Vaudeville's Favorite Ghost Still Takes a Bow
58 Remsen St, Cohoes, NY 12047
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
Ticket prices vary by performance. Check venue website for current show pricing.
Access
Limited Access
Historic multi-story building; stairs required to reach third-floor hall
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1874 · Vaudeville History · Performing Arts Heritage · 19th-Century Architecture · Industrial-Era New York
William Acheson and James Masten spent $60,000 constructing Cohoes Music Hall in 1874, giving the industrial city of Cohoes — then a booming textile center on the Mohawk River — one of the more ambitious entertainment venues in upstate New York. The building's four stories placed retail shops on the ground floor, offices above, and a 475-seat music hall on the third and fourth floors. It opened on November 23, 1874, with a production of London Assurance.
The hall attracted nationally recognized performers across its early decades. Buffalo Bill Cody appeared on its stage, as did bandleader John Philip Sousa, the entertainer General Tom Thumb, and Sarah Bernhardt. Among the young performers who passed through was Eva Tanguay, who appeared in a production of Little Lord Fauntleroy while still a child. She would go on to become the highest-paid vaudeville performer of her era — known as 'the I Don't Care Girl' after her signature song — earning $3,500 a week at her peak.
Financial difficulties caught up with the hall after the National Bank of Cohoes assumed control in 1905. The venue eventually closed, and the building sat vacant for more than six decades. By 1968, the bank transferred the property to the city of Cohoes for $1. The city funded a restoration exceeding one million dollars, and the hall reopened on March 7, 1974, with a production of London Assurance — the same play that had inaugurated it a century earlier.
It is the fourth-oldest operational music hall in the United States. The street-level area now serves as the city's visitor center; the music hall itself occupies the third and fourth floors. The restored hall has operated as a community performance venue since 1974, hosting concerts, theatrical productions, comedy, and dance events.
Sources
Eva Tanguay died in Hollywood, California in 1947 at age 68, but by most accounts she never entirely vacated Cohoes Music Hall. Her connection to the building began when she performed there as a twelve-year-old in Little Lord Fauntleroy — the same stage where she would later be recalled as one of vaudeville's defining personalities.
The phenomena attributed to her at the hall are consistent in their category: playful interference rather than malice. Costumes have been reported missing before performances, only to reappear without explanation. Lights have turned themselves on and off. EVP recordings taken in the hall have produced sounds attributed to her presence. Staff have reported misty figures in the seated section after hours.
The most durable piece of institutional folklore involves what performers are expected to do before going on stage. The hall maintains a dedicated opera box for Eva, and the tradition holds that every act must leave some small tribute there before their first performance. The practice is treated with the same seriousness as a sound check. If the tribute is skipped, the expectation — reinforced through accumulated backstage accounts — is that Eva will make her displeasure known through disruption.
Eva Tanguay left the stage at Cohoes as a child and built a career that made her the highest-paid performer in vaudeville. She never returned to perform there as a professional. The question of why she would choose to remain in a hall she left so young, rather than one of the larger venues she later headlined, is not one the building's lore attempts to answer.
Notable Entities
Cohoes Music Hall periodically offers behind-the-scenes and history tours that include the story of Eva Tanguay. Check the venue website for scheduled tour dates. The tradition of leaving a tribute in Eva's opera box before every performance has been practiced by visiting artists for decades.
Attend a live performance in the 475-seat third-floor hall where Eva Tanguay herself performed as a child. The restored 1874 interior — rescued from 60 years of abandonment — frames concerts and theatrical productions under the same rigging where the ghost reportedly plays her tricks. Performers still leave tributes in Eva's designated opera box before taking the stage.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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