John Eberson

John Adolph Emil Eberson (1875–1954) was a European born American architect best known for the development and promotion of movie palace designs in the atmospheric theatre style.

John Adolf Emil Eberson was born in Czernowitz, Bukovina, Austria-Hungary (today Ukraine), on January 2, 1875. He was the son of Sigfried and Lora (Schmidt) Eberson.

He attended high school in Dresden, Saxony and studied electrical engineering at the University of Vienna. After completing his studies in 1896, Eberson joined the Fourteenth Hussaren Regiment of the Austrian Army.

Eberson immigrated to the United States in 1901, sailing on a ship that left Bremerhaven. He arrived in New York City, and traveled to settle in St. Louis. His first work there was with an electrical contracting company. Within a few years, he affiliated with Johnson Realty and Construction Company, a theatre architecture and construction company. Eberson and Johnson traveled around the eastern part of America, promoting opera houses in small towns. Once the town was persuaded to build an opera house, Eberson would design it and Johnson would build it. It was in this pursuit that Eberson took the title "Opera House John."

Eberson married Beatrice Lamb (1885-1954) in 1903. She immigrated from Great Britain, and was an interior decorator. They had three children, Drew, Lora Mary and Elsa.

In 1904, Eberson and his family moved to Hamilton, Ohio. It was there that Eberson's first theatre was located, the Hamilton Jewel. The 350-seat Jewel was constructed in an existing, pre-Civil War building. While in Hamilton, Eberson designed local buildings, and continued his opera house design work.

The Ebersons moved to Chicago in 1910. In Chicago, Eberson was able to increase his theatre architectural commissions. An early client was Karl Hoblitzelle's Interstate Amusement Company. The first two theatres he designed for Hoblitzelle were the Fort Worth Majestic (Fort Worth, TX, 1911) and the Austin Majestic (Austin, TX, 1915). Neither was ground-breaking in design, and neither was in the atmospheric style. He first experimented with atmospheric design at the Dallas Majestic (1921), the Indiana Theatre (Terre Haute) (1922) and the Orpheum Theatre (Wichita, Kansas) (1922). It was in the design of the Houston Majestic (1923) that Eberson created his first full atmospheric theatre.

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