Vinton Today - A Blast From The Past

Again from the 1905 Vinton Semi-Weekly Eagle. I think the Opera House is where an appliance store that was on 1st Avenue between 4th and 5th street, directly south of the alley that is behind what is now the Peony Garden Chinese restaraunt.

Comments

Submit a Comment

blg October 30, 2011, 10:05 pm The Opera House was located behind Natures Corner

jZ October 28, 2011, 3:59 pm Here\'s what I noted in the Palace grand opening brochure:<br /> The Cresent Opera House sottd, for a time, at the corner of A Avenue and Fifth Street (then known as Beckett and Concord Streets). The Watson Oper house, bulit in 1873, seated 800 patrons and \"compared favorably to any opera house in Iowa. It replaced and earlier, more modest, Watson Hall wich burned. <br /> The walls and ceilings of the new (Watson) second-floor auditorium were frescoed in the \"hightest style of art\" featuring touring Shows such as the infamous Cedar Rapids Cherry Sisters (patrons threw rotting vegetables onto the stage) , minstrel shows and burlesques, between their performances in Cedar Rapids and Waterloo. In 1912 the Watson opera House was condemned for public use due to the narrow stairway. The auditorium then served as a National Guard armory, when the Guard disbanded in 1916 the old rooms were used for entertainment including roller skating and \"baseball\" - probably my typo and should be \"basketball.\" The old opera house was destroyed by fire in 1930. Location - somewhere north and (east? west?) of the front of the Palace.

JZ October 28, 2011, 2:49 pm Location: there is something in the 196(4? 5?) Vinton centennial year newspaper special edition about this, but I\'m thinking the location was more where the mural is, near Tharpe Design? Might have been two separate entities, a Watson Opera House and Watson \"Hall.\" or else the names were interchangable.

Et cetera : A Blast From The Past - Opera House

Comments