The Metropolitan Opera House - Philadelphia, PA

Philadelphia’s Metropolitan Opera House opened on November 17, 1908, as the Philadelphia Opera House. The 3,482 seat theater was built by architect William H. McElfatrick for Oscar Hammerstein, the grandfather of Oscar Hammerstein II, the famous musical theater lyricist. However, after only two years, Hammerstein fell into debt and was forced to sell the opera house to one of his competitors, the Metropolitan Opera of New York City.

The MET occupied the building until 1920, after which several opera companies used it until the mid-1930s.  Over the years, the building went through many different uses, including a movie theater in the late 1920s, a ballroom in the late 1930s, and a sports arena in the 1940s. The theater was then purchased by a reverend in 1954, who turned it into a church. The Met Church was very popular, often filling the mezzanine and the upper balcony. Unfortunately, the church’s congregation decreased over time, the owners were no longer able to keep up with repairs, and the building began to deteriorate.

In 1988, the church was forced to close due to severe disrepair. It remained abandoned until 1995, when it was purchased by the Reverend Mark Hatcher, Jr. and the Holy Ghost Headquarters, another church. The Holy Ghost repaired some of the building, but due to the condition of the walls and the balcony level ceiling, they placed a reinforced tarp between the balcony and primary levels. Reverend Hatcher has attempted to raise money to restore the building, and in 2012 it was announced that the church had teamed with Philadelphia developer Eric Blumenfeld to develop a plan to restore the theater. It reopened as a performing arts center on December 3, 2018, after a $56 million renovation.