 “The Temple,” as the theater was called, had once been a Baptist meetinghouse and, before that, the site of the country's first almshouse, as well as a prison.The land surrounding the charred lot was owned by the family.Following the fire on Christmas Eve of 1876, the Peirces knew what we still hold to be true, “a community is known to some extent by the character and place of its amusements,” a sentiment echoed on the opening night in a speech by Sen. W.H.Y.