Maguire’s Opera House — is situated on South D street, near Union ; its size if fifty feet front by 150 in depth; it has four private boxes, a dress circle, parquet and orchestra apartments. No expense has been spared in its construction and finish. The first performance was given on the 2d July, 1863. The proprietor has kept the theatre, since its opening up to the present, occupied by the best talent to be had on the Pacific coast. “Stars,” after playing engagements for the proprietors in San Francisco, are sent here. Maguire & Burns, are the proprietors.
Piper’s Opera House began as Maguire’s Opera House in 1863 when San Francisco theater impresario Thomas Maguire built the establishment, two blocks east of this site on “D” Street between Union and & Taylor Streets. Maguire fell on hard times and sold the opera house to John Piper in 1867.
After financial hardship that Thomas Maguire experienced following a fire in Sacramento that took out one of his theatres there, and the collapse of a over-leveraged Edwin Forrest tour, Maquire sold the Virginia City Opera House to John Piper who changed the name to Piper’s Opera House.
That building burned in the Great Fire of 1875. Piper then rebuilt the second opera house here behind his Corner Saloon, and re-opened on January 28, 1878. Tragedy struck once again when an early morning fire on March 13, 1883, reduced the opera house to a heap of smoldering ruins.
Allegedly John Piper, himself, left a cigar burning in his upstairs apartment after closing a show. Piper rebuilt once again and opened the third Opera House on March 6, 1885, this is the building that stands before you today. In addition to hosting the finest entertainment acts in America, Piper’s also served as a venue for political rallies, dances, graduation parties and a host of other civic events. Shakespeare was popular at Piper’s along with orators, poets, and minstrel shows.
John Piper arrived in Virginia City in 1860, and opened the Old Corner Wines, Liquors & Co., on this site. He was involved early on in Storey County politics and was elected to the city council in 1865, and took over the mayoral seat the following year. He also served as Storey County Commissioner and was elected state Senator from Storey County in 1875 and 1877. John Piper’s political contributions to Virginia City are all but forgotten today, overshadowed by his three decades of ownership of the famed opera house. John Piper died in San Francisco on January 3, 1897 at age 63.
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Piper’s Opera House
This building, the most magnificent vintage theater in the West, was erected by John Piper in 1885. Third in a succession of theatres, which he operated on the Comstock, Piper’s Opera House, with its original scenery, raked stage, and elegant proscenium boxes, is a remarkable survivor of a colorful era in American theatrical history. Many popular nineteenth-century touring stars and concert artists appeared here.
Location. 39° 18.66′ N, 119° 39.008′ W. On B Street near Union Street, on the right when traveling south. Click for map. At or near this postal address: 12 North B Street, Virginia City NV 89440, United States of America.
Piper’s Opera House is one of the birthplaces of American stage in the west. The first large Virginia City theatre was Topliffe’s on C Street, built in 1862. Tom Maguire’s D Street Theatre followed the next year, and it was purchased by John Piper in 1868. Destroyed by fire in 1875, he rebuilt on B Street. This second theatre opened on January 8, 1878. The dress circle, parquet, and gallery seated 900. It, too, burned following a masked ball, on February 13, 1883. Opening in 1885, the third has muslin surfaced walls, once wallpapered, a spring supported floor, and a rake stage. Elizabethan strapwork designs decorate the proscenium arch, highlighted with George Piper’s portrait of William Shakespeare. Two-tiered boxes flank the stage and a suspended balcony surrounds the parquet. Performers appearing at Piper’s included Maude Adams, Lily Langtry, Edwin Booth, Henry Ward Beecher, Joseph Jefferson, Helen Modjeska, Enrico Caruso, Lillian Russell, E.H. Southern, Houdini, Marie Dressler, Mark Twain, May Robson, Fay Templeton, Lola Montez. David Belasco was stage manager in the early years of his career. Productions ranged from Shakespeare, with “Hamlet” most often presented, to ballet, minstrel shows, musicals and melodramas. Political and social meetings held in Piper’s include raffles, lectures, political debates, and religious services. Other entertainment filling the hall in the 19th century were dances, bearfights, and wrestling matches. Between 1907 and its closing in 1929, movies, roller skating and basketball games were held in the theatre.
Piper’s Opera House in Virginia City was Nevada’s premier entertainment venue in the late 19th-century. Practically all entertainers on tour in the far west found their way to Piper’s, including the great American author Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens). The myth in this story is that many people believe that Twain lectured in the current Piper’s Opera House, the third building with that name. Its location at the northwest intersection of B and Union Streets dates to 1885, having replaced the second Piper’s which operated from January 29, 1878 until it burned in 1883. Actually, Mark Twain’s last visit to Virginia City found him entertaining audiences in the first Piper’s Opera House on D Street between Union and Taylor. That structure, the former Maguire’s Opera House, built in 1863, burned down in the great fire of October 26, 1875.
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With a capacity of 1,600, it had a roomy foyer off which were billiard parlors, cigar stand, green-covered gambling tables, and a mahogany bar inlaid with ivory. The only drawback was that, since the basement housed a livery stable, the auditorium smelled noticeably of horse. Julia Dean Hayne and her company gave the premiere performance, and stayed a month. Thereafter, traveling, thespians put on Hamlet, Romeo and ]uliet, East Lynne, Camille; and touring celebrities appeared there: young Lotta Crabtree, Modjeska, Adah Isaacs Menken, McKean Buchanan, Mollie Raynor, the Worrell sisters. For the studious, the city library was a going concern in Daggett’s brick building on North B.