Academy of Music – Baltimore Maryland – Howard Street’s old playhouse

Academy of Music
516 North Howard Street
Baltimore, Maryland
Built / Opened – 1875 – Closed/Razed 1927
Site Status – After being used for the Stanley Theatre, now a parking lot.

In 1900 , A show of “Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde” was playing at the theatre.
In 1902, a show of ” Ben Hur” was apparently complete with a large cast of horses and Camels on stage.
In 1907 – “Brewsters” Millions was the show in December.

When starting this website back in 2002, I knew very little of the Academy of Music.  Yet for the Kilduff’s , this is where it seems to have all begun. A bit before the time of my Grandfather, John H. Kilduff, it turns out his father, my Great grandfather, John Kilduff actually worked here .  We have posted several of the old Academy of Music programs and tickets we have found in the gallery below

There is much more on the Kilduffs.com website for the Academy of Music.

In the years before the old theatre was torn down, I read a story of a young
man who had been standing in front of the old Academy of Music and two gentlemen walked out of the theatre half way through the show to catch a train and gave the young man their ticket stubs in case he was interested in watching the rest of the show. The story is told how the young man had never been inside the old theatre, and thought he would not get far into the theatre on the stub, but he was able to enter and watch the rest of the show in the aged theatre. His description was an excellent article and I plan to find the article and give more details.
In 1921, articles were written about the “Theatrical War” regarding theatres in the City. The article did not go into details of what actually that meant.

In 1920 , a stage show for the “updated”version of Ben Hur was on stage at the Academy of Music. According to the story, the production required 4 chariots, 20 horses, and 350 cast members. How they got all that on stage and how they paid for such a production is beyond me.

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