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Salida is about to lose a landmark in its downtown historic district. The Unique Theater has been condemned by the city and faces demolition unless some angel appears.
Despite the name, it's not exactly unique. In the 19th century, every aspiring town wanted an opera house. In Colorado, Central City's may be the most famous, since it still has genuine high-culture opera. And since it's in Aspen, the Wheeler Opera House is well known. Another prominent survivor is the 1879 Tabor Opera House in Leadville, home of a stage where Oscar Wilde once declaimed, and still in service.
Horace A.W. Tabor also used his silver-mining fortune to build the Denver's Tabor Grand Opera House in 1881, but it is no more, as it succumbed to progress in 1964.
Salida's first opera house, the Craig, burned down in early 1888. Opera houses of the day rarely presented opera, but they did provide a venue for traveling performers and theatrical troupes. That was a big deal before movies, radio and television, let alone streaming webcasts. Salida, thanks to its status as a major railroad junction then, saw many such travelers.
Local movers and shakers, led by Mayor Edward W. Corbin, decided to replace the burned structure. They formed the Salida Opera House Association in June of 1888, They raised $30,000, and the new building was dedicated on Jan. 1, 1889, with a performance by the Leadville String Band. The first play was on Jan. 16 as the Park Dramatic Company presented "Alice in London."
The second floor was the Masonic Hall, and shops flanked the theater doors on First Street. In 1909 it was remodeled to accommodate moving pictures and renamed the Osos Grand. Live performances continued sporadically until 1936. By the 1950s, it was the Salida Theatre, and it was the Unique when I moved here in 1978.
Along the way, the Unique's handsome brick and cut-stone front was plastered over. Our old local brick is soft -- I can scratch my 1905 house bricks with a fingernail -- so I understand the stucco, even if I don't like it.
In early 2007, the building was in such wretched condition, mostly on account of a leaking roof, that the city moved to condemn it. Its collapse could have taken down neighboring structures. And owner John Groy didn't have the money to fix it.
Bobby Hartslief, who owns other downtown property, bought it for $50,000, and the city lent him $150,000 for repairs. He did pull the stucco, and he has paid back the loan, but the roof still leaks and the place teems with mice and pigeons. The city says its a health and safety hazard, and recently gave Hartslief 90 days to fix it or demolish it; the deadline is Aug. 30. And he's applied for a demolition permit, though he says he's willing to sell it.
I talked to Jackie Powell, an officer with Historic Salida, Inc. "We're trying to find some way to save it," she said, but it won't be easy in the current economic climate.
Old theaters often get turned into "community performing arts centers," but Salida already has a fine one at the old steam plant two blocks away, and this town is way too small to support another such facility.
The back part of the building is in the worst condition; the front has possibilities for commercial and office space. "Nobody really has a plan for it," Powell said. "We just want to save it and stabilize it, then work with someone who has a plan."
So if you've got some ideas, or you've got money you want to pour into a handsome if decaying mountain-town landmark, email Historic Salida at savetheunique@yahoo.com
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