Site of Old Sherman Opera House

The opera house stood on ground that once held the Union Church. A local history page says the Masons built it in 1880, kept the third floor and leased the auditorium and second floor to the Sherman Opera Company. The plaque credits Captain L. F. Ely and 1881. A reprinted 1882 Courier item complained that work on the Masonic Temple had stopped although stock was paid up. Later tenants included a business college, a service station and a music company that removed the third floor. The county booklet calls it perhaps the finest opera house southwest of St. Louis.

What the plaque says

Site of Old Sherman Opera House Formerly a 3-story Victorian structure with twin cupolas. Built by Capt. L. F. Ely, who made the bricks in his city factory. Lavish interior had carpeted aisle, damask curtains and red plush seats. Benches in economy section were called the "Buzzard Roost". From its completion (1881) until closing (1918), it helped make Sherman a cultural center. First show was operetta "The Mikado". Also given here were Shakespearean plays, musical reviews, temperance lectures and trained animal acts. Remodeled (1961) for commercial use. Original bricks remain. (1969)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Eisenhower Birthplace State Historic Site — 8.8 mi
  The small frame house beside the Katy tracks in Denison where Dwight Eisenhower was born in 1890, bought by townspeople in 1946 and given to Texas in 1958.
• Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge — 11 mi
  A 1946 refuge on the Big Mineral Arm of Lake Texoma, laid over land bought for Denison Dam and the site of the vanished railroad town of Hagerman, now a winter stop for geese.
• Eisenhower State Park — 12 mi
  A bluff-top park on Lake Texoma opened in 1958 on land leased from the Corps of Engineers, in the Red River country of Fort Johnson, Colbert's Ferry and the Butterfield stages.
• Sam Rayburn House State Historic Site — 23 mi
  The two-story farmhouse west of Bonham that the longtime Speaker of the House built in 1916 and kept as his home, left as he lived in it and open as a museum since 1975.

More markers nearby

• Merchants and Planters National Bank — steps away
• Eleventh Texas Cavalry — steps away
• Sherman Riot of 1930 — steps away
• Peter W. Grayson — steps away