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Illinois
Coulter Opera House
Friday, March 3, 1882
The Decorative Arts
Newspaper report
Chicago Tribune, March 5, 1882, 5
Coulter Opera House
Broadway and Downer Place, Aurora, IL
Opened: October 1874
Named for: John R. Coulter, Sr., stockholder
Closed as a theatre: 1890
Building extant: became a bank, latterly Merchants Bank and Fifth Third Bank, but the property is now Coulter Court Residences (affordable housing)
Image: Google Streetview
No record is currently available as to whether Wilde stayed overnight in Aurora, but it is entirely possible he traveled on by train the 50 miles to Chicago, which was his base for this midwest leg of the tour.
He was certainly in Chicago on the following afternoon prior to traveling up to Racine, WI, for an evening lecture.
Oscar Wilde In America | © John Cooper, 2025
