A man's vision created the Bardavon

He was the Poughkeepsie coal and lumber merchant who built the theater. Collingwood was born March 19, 1814, in Wigan, Lancashire, England. He immigrated to the United States at age 18 and went to Newburgh as a shoemaker. Twice married, he had nine children.

In 1835, he moved to Fishkill in the shoe trade, built a few houses and moved to West Park in Ulster County to farm. He next came to Poughkeepsie and began a lumber business that year at the Lower Dock -- now the DeLaval site -- off Prospect Street on the Hudson River.

In 1863, he built a five-story office building on Market Street.

"Behind it, he had a coal yard,'' said Annon Adams, Bardavon historian. "It was his uptown branch. The main coal yard was on Prospect Street.''

The coal depot was the site for the theater. According to a Dec. 24, 1895, article in the Poughkeepsie Semi-Weekly Eagle, the uptown yard was used to distribute coal. The archway used for the exit and entrance to the theater was previously used for coal wagons. This archway or arcade still serves as the entrance-lobby to the theater.

Collingwood was energetic and progressive, wrote Jesse Effron in an 1981 article for "Marquee,'' The Journal of the Theatre Historical Society. Effron and his wife, Lee, own the Three Arts bookstore in Poughkeepsie. Collingwood, he wrote, had "... widely scattered interests in real estate, new railroad lines, the building of the Poughkeepsie bridge and other such speculative projects.''

Effron wrote that Collingwood had "... little or no experience with theaters or with performing arts in any form,'' but took a personal interest in the design and construction of the opera house.

Collingwood spent $50,000 on the theater, Effron wrote.

Construction began in June 1869 and was completed in the winter of 1868-69. It opened Feb. 1, 1869, with a concert by the Eastman College Band in honor of Collingwood.