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Illinois
(Chatterton) Opera House
Moday, February 27 , 1882
The Decorative Arts
New York Dramatic Mirror
Newspaper report
The Daily Illinois State Register, Feb 28, 1882, 3
(Chatterton) Opera House
Sixth and Jefferson Streets (SE corner), Springfield, IL
Opened: 1866 (as Rudolph Opera House)
Mostly destroyed (fire): March 17, 1876
Rebuilt: 1876—79
Reopened: Sept. 10, 1879 (as Chatterton Opera House)
Closed: May 13, 1924, later condemned as unsafe
Replaced by: Orpheum Theatre 1927—1965
Played host to Mrs. Langtry, Lillian Russell, Edwin Booth, Rose Coghlan, William F. Cody, Adelina Patti, et al.
Leland Hotel
Northwest corner of Sixth Street and Capitol Avenue, Springfield, IL
Opened: January 1867
Rooms: 193
Destroyed (by fire): March 26, 1908 (rebuilt 1911)
Wilde may not have stayed overnight in Springfield, because after the lecture, he traveled night and day on February 27/28 arriving at the Grand Pacific Hotel in Chicago, IL, before beginning the next leg of his tour in Dubuque, IA, on March 1. (This was the next day as 1882 was not a leap year).
However, according to the Lincoln Library in 1911 citing the Illinois State Register of February 27, 1882 (not found) when reporting to the early Wilde researcher R. B. Glaenzer, Wilde stayed at the Leland Hotel. [1]
It is quite possible that Wilde used the Leland Hotel as his base without actually staying overnight.
[1] Clark: G543z.C697
Oscar Wilde In America | © John Cooper, 2025
