Photo submitted
Pictured is the Jefferson Theater.

•November 29, 2017•

By Ellen Ferrera
for the News Progress

After the Titus Opera House was consumed in fire, Irving Shuman built the Jefferson Theater on the corners of Jefferson and Hamilton streets. It was a two-story building, and the entire outside was covered in a white, pearlized brick that was the first of its kind in Sullivan.

As the new theater neared completion Shuman asked Mayor Johnson, County Judge Grider and Circuit Clerk Gaddis to act as judges in a naming contest for the new theater. The name Jefferson Theater was submitted by both Genevieve Lowe and Mrs. C. O. Patterson for three reasons: first, the building was located on Jefferson street, second, the name brought to mind the great figure of the American stage, Joseph Jefferson, who was famous for portraying Rip Van Winkle, and third, because Thomas Jefferson was “the greatest Democrat in the history of our nation and wrote the Declaration of Independence”.     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.