Remodeled as the Excelsior Hall, it became the first black-owned theater in the South, reportedly seated 500 people, and also sold whiskey. In an August 20, 1898 article in The New York Times, it was stated that Chappelle, who was standing outside the saloon in Jacksonville, was "almost beaten to death" by an angry mob who blamed him as the proprietor for a dosing of soldiers inside the saloon with "knockout drops" by unknowns that caused some of the men to appear "completely insensible, seemingly lifeless" and left other "almost screaming with pain and writhing in convulsions." Pat Chappelle's life was saved by "Major Harrison, Provost Marshall, in ordering out a reserve guard." The article also reported that Chappelle "was terribly beaten and kicked." In 1899, following a dispute with the white landlord of the Excelsior Hall, J. E. T. Bowden, who was also the Mayor of Jacksonville, Chappelle closed the theatre and stripped out its tiled floor and fixtures. He moved to Tampa, where he – with fellow African-American entrepreneur R. S. Donaldson – opened a new vaudeville house, the Buckingham, in the Fort Brooke neighborhood, using the Excelsior's fittings. The Tampa Morning Tribune reported that "[t]he mayor of Jacksonville is therefore after Chappell [sic], and there may develop an interesting local end to the story." Chappelle claimed that he owned the fittings, but eventually they were returned to Jacksonville and the charges against him were dropped. The Buckingham Theatre's Saloon opened in September 1899, and within a few months was reported to be "crowded to the doors every night with Cubans, Spaniards, Negroes and white people". In December 1899 Chappelle and Donaldson opened a second theatre, the Mascotte, closer to the center of Tampa. In 1901, the Buckingham Theatre Saloon was advertised as offering fine imported wine, liquors, beer, and cigars, and when the theater was renovated, it had its grand opening on December 23, 1901, that made the next day's front page of the Morning Tribune in Tampa. The Theatre Saloon bought its fine Cuban cigars from a factory owned by Vicente Martinez Ybor in Ybor City. In 1903, while Pat was traveling with his Rabbit's Foot Company, he left his brother Louis in charge of the Buckingham Theatre Saloon. Louis was arrested and convicted of selling liquor without a license, and the Buckingham Theatre Saloon was closed. Pat Chappelle left his vaudeville company and rushed to