Dietrich's Opera House - Anadarko, OK
Posted by: 
hamquilter
N 35° 04.492 W 098° 14.615
14S E 568962 N 3881607
Once a center of entertainment in the early prairie days, its grandeur has diminished and its past is just a dim memory.
Waymark Code: WMD0VM
Location: Oklahoma, United States
Date Posted: 11/03/2011
Views: 7
This is a one-story buff brick building, constructed in 1908, whose history is certainly not evident by sight. Its upper wall is plain, with a row of clerestories which are exposed. The east bay has a storefront with a centered double-door entry, flanked by display windows. The center bay contains three display windows, and the west bay has a canted double-door entrance with a polished granite column on a stone base. The building is currently occupied by the offices of Southwest Youth and Family Services.
NOW, after you think you have a good picture of this building, open this link and take a look at the building as it stood when it was new in 1908. (
visit link) Can you believe what a magnificent structure this was, and the grandeur it brought to this farming community one year after Oklahoma Statehood.
This building was a three-story beauty. Its second and third floor windows had arched lintels in a contrasting color, and a band of brick dentilwork decorated the upper wall, with a row of brick panels just beneath the roof line. On this historical post card it can be seen that the first floor was occupied by several businesses. Signs reading “Paint” and “Drugs” can be seen. The opera house occupied the upper floors.
A fire in 1952 destroyed the second and third floors of this building, leaving the one-story building you see today. The east portion of the building still retains a portion of the second floor which can be seen on the left side of the photo taken today.
[Details taken from the Oklahoma Historical Society web page on Opera Houses in early Oklahoma.]
In the early days of Oklahoma settlement, opera houses served as symbols of culture and civilization for their communities, and they were a source of pride and a sign of development and progress. In the smaller towns like Anadarko, opera houses had businesses on the ground floor, with the performance areas above, usually consisting of a few dressing rooms and a stage with chairs or bleachers for the audience.
The opera house was the venue for community dances, graduations, and other civic functions, as well as providing a location for traveling theatrical companies, vaudeville troops, and operatic companies. Entertainment might include plays, musical evenings with operatic selections, as well as popular songs, animal acts, chorus lines, and vaudeville companies. (
visit link)