The French Opera House, before and after. The Opera House burned in the
early morning hours of December 4, 1919. By dawn, the building was in ruins. The
cause of the fire was never determined, although it was widely believed to have begun
in the restaurant housed in the building. For years, New Orleanians cherished hopes
of rebuilding the theater and resurrecting the elegant days of French opera, but in the
1960s a modern hotel (now the Inn on Bourbon) was erected on the site. Until the
construction of the Theater of the Performing Arts in 1973, New Orleans was without a
permanent home for opera.
The heart of the old French quarter has stopped beating.
Gone, all gone. The curtain has fallen for the
last time upon "Les Huguenots," long a favorite of the New Orleans public. The opera
house has gone in a blaze of horror and of glory. There is a pall over the city; eyes are
filled with tears and hearts are heavy. Old memories, tucked away in the dusty
cobwebs of forgotten years, have come out like ghosts to dance in the last, ghastly
Walpurgis ballet of flame.