|
The East end of of the orchestra pit can be seen beyond the yellow caution tape. Two vertical posts of the old orchestra pit railing can be seen at the end of the aisle. A couple of steps led from the aisle down into the pit. Also seen is the mysterious hole in the floor surrounded by caution tape. It is not a failure of the floor; it must have taken great effort to create it! Again, it may have been chopped through to facilitate a chimney which was never built. A portion of the false floor, added when the Sampson ceased it's theater operations, is seen again at the left. Until recently, this floor covered the entire seating area. It will be completely removed. The interesting transition from curved seating tiers to straight tiers can be seen, as well as points where the seats were secured to wooden strips that were embedded into the concrete tiers. The chunk of concrete in the foreground was also added sometime after the Sampson's use as a theater. |
