Although I'm not sure how the citizens of 1899 - 1901 Denton would feel about their opera house being painted pink with purple trim, I still have to admit that it is a grand building. The info I could find on the Web indicates it was built in 1899 but as you can see, the building sports the year 1901 above the door. It's located on the square adjacent to the Denton County Courthouse and was constructed for the whopping sum of $25,000. It was the elite showcase of the city until 1913 when movies made their appearance in Denton. Later it functioned as an office supply store and more recently as a used book store. The ground floor of the building has been gutted and it looks like a used book store - just one big great room. I wonder what happened to the stage, the organ, the velvet curtains, the theater seats and all the other things that made opera houses the elegant places they were. Today, in addition to the book store, there are eight luxury apartments on the second and third floors.
13 comments:
looks like a grand old building, hopefully to be preserved
shame to think some really cool things are gone like the organ and stuff
we have a well preserved theater in tampa that still has its organ!
What a grand old (colourful) gal! It's a shame that she was gutted but I'm still glad to see a lovely old building kept going; thanks for sharing this!
It is interesting to try to determine the whereabouts of all of those objets that ave been removed. Probably too difficult to track them down now.
Yes, a beautiful old building. It is fun to imagine how it looked when first in use with carriages pulling up in front with beautifully dressed people on their way to the opera.
the apartments would be cool.
Recycled books on the inside, recycled building on the outside.
With the pink and purple paint, perhaps its time to bring back burlesque!
Cheers,
Jo
I can just imagine all the good times that people had inside there. I guess becoming a books store isn't too bad, if it had to change. It could have been made into something unbecoming to a grand old building like that. I would love to peek inside one of those apartments.
fantastic building and a super idea to make it into condos. anything that will save the building
Nice looking building.
I'm glad the opera house is still in use and not fallen down....but it makes me sad that it was gutted, and that the exterior has such an odd look (interesting but not very elegant). The architecture is wonderful, though!
I'm glad to see it still there and being used. I have a similar shot of a building from Nashville that I'll post soon.
I wouldn't be surprised if some of those luxury apartments weren't haunted! What fun.
Post a Comment