Schieffelin Hall

Built in 1881 by Albert Schieffelin, brother of Ed, the prospector who founded Tombstone, this adobe hall was the town's respectable answer to the Bird Cage's notoriety. One of the largest adobe structures in the Southwest, it hosted opera, theatre, and formal balls for a mining camp determined to prove itself civilized, its parquet and gallery seating hundreds beneath a painted drop curtain. Scorched in the 1882 fire but never lost, it still serves Tombstone for council meetings and performances, a survivor of the boom that built it.

What the plaque says

Schieffelin Hall. , Upon its completion on June 8, 1881 it became the largest, most elaborate theatre between El Paso, Texas and San Francisco, California., Albert Schieffelin and William Harwood conceived and constructed a "first class opera house" for the citizens of Tombstone. The seating capacity was 450 on the parquet with a gallery capacity of 125. The drop curtain was a Colorado scene and was considered a "work of art." The building became the hub of entertainment and social events in Tombstone with formal balls and theatrical performances. The hall was scorched by the fire of 1882, but survived. Schieffelin Hall has been home to the King Solomon Lodge #5. Today, it is used for City Council meetings, local social gatherings, fundraisers and theatrical performances. It survived the tumultuous mining era, and the southeastern Arizona climate. The building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15th, 1966.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Tombstone — steps away
  The silver strike named for a death that never came
• Bisbee — 21 mi
  Queen of the Copper Camps — and the deportation it tried to forget

More markers nearby

• Brown's Hotel and Hafford's Saloon — steps away
• "Buckskin" Frank Leslie & Luke Short — steps away
• Home & Office of Wm. Herring — steps away
• Sacred Heart Church — steps away