Sounded like a musket shot – Louisiana State Quarter Coin

Today, the Louisiana State Quarter Coin remembers the catastrophe at the New Orleans theatre in 1854.

In a Louisiana Historical publications from 1916, they wrote of the history of the French theatre and described the event of 162 years ago.

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The Theatre d ‘Orleans was begun in early 1809. On November 30 of the same year it opened with a comedy called “Pataques.”

Destroyed by fire in 1813, a new theatre was erected on the old site in 1817, upon the solicitation of John Davis, a manager.

The architecture was Doric and the building represented a cost, of $80,000. It contained a parquet, two tiers of boxes, and “loges grilles” (latticed boxes), the last “intended to be occupied by persons in mourning, who, without being seen, might witness the performance in comfort,” as Mr. J. de Baroncelli informs us in his interesting essay, “Opera Francais de la Nouvelle Orleans.”

No drama ever enacted upon its stage was as thrilling as the one which it presented on February 26, 1854.

A large audience was witnessing the performance when, suddenly, the side boxes of the “Secondes” and “Troisiemes” collapsed upon the first tier of boxes, causing a terrible panic which cost several persons their lives.

This excerpt from the Daily Picayune of February 27, 1854, is pertinent:

“The accident originated in the giving away of the third gallery to the left of the stage, on the side toward Royal street. The gallery is occupied by colored people and was attached to the rafters of the ceiling by iron bars. It was also connected with the second gallery by slight iron columns. * * *

“The theatre was crowded for the benefit of a favorite performer, Mr. Carrier, the low comedian. The second act of the first piece was drawing to its close when a sharp report, like that of a musket, startled the audience.

“Many thought it was some incident to the play itself. But in another moment a universal cry of alarm, a general rising, a rush, the cracking and crashing of timbers, the screams of women and shouts of men, told too plainly another tale. * * *

“Several persons who witnessed the gradual fall of the two galleries, the efforts of the struggling and appalled mass of human beings in them to escape, and the appearance of the rest of the theatre at the same moment, described it as something utterly paralyzing and horrifying — exceeding any steamboat explosion of conflagration, or railroad catastrophe they ever witnessed.”

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A couple of days later, the Daily True Delta included an article describing the calamity and the subsequent findings of the inquest.

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On Sunday evening at about half past 8 o’clock, a most heart-rending accident occurred at he Orleans Theatre or Opera House, by which several lives were lost and a great many persons were seriously injured.

It was on the occasion of the benefit of a favorite actor, M. Carrier, and just as the second act of a three-act vaudeville was completed, the house being crowded from parquette to gallery.

A crash was heard, and all eyes were at once directed to the colored gallery on the right wing which was discovered to be falling. Down, down, it came, and once general shriek of alarm resounded through the building.

It was the work of a single, fearful moment!

The gallery fell on the second tier of boxes, and the second tier of boxes on the first, while the seats and those who occupied them tumbled in one promiscuous mass onto the parquette which was densely crowded.

The instinct of self preservation induced a general rush for the door, for it was feared that the whole building was about to fall, and as the excited crowd struggled for escape, the screeches of women and children and the groans of the dying awakened strangely discordant echoes.

It was thought at first that scores were killed, and it is indeed strange that the loss of life was so limited.

Thus far we have been unable to ascertain that the accident, serious as it was, resulted fatally in but six instances.

But beside these, not less than a hundred persons were more or less injured, many of whom were taken away by their friends before their names could be ascertained.

The fortunate presence of mind of the lamp ligther of the theatre, who turned off the gas from the side of the building where the accident occurred just as the fallen woodwork was about to take fire, saved in all probability not only the building itself, but the lives of hundreds.

A statement of how the gallery was supported will give an immediate clue to the cause of the accident.

Both the gallery and the upper tier of boxes were attached to the roof of the building by iron rods or bars, which, fastened in the beams above, descended in front of the boxes and formed connections with iron bars running out from the side walls.

There was from beneath not the sligthest post or support of any description, and, as a matter of consequence, when the fastenings of the bars descending from the roof gave way, there was nothing to prevent the falling of the whole down to the lower tier of boxes.

Luckily the bars from the side wall bent, rather than broke, and the woodwork slid off from them as from an inclined plane into the parquette, and by this means most of those in the lower dress circle were saved, though their position was most perilous.

An inquest has been held on the bodies of two of the victims of the catastrophe, and the following verdict was returned:

“Came to their death by injuries received at the falling of the galleries of the Orleans Theatre, on the night of 26th inst., caused from the iron suspending rods supporting said galleries being of inferior quality, and injudiciously formed and applied (attached) to the roof timbers. The jury are satisfied that no blame whatever is attached to the proprietor and managers of the theatre, but in their opinion the parties, viz: —Messrs. Pellenne & Bro. —who had the iron contract ought not to have used such a bad quality of iron and careless workmanship. The jury are also satisfied that the superintendent, Mr. J. N. Depouilly, has exhibited negligence in not thoroughly examining the quality of materials and workmanship used.”

Great praise is said to be due to a shipmaster named Trenis, who, after the gallery fell, exerted almost superhuman efforts in clearing away the wreck and assisting those who were wounded.

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The Louisiana State Quarter Coin shows beside an image of the French Opera Theatre in New Orleans, circa 1880s.

Louisiana State Quarter Coin