The Pueblo Opera House (also known as the Grand Opera House) was a theater built in

Pueblo, Colorado Pueblo () is a home rule municipality that is the county seat and the most populous municipality of Pueblo County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 111,876 at the 2020 United States Census, making Pueblo the ninth most popu ...

, and opened in 1890. The building was completely destroyed by a fire in 1922. In June 1888 the architectural firm of

Adler & Sullivan Adler & Sullivan was an architectural firm founded by Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan in Chicago. Among its projects was the multi-purpose Auditorium Building in Chicago and the Wainwright Building skyscraper in St Louis. In 1883 Louis Sullivan was ...

was contracted to design an

opera house An opera house is a theatre building used for performances of opera. It usually includes a stage, an orchestra pit, audience seating, and backstage facilities for costumes and building sets. While some venues are constructed specifically for o ...

in Pueblo, Colorado. They were to be paid $400,000, the largest fee the firm had yet received for a building outside of Chicago. The exterior of the four-story building was designed in a combination

Richardsonian Romanesque Richardsonian Romanesque is a style of Romanesque Revival architecture named after the American architect Henry Hobson Richardson (1838–1886). The revival style incorporates 11th and 12th century southern French, Spanish, and Italian Romanesque ...

and

Italian Renaissance The Italian Renaissance ( it, Rinascimento ) was a period in Italian history covering the 15th and 16th centuries. The period is known for the initial development of the broader Renaissance culture that spread across Europe and marked the tran ...

style, with rusticated Manitou red sandstone on a granite base. The hall seated 1,200 people, and the balcony was the first in the United States to "span an auditorium without intermediate buttressing".Elia, Mario Manieri (1996). ''Louis Henry Sullivan''. Princeton: Princeton Architectural Press. p. 64. The ceiling and walls of the auditorium were covered with

Louis Sullivan Louis Henry Sullivan (September 3, 1856 – April 14, 1924) was an American architect, and has been called a "father of skyscrapers" and "father of modernism". He was an influential architect of the Chicago School, a mentor to Frank Lloy ...

's distinctive decorations. Mario Elia, in his study of Sullivan and his work, suggests that the broad projecting roof was a detail contributed by

Frank Lloyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements o ...

, who was employed at Sullivan's office at the time. The building was topped by a tower. On the night of February 28 – March 1, 1922, the Pueblo Grocers' Association's annual ball was held there, and it is believed that a cigarette may have ignited litter left behind after the event. The fire was discovered at 1:15 a.m., the roof collapsed at 1:50, and all the interior floors had given way by 2:10. Despite the fire department's efforts to save the building, it was a total loss. Engelbrecht, Lloyd C. (June 1985). "Adler & Sullivan’s Pueblo Opera House: City Status for a New Town in the Rockies", ''The Art Bulletin''. College Art Association of America. p. 289.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pueblo Opera House Louis Sullivan buildings 1890s architecture in the United States Theatres completed in 1890 Music venues completed in 1890 Opera houses in Colorado