Reginald Wycliffe Geare (1889 – August 20, 1927) was an American architect known for his design of theaters. His career was ended by the
Knickerbocker Theatre disaster (January 28, 1922), when a record snowfall collapsed the theater's flat roof, killing many.
Geare was closely associated with
Harry M. Crandall and with early Washington theater design. Geare's theaters include the
Apollo Theatre
The Apollo Theatre is a Grade II listed West End theatre, on Shaftesbury Avenue in the City of Westminster, in central London. in Martinsburg, West Virginia (1914), the
Knickerbocker Theatre in
Washington, D.C. (1917), the Metropolitan (1918), the York (1919), the Strand in
Cumberland, Maryland
Cumberland is a U.S. city in and the county seat of Allegany County, Maryland. It is the primary city of the Cumberland, MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 19,076. Located on the Potomac River, ...
(1920), and the
Lincoln Theatre in Washington, D.C. (1922). He also designed the theater portion of the
Southern Aid Society-Dunbar Theater Building.
Geare was also the original architect selected for Washington’s
Tivoli Theatre in Washington, D.C., but following the Knickerbocker disaster he was replaced by
Thomas W. Lamb. Lamb was also commissioned to rebuild the Knickerbocker, afterward known as the Ambassador. The
coroner's jury
A coroner's jury is a body convened to assist a coroner in an inquest, that is, in determining the identity of a deceased person and the cause of death. The laws on its role and function vary by jurisdiction.
United Kingdom
In England and Wa ...
found that the theater victims had died because of faulty construction and design. A grand jury indicted Geare and four others for
manslaughter
Manslaughter is a common law legal term for homicide considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is sometimes said to have first been made by the ancient Athenian lawmaker Draco in the 7th ...
, though none was convicted.
Geare died by suicide on August 20, 1927.
Of his theaters, only the Apollo, Lincoln, and York survive—the Apollo and Lincoln receiving
historic landmark status in 1979 and 1993 respectively.
References
*
Historic Landmark Nomination for the York Theater 2012'.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Geare, Reginald
20th-century American architects
1889 births
1927 deaths
1927 suicides