History regarding Opera House use:
Source: The Opera Houses of Iowa, by George D. Glenn & Richard L. Poole, First Edition 1993
"The Opera House, its name conjures up images of glamour, splendor, excitement, European sophistication, and the big city. These images were not restricted to the big city, however. In the not too distant past virtually every city and town throughout the length and breadth of Iowa had a place called “the Opera House.” But the day is long since past when the local Iowa opera house was the hub of community and entertainment. The building where people saw the latest big city production (or some version that resembled it); thrilled to this histrionic talents of a famous performer; heard a church sermon, participated with their friends in a home talent show; rollerskated with their family; danced with a sweetheart or wife; were enthralled by the medicine show pitch of the Great Dr. Balthazar T. Archimedes, has now been reduced to a run-down movie house, a block of aging apartments, a feed and grain storage warehouse, or a decrepit eye sore destined for the wrecking ball if it hasn’t already fallen down, been knocked down, burned down, or blown down by the cyclone of 1948.
Between 1850 and 1915, all types and sizes of Iowa communities had their Opera House. A town could not call itself civilized unless it could advertise programs in its very own Opera House."
Sentinel 1902 Ad
Plymouth County, Iowa, Opera House newspaper ads
LeMars Sentinel, February 1909
Henry Miller presents "The Great Divide"
By Wm. Vaughn Moody
"The long awaited Great American Play." N.Y. Press
LeMars Globe-Post, January 20, 1910 (front page ad)
