DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about this place — the site of what was once the Elks Opera House in Lampasas County. Now, if you're rolling past what looks like an ordinary patch of Texas ground, let me paint you a picture of what used to stand right there. From 1883 to 1894, this was the address of the Elks Opera House — sometimes called the Barnes Opera House, for its owner — and friend, it was something to see.
Modern for the times, they said. And they meant it. Brilliant chandeliers lit the place up.
Brown leather chairs rose in tiers all the way down to the orchestra pit. And that drop curtain — a woodland scene painted on a flaming red background. You walked in there and you knew you weren't in a canvas tent watching a traveling fiddle act.
This was culture, deliberately brought to the frontier. And what a bill of fare it offered. The audiences of Lampasas saw 'Ten Nights in a Bar Room.' They saw 'Dr.
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.' They saw 'East Lynne.' Traveling theatricals rolled through. Local amateur dramas took the stage.
Confederate veterans gathered there for reunions. Musical programs filled the house. For eleven years, that building was the living room of the community.
Now here's where the story takes a turn. In 1894, the structure burned. And when it did — it was not rebuilt.
Just like that, the curtain came down for good on the Elks Opera House. That flaming red background on the drop curtain, it turns out, was almost a prophecy. But this wasn't just a Lampasas story.
Several hundred opera houses sprang up across Texas, all the way between the decades of the Republic and World War I. Every major town had one. Opera companies out of San Francisco, Chicago, and Cincinnati made annual tours — sometimes playing a single town for two full weeks.
These weren't just entertainment halls, either. Opera houses were understood to be a civilizing force, something to curb the pull of theaters and music halls whose public reputation, the marker tells us, unfortunately matched that of the saloons and gambling houses. And then the world changed.
The automobile arrived. Radio arrived. The motion picture arrived.
In the early twentieth century, audiences declined, and the opera house era came to a close — not with a fire this time, but with a slow fade, the way a chandelier dims when the gas runs low. What's left now is this marker, and the memory of brown leather chairs, a red backdrop, and a frontier town that refused to go without its culture.
What the marker says
(1883-1894) Typical of the efforts of early communities to bring culture to the frontier, the Elks Opera House was also the scene of traveling theatricals, local amateur dramas, and reunions of Confederate veterans. Sometimes called the Barnes Opera House (for owner) it presented "Ten Nights in a Bar Room," "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," "East Lynn," and other popular plays of the late 19th century, as well as musical programs. Modern for the times, it was lighted by brilliant chandeliers and had brown leather chairs extending in tiers to the orchestra pit. The drop curtain was a woodland scene on a flaming red background. When the structure burned in 1894, it was not rebuilt. Several hundred opera houses sprang up in Texas between the decades of the Republic and World War I. Every major town had one, and opera companies from San Francisco, Chicago, and Cincinnati made annual tours, sometimes playing a town two weeks. Opera houses also helped curb the influence of theaters and music halls, whose public reputation unfortunately matched that of the saloons and gambling houses. With the advent of the automobile, radio, and motion picture in the early 20th century, however, audiences declined and the opera house era came to a close. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, 1967