Touring the Metropolitan: Once Denver’s Largest Theater

Not far from today's Denver Central Library, across Civic Center Park at the corner of 15th Street and Cleveland Place, there once existed a large theater known alternately as the Metropolitan Theatre, 15th Street Theatre and finally the People’s Theatre. Though short-lived, the Metropolitan Theatre was located in what was known as the “uptown” or the eastern most edge of the central Denver business district. The surrounding neighborhoods were primarily residential and mixed use.

The roof and fly space of the People’s (Metropolitan) Theatre can be seen on the far left hand side of the above photograph. This photo was probably taken from the Steeple (Tower) of the Central Presbyterian Church located at Sherman Street and East 17th Avenue. It is the only known photograph of the theater while it was in operation.

The building was constructed of white sandstone and measured 100 x 125 feet and was over three stories high. The main entrance, consisting of two twenty-four foot arches, was on Cleveland Place. Access to the gallery (2nd balcony) was through a ten-foot arch located on 15th Street. The above image clearly shows the burned out remains of the People’s Theatre. The front façade on Cleveland Place is characterized by two 24-foot high entrance arches. The image below shows the entrance to gallery seating located on 15th Street.

The above cross-section of the theater shows its interior layout. The stage and dressing rooms at the theater were located seven feet below street level. This arrangement allowed for easier access by patrons to the orchestra/main floor seating. Patrons could conveniently walk straight from the lobby into the orchestra section without first having to go up a set of stairs.

Newspapers at the time declared, “the architect who planned the structure had in his mind’s eye the most magnificent palace of amusement in the world… the new theater was constructed after the model of La Scala of Milan [and]… Denver’s new play house is wider than it is deep.” (Daily News Supplement, August 30, 1889, page 9).

Though we do not have any photographs of the Metropolitan Theatre interior, we can extrapolate what it might have looked like from similar theaters of the era. Mississippi State University’s Riley Center (Grand Opera House), located in Meridian, Mississippi, opened on December 17, 1890, and approximates the seating configuration, interior decoration, and general arrangement of the Metropolitan.

Later that spring, H.A.W. Tabor leased the theater, eventually purchasing it in July 1890.  Problems continued and the theater closed for extensive repairs. After the installation of steam heating, a new lighting system and other refurbishments totaling $5000, the 15th Street Theatre reopened on Monday, October 13, 1890 with Albert Salvini in A Child of Naples.

Yet, competition in the form of a new theater had arisen when the Broadway Theatre opened on August 18, 1890. The Broadway Theater was located across from the Brown Palace Hotel, at 1756 Broadway, and accessible through the Metropole Hotel. Although the 15th Street Theatre continued to be successful at presenting road shows and other entertainment, the competition from both the Broadway Theater and the Tabor Opera House cut into the theater’s business. By late summer 1891, the 15th Street Theatre was leased to J. A. Dixon and rechristened the People’s Theatre.

Western History and Genealogy holds the account book for the People's Theater's last year of operation, detailing names of plays performed, attendance, receipts and disbursements for the stock company's performances. The account book covers the theater right up to its final performance.

The fact that the walls of the theater remained standing after the fire proved an annoyance to the city. Tabor made no attempt to demolish them and even intimated that he might erect a new theater. After Tabor’s subsequent financial problems and death, the future of the walls of the theater remained in limbo for another 18 years until finally being taken down in 1910.