I just realized that I missed posting June 19! Here it is!
A Repeat Visit to the Tabor Opera House in Leadville, Colorado on June 19, 2018
I woke up on the morning of my 49th birthday and arrived at the Tabor Opera House by 8am. The auditorium manager, Mark Hanson, was there to meet me before his shift started so that we could dig through some of the older scenery.
You see the Kansas City Scenic Co. backdrops were created for the renovated stage in 1901 after the Elks Lodge purchased the building. The Elks replaced the original stage, roll drops, shutters and wings with an enlarged stage, fly loft and new scenery. Almost all of the old scenery, was just tucked away and left undisturbed until my birthday. This was the best birthday present ever! Unfortunately, I cannot share images or details about my discoveries, but I will give you some history in regard to the Tabor Opera House from its original construction in 1879 to the Elks renovation in 1901.
Horace W. Tabor and his first wife Augusta arrived in Denver during 1858. The following year, they traveled into the mountains. In a nutshell, the Tabors were in the right place, at the right time and the couple made their fortune in mining. Their Matchless Mine is now a historic site in Leadville that we had the pleasure visiting on June 19. Tabor’s second wife, was Elizabeth McCourt Doe, who earned the nickname Baby Doe. Yes this is THE Baby Doe in the opera, “The Ballad of Baby Doe,” that was written by Douglas Moore and premiered at the nearby Central City Opera in 1956. The Tabor’s went bankrupt after silver prices fell, due to the government’s repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, causing the panic of 1893. In the end, Tabor died in 1899 and Baby Doe spent the remainder of her life mourning his passing until her death in 1935. In 1962, Gordon Langley presented a copy of his book “The Two Lives of Baby Doe” to Florence A. Hollister, then owner of the Tabor Opera House. We also toured the Baby Doe house where she spent the last lonely years of her life, penniless. Eveleyn E. Livingston Furman published a very detailed account of the Tabor’s mining activities and his life in “The Tabor Opera House: A Captivating History” (1984).
In the early years, Tabor’s rapid accumulation of wealth helped support a fire department, cavalry company, churches, schools and hospitals. He also built the opera house and helped build the Clarendon Hotel. This was all an attempt to help make Leadville a “first-class” city. In 1880 when he moved to Denver, he also built the Tabor Opera House there. It was in Denver that Tabor met Elizabeth McCourt Doe, who had recently divorced her first husband Harvey Doe. She was nicknamed “Baby Doe” while still married and living in Central City.
In the 1890s, the Tabor’s fortune dwindled and the opera house in Leadville became the last of his holdings, his prized possession. The building was dear to him as he has the second floor suite that overlooked Mountain Massive and the rest of the range.
At the turn of the century, the building changed hands and was purchased by the Elks Lodge of Leadville. It was at this time that a fly loft was added, and the stage and auditorium enlarged.
The original opera house was contracted for $30,000, but ended up costing more than $78,000. This did not include any of the furnishings, scenery, or other equipment. Many of the materials were not provided locally, and were shipped from Denver by stagecoach, as no railroad had arrived in Leadville yet. In the end, the building was constructed in only 100 days and opened on Nov. 20, 1879. The seating capacity for the venue was reported to be 800.
According to the book, the original scenery for the 1879 opera house was credited to J. B. Lamphere, who provided ten sets of scenery that consisted of roll drops, shutters and wings. The drop curtain featured a charming castle alongside a stream that snaked back into a winding canyon. Atop this composition was a portrait of Horace Tabor. Other settings depicted a forest, a mountain waterfall, a view of the Royal Gorge, a street scene, a formal garden scene, a Palace scene, a “Light Fancy,” a plain chamber scene, a new England kitchen scene and a Baronial Hall. The mountain waterfall setting was composed by placing two shutters together. At this time, I am unsure of which scenes were roll drops and which scenes were composed of two shutter hat slid together. The street scene was said to depict a view of Harrison Avenue in Leadville. Many of the interior painted setting were composed of double-sided flats.
The Elk’s Lodge continued to use some of the original settings when they took over the building and enlarged the space. They were identified as being shorter in size than those created by the Kansas City Scenic Company. The original drop curtain moved to the Tabor Opera House in Denver to be used during the film premiere of “Silver Dollar.” It’s current condition or whereabouts are unknown.
To be continued…
Thank you, Wendy for this concise review of a very special place. Leadville, the Opera House, the Tabors, and the whole area have been interests of mine for 50 years. Having been given access to the theatre one day, by lady who owned the building many years ago, I often imagining doing a summer program there as an extension of my university theatre program in Texas. While those stars never quite aligned, the area and its history has remained a part of me. Again, thanks for sharing!
You are welcome, Don, and thank you for sharing your memory!