Career
Geare was closely associated with Harry M. Crandall and with early Washington theater design. Geare"s theaters include the Apollo Theatre (Martinsburg, West Virginia) (1914), the Knickerbocker Theatre (Washington, District of Columbia) (1917), the Metropolitan (1918), the York (1919), the Strand (1920, Cumberland, Maryland), and the Lincoln Theatre (Washington, District of Columbia) (1922). Geare was also the original architect selected for Washington’s Tivoli Theatre (Washington, District of Columbia), but following the Knickerbocker disaster he was replaced by noted architect Thomas West. Lamb.
Lamb was also commissioned to rebuild the Knickerbocker, afterward known as the Ambassador.
The initial coroner"s jury found that the theater victims had met their deaths because of faults in the construction and design of the building, and held Geare and others connected with its building for the action of the grand jury. The grand jury indicted him and four others on charges of manslaughter, though none was convicted.
Geare took his own life on August 20, 1927. Of his theaters, only the Apollo, Lincoln, and York survive—the Apollo and Lincoln receiving historic landmark status in 1979 and 1993 respectively.
