Strike 3! Curtain Call!

The Chicago Cubs, famous for Wrigley Field and their dreaded curse can tribute their most successful season to a time when they were owned by a native Ohioan. Son of Wilmington Charles Webb Murphy owned the Chicago Cubs from 1906 to 1914 within that time they won four pennants and two World Series. The Cubs set a record of 116 wins in a 154 game season that has yet to be broken. Yet, Charles Murphy is better known in Wilmington Ohio for his county famous theater.

The Murphy Theater is located in downtown Wilmington and is the most notable structure in town. Murphy built a thousand seat theater in a town that was barely a population of 5,000. Opening night sold out three times and the theater turned people away at the door. Murphy brought in the best of the best of materials and craftsman to craft the interior. He brought in decorators from the Mandel Brothers Firm from Chicago, when they stepped off the train they thought they were in the wrong place, thinking that they surely wouldn't be building a theater in a town this small.

In the end the Murphy Theater cost roughly around $250,000.00 and Charles Murphy plaster his name so large on the back it can be seen all the way at the railroad tracks. The Murphy soon became the center of activities for the community a staple in the downtown. In the 1940’s the famous marquee went up and cast its light across Locust Street. Acts like the Music Box Review rehearsed the company’s performance before it went to Broadway.

From baseball to the bright lights Charles Webb Murphy impacted a small town in the heart of Ohio. To this day his name can still be seen from blocks away on the backside of the Murphy Theater.