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Iowa
Opera House
Wednesday, March 1, 1882
The Decorative Arts
Newspaper report
Dubuque Herald, March 2, 1882, 1
In contrast to the successes and larger audiences in the major cities, this lecture was attended by fewer than 200 inattentive people.
It was the first of eleven consecutive days lecturing in eleven different cities, often to smaller houses, the effect of which demoralized Wilde for a time.
He recovered his bonhomie in time to tell the press that he flattered himself on his appearance at the Opera House, because, he says:
“Any man can make a speech…before 1,000 people, but it requires nerve to deliver a lecture to empty benches”.
Opera House
Fourth and Main Streets, Dubuque, IA
Built: 1840s, as City Hotel
Redesigned and reopened: 1864, as Athenaeum Theatre
Refurbished and reopened: 1877, as Duncan-Waller Opera House
Seating: 900
Destroyed (fire): April, 1910
Full history and source:
The Inter Ocean (Chicago), March 1, 1882, 8
Dubuque is located along the Mississippi River.
Oscar Wilde had already been unimpressed by the Atlantic Ocean and Niagara Falls. It was now time for America's grand waterway to be chastised—see clipping.
Julien House
Second and Main Streets, Dubuque, IA
Built: 1844, as The Waples House
Reconstructed: 1854, as Julien House
Remodeled: 1874
Wilde’s rooms: 73-4
Old section demolished and rebuilt: 1889
Destroyed (fire): April 13, 1913
Full history and source:
Oscar Wilde In America | © John Cooper, 2025
