Thanks to Timothy Binga for research assistance.Each performer merits their own honourable mention. That block now houses the Hills Building (erected 1928) and, next to it, a large parking lot that corresponds to the former location of the Opera House. In later years that section was removed to create a single larger block bounded by East Washington, Montgomery, East Fayette, and State Streets. Genesee formerly ran between East Washington Street and East Fayette Street. The structure was located across East Washington Street from Syracuse's City Hall on a section of East Genesee Street that no longer exists. When destroyed by a fire in September 1888, it was quickly rebuilt. The Grand was spacious and lavishly appointed, and experienced ongoing success. The third-floor space formerly occupied by the Park was repurposed as a ballroom/meeting hall. The new opera house was on the ground floor (in contrast to the Park, which had occupied the third floor).

It replaced Barton's Opera House (later known as the Park Opera House), a previous occupant of the commercial Barton Block. The Grand Opera House opened to great fanfare in October 1879. On February 14, 1883, Baum's mother-in-law Matilda Joslyn Gage and her husband attended a return engagement of the play at one of Syracuse's other premier performing arts venues, the Wieting Opera House. Baum's first great success, the play went on tour around the country, including a run on Broadway, before returning to Syracuse. He had based The Maid of Arran on the 1873 novel A Princess of Thuleby Scottish author William Black (1841-1898). Baum had composed the play's book, lyrics, and music, and also played the lead role. Tickets cost $5.50 (about $120 in current dollars). Frank Baum's new musical The Maid of Arran opened at the Grand Opera House.

On December 13, 1880, the famed freethought orator Robert Green Ingersoll delivered his controversial lecture on religion, ' What Must We Do to Be Saved?' at the Grand Opera House.

Grand opera house