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Thursday, August 11, 2011

The Elks Opera House

Daughter and I spent a night in Prescott, Az. recently and to our delight found that the restored Elks Opera house was offering free tours.

Such rich history within these walls. It originally opened Feb. 22, 1905 featuring
Florence 'ZaZa' Roberts


Picture of the original stage and boxes. The restoration has been magnificent and my phone picture just doesn't capture it...


900 seats but back in the day the Chinese were not allowed to sit with the white folks so they had to enter the theatre from the back door and their seating was at the very top of the balcony 

Hard wood benches.

After the death of Vaudeville the Opera House eventually became a movie theatre in the 1940s, and  the opera boxes and ornamental finishes were removed to accommodate wide-screen movies. The copper elk statue atop the roof and an inside box office also eventually disappeared as did a second set of balcony stairs.

The copper elk was visible for blocks in every direction and served as a landmark.  It is made of copper donated by the United Verde Copper Mine in Jerome, Az and sits proudly atop the building once more.

                                       

Along with tours there are many events being held here including this
Much talked about upcoming New Years Eve celebration...for more information go here .

It is so wonderful that the Elks Opera House Foundation fought to hold onto this  landmark and didn't  allow "progress" to replace it or time to destroy it.  

8 comments:

TexWisGirl said...

oh, i'd want that elk for my yard! :)

Nancy said...

This is a great post.

One of the movie theaters here was also an old Vaudeville theater.

Michelle said...

I love historic places like this.

Lady Di Tn said...

Yeah for the foundation!!!!! I love the copper elk and so happy it has returned to it's original summit. Peace

Chatty Crone said...

I agree - very interesting - and you and your daughter do really great things together.

Bev said...

Very interesting!

Granny Annie said...

Love the education I get on your blog. I had never heard of the Elk Opera House.

Shammickite said...

Marvellous to know that this historic building has been saved from destruction and refurbished to it's forner glory. Often we are too quick to knock down older buildings when they should be saved and loved and used, as a reminder of the past and as heritage for the future.