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Ohio
Grand Opera House
Sunday, June 11, 1882 (Afternoon)
The House Beautiful
Newspaper report
The Cincinnati Enquirer, June 12, 1882, 8
This report goes on to describe Wilde's laid back posture as an "I'm-ready-to-dodge-any-defunct-feline-or-unsavory-hen-fruit-that-may-be-shied-at-me attitude".
The Marion Star, June 13, 1882, 4
Grand Opera House (formerly Mozart Hall)
Vine and Longworth Streets, Cincinnati, OH
Built: 1853 (as the Catholic Institute)
Seating capacity: c. 2,000
Destroyed (fire): January 22, 1901
Burnet House
NW corner of Third and Vine Streets, Cincinnati, OH
Built: 1849
Opened: May 30, 1850
Rooms: c. 300
Closed and demolished: July 15, 1926
Wilde stayed at the Burnet House on the eve of his lecture. However, it is unlikely he remained there a second night as he was in Memphis, TN the next day to begin the Southern leg of his lecture tour. This would also explain why his lecture was a matinee: to give him time to catch an overnight train.
For more on the Burnet House see Wilde's lecture in Cincinnati on February 23, 1882.
Advertising poster for the Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera Patience that parodied Wilde and the aesthetic movement.
Published in Cincinnati, where Wilde was lecturing.
Oscar Wilde In America | © John Cooper, 2025
