Opera House
Have you ever been to an opera? Or even an opera house? Most of us these days haven’t. But back in the late 1800s and early 1900s, attending a performance at an opera house was as common as going to the movies today.
What you see on this corner now, are the remnants of an old Sinclair gas station. The building attached on the west side was at one time a posh fur store.
Current owner Mr. Clark has made strides in bringing the nostalgia of the gas station back to life. The gas station that at one time was here however, didn’t open for business until the 1930s.
In 1884, this corner once boasted a grand 2 story opera house, with a seating capacity of 1,200. That might not sound like much; however, the entire population of Salisbury was only around 1,800 at the time!
It was customary for each town to have its own opera house – but they weren’t just for operas. Though called an Opera House, the interior was that of a grand theater and served fora multitude of purposes: awards banquets and dinners, traveling theater productions, lecture series, often times used as a meeting location for fraternal organizations, literary and speech clubs, and concerts of all types of music.
The grand Opera House at this location succumbed to the fire that burned most of this block in 1901. This stretch of East 2nd Street would come to be known as Salisbury’s “last burnt district.” In 1902, businesses were being built back – this time completely out of brick. The main level of the Opera House was salvageable enough to use as a foundation for the businesses that followed the fire, though a second story was never added again.
As there was still great demand for a local opera house, a new one was built on the opposite side of this corner on Broadway, in what was known as the Karcher Block. Not only did this corner house the opera upstairs, dry goods & grocery stores on the ground floor, and later the Sinclair station – but was also even an indoor skating rink!
Clue
Front street grew along the tracks that served as the center of transportation for commerce and commuters for decades. Stop 18 was a focal point for the growth and prosperity of early Salisbury.