The Cheyenne Opera House and Territorial Library

The opera house opened on May 25, 1882, with the Comley-Barton company from New York's Fifth Avenue Theatre singing Audran's comic opera Olivette for three nights and a matinee, on its way to Denver. It had cost about $50,000, raised by a company of Cheyenne investors, and the territorial library took rooms upstairs. Paderewski played it on his 1892 tour, traveling with his own railcar and his Steinway. The fire the stone dates to 1902, on December 7 by one account, ended its life as a stage.

What the plaque says

The Cheyenne Opera House and Territorial Library was erected on this site in 1882. For twenty years, it was the center of civic, and cultural activity. In 1902, a fire destroyed the auditorium and stage of the building. In 1905, the Annex was built on the site adjoining the remaining portion of the Opera House. The two buildings were razed in 1961. 1963

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Wyoming State Capitol — 0.5 mi
  A sandstone capitol set to face the Union Pacific depot down one long street, its copper dome gilded in 1900 when the copper tarnished.
• Cheyenne Frontier Days — 1.9 mi
  A railroad agent's excursion scheme for a town with no crop to celebrate, which became a six-hour show in 1897 and the Daddy of 'em All.

More markers nearby

• First Women's Suffrage Movement — steps away
• St. Mark's Episcopal Church — steps away
• Durant Bell — 0.3 mi
• Mrs. Esther Hobart Morris — 0.3 mi