Old Jail and Fulton Opera House, Lancaster, Lancaster County

Hello, and welcome to the end of August. There should have been an update two weeks ago, but I ran into a lot of trouble following a visit from Tropical Storm Isaias, and I was too busy dealing with the fallout of a flooded basement to be able to give the blog the attention it deserves. In the meantime, Blogger changed its format, so I've also had to spend some time learning how to use the new tools; if anything looks 'off' as you read this post, please let me know so I can try to fix it.

To somewhat make up for the skip, I'm pulling out my folder of markers in Lancaster and giving you a double entry. The Old Jail of Lancaster once sat on the property now occupied by the Fulton Opera House, and there's a marker dedicated to each building, so it makes sense to write about them together. It's not always a pretty history, but the truth is that so much of history really isn't pretty, and it's not my job to make it look nice. It's definitely interesting, though, and it's a long one too, so let's get started.

The marker is located on the north side
of West King Street, between Prince
and Water Streets

The jail came first, as might be expected; a jail was needed before anybody gave any thought to a theater. A meeting of the first county magistrates in 1729, in Conestoga Township, resulted in an order for the creation of "the Common Gaol of the County of Lancaster." It was originally built as a strong log house on the county sheriff's property at Wrights Ferry (today the community of Columbia), and it's generally believed that this was the only jail which existed in Lancaster County until 1775.

A better jail was constructed over the course of roughly a year, being finished in June 1775, and this is the one commemorated on the marker. It was constructed of stone and situated on the northwest corner of what was then called High Street and North Prince Street. It served the county until 1851, at which time it was replaced by a newer building on East Orange Street, but its years were very eventful. Two incidents of particular historical note are recognized by signage in the city.

The first of these came in 1763, and it was considered the bloodiest mass murder of its time. During this time, the Paxton Rangers were manning outposts throughout this region of Pennsylvania; you might remember my talking about them when I wrote about the Blue Mountain Forts in Lebanon County. A related group, the Paxton Boys (sometimes written as the Paxtang Boys), dedicated themselves to exterminating the Native Americans, as they believed that Pontiac's Rebellion was stirring them all to revolt. In Lancaster, there was a settlement of Conestoga Natives, the last remaining members of the Susquehannock nation, and they were peacefully established in a village not far from the city. The Paxton Boys raided the village, killing six men and burning the houses; the surviving residents were brought to Lancaster and housed in the jail for their own protection.

Protected, they were not. It doesn't seem to be perfectly understood how the Paxton Boys got into the jail, although it's on the record that the sheriff attempted to stop them and was forced to get out of the way or be killed. But what's definitely known is that on December 27, 1763, all fourteen Conestoga - six adults and eight children - were taken from the jail and horrifically slaughtered by the vigilante group. The colonial government's inquest declared the crime to be murder; Governor John Penn offered a reward of $600 for the capture of those responsible, and Benjamin Franklin himself decried the Paxton Boys as murderers. Despite efforts to bring the killers to justice, however, none of them were ever identified or arrested, and relations between white settlers and Native Americans continued to deteriorate. This elimination of the last surviving Susquehannocks is considered one of the earliest successful attempts at ethnic cleansing. One wall of the jail, which survives to this day along North Water Street, is adorned with a plaque commemorating the tragedy. The former Conestoga village is home to a PHMC marker, so I will (hopefully!) be visiting it down the road.

Click for a larger view to see a picture of the Old Jail
and images related to the slave escape

The second event is recorded on a sign posted opposite the site, as seen here. Pennsylvania, being so close to the Mason-Dixon line, was home to many significant locations and events for the Underground Railroad, and surprisingly, the county jail was one of them. In 1835, two escaped slave women were living as free citizens with families in Lancaster. Mrs. John Urick and Mrs. Margaret Wallace, along with Margaret's oldest child, were kidnapped by bounty hunters and taken to the jail, where they were to be held for a short time before being returned to their former owners in the south.

The bounty hunters, however, were not counting on interference from an unexpected opponent: David "Dare-Devil Dave" Miller, the county sheriff. The truth of what really happened was not revealed for several years, until Miller himself finally admitted it to a confidante near the end of his life. He unlocked the prisoners' cell and allowed them to simply walk out of the jail, and in return, the women refused to tell anyone that he was involved. Instead, they showed up at the home of an abolitionist, Daniel Gibbons, and were passed around to various safehouses while relating an exciting tale of having escaped with the help of only a knife. Miller, who worked to suppress race riots against African-Americans, was eventually identified as a hero, and his actions cemented the location's place on a list of Lancaster's sites of involvement with the Underground Railroad.

The marker is on North Prince Street,
just in front of the building

Eventually, as is so often the case, the jail became inadequate for the county's needs, and it was replaced as I mentioned by the more modern structure on East Orange Street. The old jail was torn down, except for some of the exterior wall along Water Street, which became part of the back wall of a new structure called Fulton Hall. It was named for Robert Fulton, the Lancaster County native who became a pioneer in steam engines (and who will have his own post at some point). Lancaster merchant Christopher Hager wanted a building that would serve the community as a space for meetings and performances, and it opened in 1852. The first musical concert given there featured nine-year-old soprano Adelina Patti and violinist Ole Bull; the concert was one of his efforts to raise funds for Ole Bull's colony, which we visited in a previous post.

Blasius Yecker purchased the hall in 1856. It was later renamed Yecker's Fulton Opera House, and had its grand reopening on October 2, 1873, with a performance of Othello to provide financial assistance to widows and orphans of the Civil War. In 1903 Yecker's son Charles took over the venture and made several design modifications and refurbishments, some of which are still in existence today. Many famous performers graced the stage of the "Queen of the Roadhouses," including Sarah Bernhardt, Ethel Barrymore, and John Durang, who has his own marker elsewhere in the city.

This statue of Robert Fulton seen on
the exterior is a reproduction; the original,
which was carved of wood, has been
restored and is on display in the lobby.

Not long after its centennial, the Fulton became more popular as a movie house, only hosting occasional stage productions. In 1963, Nathaniel Hager - a great-grandson of the Fulton's original owner - became president of the newly established Fulton Opera House Foundation, and efforts began in earnest to preserve the historic theater. By the 1970s, it had ceased to be a movie house and was returned to its former glory as the home of live theater, and in 1995 it merged with the Actors' Company of Pennsylvania.

Today, the Fulton (as it is simply called) is one of only eight theaters in the United States to be identified as a National Historic Landmark. Efforts have been made over the years to make it more comfortable and accessible to modern audiences, including elevators and technical systems which enhance the experience for visually or hearing impaired guests, while maintaining the historical features of the architecture. A studio theater has been added to the fourth level of the building, for smaller productions and use as a rehearsal hall. Because of the pandemic, I couldn't go inside to see any of these things for myself when I was there, but since then they have reopened their doors; check the website for details (and more photos).

With its unconventional history, "The Grand Old Lady of Prince Street" is a treasure of the city, and promises to remain so for a long time to come.

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Sources and Further Reading:

Official website of the Fulton Theatre

DiscoverLancaster.com

Author unknown. "History of the Lancaster County Prison." Document available courtesy of the official Lancaster County website.

Brubaker, Jack. Massacre of the Conestogas: On the Trail of the Paxton Boys in Lancaster County. The History Press, 2010.

Old Jail and Fulton Opera House at the Historical Marker Database

If you've enjoyed this, please leave a comment!

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Except where indicated, all writing and photography on this blog is the intellectual property of Laura Klotz. This blog is written with permission of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. I am not employed by the PHMC. All rights reserved.