Kelly’s Opera House
Dodge City, Kansas

Description: Kelly’s Opera House
Other Names:
Address:  Front Street  and 1st Ave, Dodge City, Kansas
Type:  theater
Original Client: James Kelly
Historic Inventory:
Date:  1886
Condition: demolished

Architect or Firm: Henry C. Trost and Weston
Associated Architect or Firm:
Contractors:
Dimensions and Orientation: five store rooms and basement. Second floor opera house. Ceiling 18 feet, auditorium 48 x 75 feet. Roof spans of 50 feet
Budget/Cost: $20,000.00

Foundation:
Wall Materials:
Other Materials Used:
Remodeling and Additions:

Present Owner:
Location of Drawings:
Location of Documentary Photographs:

Bibliography: The Journal-Democrat (Dodge City, Kansas) Saturday May 22, 1886 page 3

Remarks: The principle front is on 1st Avenue, having five store rooms and basements. The second floor is designed to be used as an opera house. The ceiling will be 18 feet in the clear. After cutting off a commodious stage at the south end and the necessary rooms in the north end for tick office, lobby, toilet rooms, etc., will leave an auditorium 48 x 75 feet, and with a balcony will seat 1,000 people comfortably. The roof, a span of 50 feet, is a heavy truss roof with a circular dome in the center. The entrance to the opera house is from Chestnut street and is reached by a commodious stair of easy rise. This block like the others, has cast iron and plate glass fronts, finished with a heavy galvanized iron cornice, with half Mansard roof over the cornice, and handsome pediment over each store. All these buildings have deep basements the entire depth , and will have neatly finished, well-lighted room at each end.

Prepared for the El Paso Public Library by Lloyd C. and June F. Engelbrecht under a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, 1990