Byham Theater - Opened on Halloween Night

Photo: Doug Kerr from Albany, NY, United States, CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped)

A stop on Spooky Pittsburgh Walk, a free self-guided tour.

Of all the nights to open a theater, this one picked Halloween. The Gayety Theater opened here on October 31, 1904, and became one of the country's leading stage and vaudeville houses, drawing stars such as Ethel Barrymore, Gertrude Lawrence and Helen Hayes. In the 1930s it became the Fulton, a full-time movie house. The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust bought it in 1990, restored it, and renamed it the Byham in 1995 after a gift from the Byham family.

Look up at the facade and picture a vaudeville crowd spilling onto Sixth Street, the river just a block away.

Theaters collect ghost stories the way they collect old playbills, and the Byham has one too. Local lore tells of a Lady in White who sits quietly in the balcony, with cold spots and a sudden scent of roses when she is near. Believe it or not, it is hard to think of a better home for a ghost than a theater born on Halloween.

Getting here: Continue northwest on Sixth Avenue, which becomes Sixth Street, about 6 minutes, crossing Liberty Avenue and Penn Avenue to the theater near the river.

Did you know?: The Gayety's original interior featured pressed copper cherubs painted with a bronze finish and columns of scagliola, an Italian technique for imitating marble.

Photo op: Stand across Sixth Street to frame the theater's front, then turn toward the river for the yellow Roberto Clemente Bridge at the end of the street.

More on Wikipedia: Byham Theater · Ethel Barrymore · Pittsburgh Cultural Trust · Roberto Clemente Bridge

Byham Theater - Opened on Halloween Night

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