Iowa
(Moore's) Opera House
Wednesday, April 26, 1882
The Decorative Arts
Newspaper report
The Centerville Times, May 2, 1882
Newspaper article
The Iowa State Register, April 27, 1882
"THE WORLD WONDER WILDE,
visited this aesthetic city yesterday, and lectured last evening at the Opera House."
Source:
No newspaper clipping available yet. Reference to the primary source comes The Palimpsest, Volume XVIII, No. 6: June, 1937, published by State Historical Society of Iowa, Des Moines, IA, 1937 (Briggs, John Ely, editor).
(Moore's) Opera House
Walnut and Fourth Streets, Des Moines, IA
Built as: "Moore's Hall," a three-story brick building, the first exclusive amusement hall in the city (W.W. "Billy" Moore)
Enlarged: 1873
Dedicated: February 5, 1874
Seating capacity: 1400
Ceased operating: probably later in the 1880s when other opera houses were built, and it became a museum and vaudeville show known as "Wonderland." Structure extant at least until 1904
Aborn House
Court Avenue, at Fourth Street, Des Moines, IA
Built: 1871-73
Opened: c. May 10, 1873
Destroyed (fire): September 21-22, 1994
"An 'aesthetic' newspaper representative visited the British (sic) peculiarity at his rooms in the Aborn House"
The Iowa State Register, April 27, 1882
Oscar Wilde In America | © John Cooper, 2023
