It was New Year's Day and in 1866 the building was the grandiose Turner Opera House. William M and Joseph M Turner of West Carrolton built the oldest surviving theater in Dayton, Ohio. The theater cost $225,000 when it opened. The Turner Opera House, located at 138 North Main St., has attracted the attention of Daytonians and the rest of the country. The Victoria Theater has certainly had its ups and downs, trials and tribulations over the past 146 years. Having survived floods, fires, and tragedy, the Victoria Theater still stands and is an important historic building in Dayton, Ohio. A fire has struck the Turner Opera House. Arson was suspected of causing a devastating fire on May 16, 1869, which destroyed the theater with a loss of 500,000 people (Wikipedia). The theater is not the only building damaged by this fire. The fire damaged some surrounding buildings. The 1869 fire was one of the worst fires Dayton had ever seen. The original five-story building was reduced to three after being damaged by fire in 1869 (the oldest theater). Reconstruction work took two years and the theater reopened in 1871 as the Music Hall (Lois). Over the course of 146 years, the Victoria Theatre, as it is known today, has had many different names. Rebuilt in 1871 as the Music Hall, by 1885 it was known as the Grand Opera House (Watson). It later became the Victoria Opera House and was renamed the Victoria Theater in 1901 (Watson). In 1919, it was reopened as the Théâtre de la Victoire after another fire. “The Victory Theater” – a name commemorating the American war effort and its results (Wikipedia). The building was sold to the Center des Arts foundation in 1990. For the last time the Theater changed its name...... middle of paper ......972: 21. Print.Saum, Louis. “The theater suffers from floods, times are changing”. Dayton Daily News December 8, 2005. Print. “Victoria Theater (Dayton, Ohio). » Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, November 3, 2012. Web. March 23, 2012. ;."Victoria Theater." Victoria Theater-Haunted Houses.com. Internet. March 14, 20`2. ;."The Théâtre de la Victoire will close." Journal Herald [Dayton] August 5, 1971: 11. Print. Watson, Claudia and Rosamond McPherson. Young. Dayton Comes of Age: The City Through the Eyes of John H. Patterson, 1897-1922. Dayton, OH: Montgomery County Historical Society, 2002. Print.Wornom, Cynthia. "...They did it, it's saved." Herald Journal [Dayton] December 3, 1975. Print. Zumwald, Teresa. “For the love of Dayton.” Dayton Daily News. Print.