Property Record
2969 MAIN ST
Architecture and History Inventory
| Historic Name: | BLUE MOUNDS OPERA HOUSE |
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| Other Name: | |
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| Reference Number: | 5274 |
| Location (Address): | 2969 MAIN ST |
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| County: | Dane |
| City: | Blue Mounds |
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| Year Built: | 1868 |
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| Additions: | |
| Survey Date: | 1979 |
| Historic Use: | theater/opera house/concert hall |
| Architectural Style: | Boomtown |
| Structural System: | |
| Wall Material: | Clapboard |
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| Other Buildings On Site: | |
| Demolished?: | No |
| Demolished Date: |
| National/State Register Listing Name: | Not listed |
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| National Register Listing Date: | |
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| Additional Information: | A 'site file' exists for this property. It contains additional information such as correspondence, newspaper clippings, or historical information. It is a public record and may be viewed in person at the Wisconsin Historical Society, State Historic Preservation Office. The Opera House was once the center of activity in Blue Mounds. Traveling performers and speakers entertained local audiences in the upstairs hall, which also hosted dances and eighth-grade graduation ceremonies. To reach the opera hall, people climbed up the exterior staircase to the porch’s second story, bought tickets at the window in the small vestibule, and then entered the auditorium through the upstairs door. The hall remains intact, with a raked or slanted stage set within a wooden proscenium arch featuring fluted pilasters and dentils. The tongue-and-groove wainscot and ceiling and the maple dance floor look just as they did when the building opened its doors. Even many of the canvas backdrops from the early twentieth century remain. Outside, a false front rises up above the roof to make the building appear taller and more substantial than it actually is. It expresses a vernacular version of the Italianate style, with bracketed cornices and dentil courses. The two-story porch to the south is a reconstruction similar to the original, except for the columns and spindle patterns. Men who attended events in the opera hall--and those who didn't--gathered in the saloon downstairs, which once occupied the storefront. The pressed metal ceiling, with its oval pattern, and the bull’s-eyes in the glass of the door are original, but the wooden staircase inside is an addition. In 1991, Michael and Deb Doud rehabilitated the building as a center for musical and theatrical events. VACANT. WAS ONCE THE SMITH HOTEL WHICH CLOSED OVER 45 YEARS AGO. |
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| Bibliographic References: | Mount Horeb Mail 9/23/93. WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL, P. 1I, 5/8/1994. MADISON TRUST FOR HISTORIC PRESERVATION, INC. NEWSLETTER, OCTOBER 1994. WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL 3/5/1995. Buildings of Wisconsin manuscript. |
| Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin |