “Marking History” looking at the stories behind the hundreds of historic markers scattered about the Crossroads.
Many years ago, Victoria was home to a wildly popular casino, but no one went there to gamble.
That casino eventually gave way to an opera house, equally as popular, but no one went there to hear intense Italian dramas belted out in tenors and sopranos.
Casino Hall was the center of social activity in early Victoria until the Hauschild Opera House opened in 1894.
A historic marker is affixed to the building that was once home to the Opera House at 202 E. Forrest St. in downtown Victoria. Casino Hall is long since gone.
At the time of Casino Hall’s prominence in Victoria, from about 1854 through 1893, casinos were not gambling facilities but rather social gathering spaces with a ball room being the main attraction.
Casino Hall was 40 feet wide and 90-100 feet long. The first floor housed a ballroom, bar and stage, according to historic documents at the Victoria Regional History Center.
Popular bands and traveling theater groups performed at the casino, which was located on Bridge Street.
“In 1893 the late G.H. Hauschild built Hauschild’s Opera House, sounding the death note for Casino Hall,” a history center article noted. “The old building was purchased by Charles DeWitt, who built three homes from its Florida lumber.”
On March 26, 1894, the opera house opened. It was a Monday evening, and the Charles Walthen Chase Company performed a play entitled “Uncle’s Darling,” a comedy.
“The audience that assembled in Hauschild’s Opera House were enraptured with the beauty of their surroundings,” the Advocate reported, “and the expressions of admiration were numerous indeed. Several ladies were heard to remark that it was worth the price of admission to gaze on the stage curtains and draperies.”
The cost to attend the Opera House depended on the popularity of the play. It could cost anywhere from 25 cents to $2 per ticket.
“People would come into town from miles around by horse and buggy to catch a show at Hauschild’s Opera House,” an August 23, 1974, article in the Advocate reported.
It cost George Hermann Hauschild $25,000 to erect the building and it was considered “the showplace of the day for Victoria.”
“There are larger opera houses in the state, but this is large enough,” the Advocate noted. “It’s seating capacity is about 800.”
The same article mentioned that the chairs “were purchased from the Grand Rapids (Michigan) School Furniture Company” and “the scenery is from Sosman and Landis’ great scene painting studio of Chicago.”
The lighting fixtures, including a large ornate chandelier, were also purchased from a company based in Chicago.
Hauschild and his wife Adele Luder Hauschild moved to Victoria in 1866.
The couple met in New Orleans during the Civil War, where Hauschild was a “second Lieutenant in the Confederate Army’s Hansa Guards regiment defending the city,” an April 21, 1986, Advocate article reported.
Hauschild opened a hotel, the Hermann House, in Victoria in 1867, boasting “a stable always supplied with fresh provender is attached to the premises.”
An undated report in the Advocate, on hand in a Hauschild file at the history center, mentioned that “sneak thieves entered the Hermann House, on Forrest Street, and helped themselves to considerable bed clothing, stripping two beds. This is partly chargeable to the cold snap.”
Hauschild opened four businesses in Victoria, including the Hermann House and Hauschild Opera House.
He served on the school board for 20 years and was the city alderman for 14.
He and his wife had seven children, including three daughters and four sons.
Their oldest daughter, Julia, was a popular Victoria socialite, even inspiring Canadian composer Frederick Abbott to write a song about her entitled “The Sweetest Girl in all the State of Texas.”
Julia and her younger sister, Adele, also belonged to a local young women’s shirtwaist club in 1898. The club’s motto was “We won’t get married – ‘til we’re asked.”
Hauschild’s oldest son, George Henry, managed a music store, on the lower level of the Opera House.
The music store was in business until 1980 but the Opera House closed during the 1930s, unable to compete with the new-fangled motion pictures, or “talkies,” as they were then known.
“Hauschild’s Opera House then became a ‘mausoleum of ghosts,’” an Advocate reporter wrote in the 1950s.
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