“Built by city father Captain Charles F. Millett in 1878, the building was designed by leading architect Frederick E. Ruffini. When completed, the opera house was second in size and grandeur only to the Galveston Opera House. It had 800 moveable seats, balcony, private boxes and an exquisite hand-painted ceiling, a portion of which now hangs in the club’s House Conference Room.
The building’s 24-inch-thick limestone walls have stood the test of time and witnessed much revelry and history. In the late 1800’s, Austin’s 11,000 citizens made the building the social center of the city. The Opera House had programs ranging from medicine shows to legislative sessions while the new Capitol was being constructed. It also hosted church services, political conventions, graduations, dances and recitals, as well as opera and theater productions. Notables who performed in front of its kerosene footlights include John L. Sullivan, Williams Jennings Bryan, John Phillip Sousa, Lily Langtry, Joseph Jefferson, James O’Neill and John Wilkes Booth’s brother, Edwin.”
From The Millett Opera House website
The Millet Opera House. Is named for Captain Charles Millet, who was a founding member of the Austen Gas and Coal Company and remained an officer and stockholder most of his life.
The 1880s brought massive infrastructure and improvements to the streets and sidewalks of Austin. Guests streetlights were installed, providing a sense of safety for patrons who wanted to travel to the new Millet Opera House and the boarding housenext to the Opera House.
This was good news because up until that point there were very few sidewalks in Austin, if they existed at all. And the streets were still unpaved, so it was quite a muddy experience because the whole city was prone to flash floods. Literally, the streets were filled with muck, mud and horse dung.
With or without a sidewalk, once inside the building, audience members were surrounded by magnificent finery.
The Millet boasted 800 cushion chairs with armrests in the orchestra section, plus a second floor gallery. Performances were limited to the cooler months as there was no air conditioning or fans. Gas lighting and heating added warmth the rest of the year., but the gas fumes were a common complaint. The windows had to remain closed because, again, poor sanitation systems meant that there was a stench of raw sewage coming from the streets.
After 16 years, the Millet Opera House stopped operations in 1897, mainly due to competition from the more comfortable and modern Hancock Opera House that was built on West 6th Street. Charles Millet passed away in 1896 and his wife and widow, Laura wanted to keep the property in the family. She sold both the opera House and the Millet mansion to her brother in law, Dr MA Taylor, a prominent physician. Taylor, in turn, quickly sold it to his son-in-law, attorney John Phillips Junior, who had a different vision for the building.
It was John who made the most drastic changes to the Milit Opera house since its opening.
He cut the second floor in half and added a third floor floor family residence. He altered the shape and size of the second story windows, and carved the building up into small meeting rooms, warehouse space, book binding facilities, and an area for sales exhibits.
In three years. The whole interior was beyond recognition from the theater it had once been. Taylor sold the building in 1909 to the Capitol Knights of Columbus the Austin Statesman reported in 1919. The interior of the second floor was divided into three parlors and a dance floor, which is one of the largest and best in the city. There was a large stage and enough scenery for staging an mateur theatrical play. The 3rd floor family residence now had a meeting room, accommodations for visiting Knights and a billiard hall. The attic was turned into a well equipped gymnasium with showers and baths.
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The Millet Houses resident ghost has really not been identified, but she is called to by many as Priscilla.
No one really knows who named her that or why. We only know that a female dressed in fancy clothes, sometimes in blue, sometimes in white and sometimes in black, is consistently seen around the building. The myth is that she was a famous opera singer who appeared in the Millet Opera House in the late 1800s. At that time, she got the news that her fiance was killed in a carriage accident. A week before they were to be wed. In her grief, she climbed the ladder to the catwalk over the stage and flung herself from that high place to the stage below, committing suicide in a most tragic way.
But we at Austin Ghost Tours definitely don’t believe the story.
It’s yet another woman who must kill herself because the ultimate worst thing that could ever happened. A man won’t marry her because they’re dead or leaving her for another woman.
There is, though, one connection to the name Priscilla in association with the Millet Opera House. It was a glowing review in 1894 of a comic opera titled Isle of Champagne, performed by the Seabrook Opera Company in. Singing the leading role to much acclaim was Miss Catherine Lynyrd as Priscilla.
Some of Priscilla’s ghost activities described by the staff are harmless. She just likes to make her presence known. The staff hear the sounds of celebrations still going on long after everyone has left the building. The elevator will move upon its own. And when the door opens, a cold blast of air rushes out. Curtains hanging loosely to cover the windows are often tied back neatly.
One night in June of 2018.
A man named Matthew Caldwell broke into thee what is now the Austin Club at around 4:30 AM. He took some books of matches from the front desk area, grabbed some bottles of wine from the bar and went exploring. He ended up on the 3rd floor. Priscilla’s most pronounced prominent domain. The transient sat down and proceeded to get roaring drunk. In his inebriated state, he thought he would. In his inebriated state, he thought it would be an excellent idea to set fire to some curtains near him. So he started a little bonfire with the matches, and the blaze, thank God, was limited to just one set of curtains.
Now what should have happened, according to the people at the Austin Club, was the smoke alarm nearest to the window. Should have gone off. But instead every fire alarm. On the entire three floors of the old Opera House went off. The first responders arrived and fully expected to see the entire building engulfed in flames. Instead, it was just one curtain. The fire damage was minimal. But there was enough smoke to set off the sprinklers, causing $100,000 worth of damage.
