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As It Was: Vining Brothers built Ashland theater An interior view of the Vining Theater in Ashland, looking toward projection booth. [Photo courtesy of Southern Oregon Historical Society, image No. 4176] Tuesday May 2, 2017 at 7:57 PM May 2, 2017 at 7:57 PM By Maryann Mason Southern Oregon Historical Society After teaching in New York City, Irving Vining returned to Ashland and joined his brother Robert in constructing the 570-seat Vining Theater on the corner of East Main and First streets. A community eager for culture enthusiastically greeted the theater, completed in 1914 at a cost of $35,000. For the grand opening social event on May 14, 1914, the New York Grand Opera Company presented Gounod’s Opera Faust with a protégé of Enrico Caruso, Salvatore Giordano, in the leading role. The audience, dressed in their finest, paid from $2 to $5 a ticket. Patrons of the same opera paid only 50 cents to $2 the following night at Medford’s Page Theater. The Tidings newspaper described the Vining Theater as a “modern playhouse complete in beauty and detail.” The theater offered live performances each night of either a vaudeville group or a touring show, and frequently motion pictures known at the time as “photoplays.” The price of admission was 10 cents in the gallery, 20 cents on the lower floor and the balcony, and 30 cents for box seats. A theater chain bought the Vining in 1932 and renamed it the Lithia Theater. Source: Sweet, Charles. “Professor Irving E. Vining: Ashland’s Silver-Tongued Orator.” Table Rock Sentinel, June 1987; “Lithia Theater.” Cinema Treasures. As viewed at www.cinematreasures.org/theaters/10059. — As It Was is a co-production of Jefferson Public Radio and the Southern Oregon Historical Society. As It Was stories are broadcast weekdays on Jefferson Public Radio and are available online at asitwas.org.