Pueblo Grand Opera House

Pueblo was a town on the rise at the time the Opera House opened at 4th and Main in October 1890, with a performance of Gilbert & Sullivan’s “Iolanthe.” The town’s steel mill and smelters were busy, the population was almost 25,000, and Pueblo was a great railroad center. Nationally known Adler and Sullivan were chosen as architects for the opera house, to be “an indication of advanced civilization and refinement on the part of the people,” according to one authority.

The lower floors, which were occupied by businesses, were inundated in the June 1921 flood. Repairs were made, then on March 1, 1922, a fire started in the top floor. Fire fighters fought in vain in the freezing weather but the Opera House was gutted in less than an hour’s time and was never rebuilt.