Applause
What It Was: Opera House in Kent
Clip: Season 28 | 1m 8sVideo has Closed Captions
Built in 1889, the Kent Opera House was once a destination for travelling shows.
A grand building once stood on the corner of North Main and Columbus Streets in Downtown Kent. Built in 1889, the Kent Opera House boasted plush seating for 900 and a first-class stage. Throughout numerous financial difficulties over the decades, its decline was hastened by the Great Depression. Once dubbed the "handsomest building in town," it closed in the 1950s and was demolished in 1963.
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Applause is a local public television program presented by Ideastream
Applause
What It Was: Opera House in Kent
Clip: Season 28 | 1m 8sVideo has Closed Captions
A grand building once stood on the corner of North Main and Columbus Streets in Downtown Kent. Built in 1889, the Kent Opera House boasted plush seating for 900 and a first-class stage. Throughout numerous financial difficulties over the decades, its decline was hastened by the Great Depression. Once dubbed the "handsomest building in town," it closed in the 1950s and was demolished in 1963.
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Providing Support for PBS.org
Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorshipThis building behind me, what it was was a home built for the Kent family in 1883.
Today, it's the Kent Historical Society and Museum.
And I was just inside learning about the Kent Opera House.
The Opera House was built in 1889 for $20,000 and that includes drinks and tip.
It opened with a production of The Stowaways.
And over the next 40 years, it would host vaudeville, motion pictures and even visits from stars like W.C.
Fields, who had actually been stranded in Kent at the train depot when his theater troupe ran out of money.
Ah yes!
By the 1950s, it was falling into disrepair and it closed.
Eventually, the Opera House building, once called the handsomest building in town, was demolished in 1963.
Today you can visit that spot, which is this bank drive-thru.
So you might say the opera house finally made bank.
Now PlayingWhat It Was: Opera House in Kent
Video has Closed Captions
Clip: S28 | 1m 8s | Built in 1889, the Kent Opera House was once a destination for travelling shows. (1m 8s)
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Applause is a local public television program presented by Ideastream