...I bet he'd be all over this one--Historic century-old opera house in Greensboro may be renovated
An interesting article about a place that hasn't been touched for at least 50 years (and really more like 80):
[...] As Cobbs' flashlight sweeps through the shadows it reveals a once grand chandelier that hangs in the corner of the backstage area. Vintage playbills lie about. A busted player piano with popped keys rests in another corner.
High above, the ornate pressed tin ceiling still has hints of its gold leaf paint. On the ceiling medallion above the center of the floor is a dulled mural with three chubby cherubs. In corners, here and there graffiti marks the walls: scrawled autographs of minstrel musicians from the 1910s to teenage testimonials from the 1930s. [...]
Built by businessman Jeffries A. Blunt, the Greensboro Opera House remains the dominant building in Greensboro's downtown business district.
[...] a businessman from Marion bought the opera house and closed it in the mid-1930s, then opened a movie theater a few blocks away.
The access stairway to the opera house was torn out in the 1950s, leaving the faded stage backdrops and ancient popcorn machine out-of-reach. [...]
UPDATE: And boy, don't I love Flikr!--here's a photo of the building in the article as it appears in modern times (tall one on the right), and a photo of it from the rear. And here's a closeup of a rather interesting door by another Flikrite.
Update 2--And whaddya know! 'Now Let Us Praise Famous Photogs'--this one from the Library of Congress, one of Walker Evans' shots of downtown Greensboro, with the opera house there on the left. At the time in the summer of 1936, it still had its sign identifying it as "The Strand." A man stands in the doorway seen in the previous modern photos--at one time, there was a balcony there.
Posted by Terry Oglesby at September 20, 2006 09:59 AM