St. Clair County
Remnants Of The Past

The Durley Opera House

It All Started With a Tornado, by Wilbur A. Zink:

The Durley Hall, which was also called the Durley Opera House, was built in 1881. H.W. Grantley came to Appleton City in the early days and served as a lawyer, postmaster, and was a real estate promoter, He purchased an acreage, and it appears on abstracts as the Grantley Addition. Grantley sold lots and was a great promoter of this new city, which was only about ten years old. Grantley built the Durley Hotel as well as the Durley Opera House, which at that time were two of the largest business houses in Appleton. The name Durley was the name of a friend of Grantley’s from Bloomington, Ill.

The Opera House cost $20,000 to build, and the Adams & Wescot Brick Company, located just east of Appleton City Cemetery, made the bricks locally. The brick plant burned a half-million bricks in 1882. The Opera House was 50 feet wide, 110 feet length and 45 feet high. The front entrance is eight feet wide that led to the main auditorium and the dressing rooms. It has a seating capacity of 400. It was referred to as “The Pride of the City” and as the “Finest Opera House in Southwest, Missouri”. The opera house was upstairs with the entrance in the middle of the front of the building. A huge curtain hung across the stage with colorful advertisements of local businesses painted on it. It was closed in the 1920s.

The famous old Chautauquas were held there, which were basically educational and entertainment programs, which assisted in raising the culture level of the community. They included lectures, debates, music and other entertainment that was popular in that day. The name Chautauqua came from the early day educational schools first held in Chautauqua, NY, during the summers. There were many entertainment events that were held in the Opera House such as prize fights, opera singers, plays with actors of national note, traveling shows, and many plays put on by local folk.