Amargosa Opera House
In Death Valley Junction, California in 1923-24, the Pacific Coast Borax Company constructed their Civic Center at a cost of $300,000. Designed by architect Alexander Hamilton McCulloh, the U-shaped complex of Spanish Colonial Style adobe buildings included company offices, a store, an employee dorm, a 23-room hotel, dining room, lobby, gymnasium, billiard room and ice cream parlor. At the northeast end of the complex was Corkhill Hall, a recreation hall used as a community center for dances, church services, movies, funerals and town meetings.
Remodeled in 1927, the Civic Center became the Amargosa Hotel. In 1967, Corkhill Hall became Marta Becket's renowned Amargosa Opera House.
Read more about this topic: Pacific Coast Borax Company, Corkhill Hall
Famous quotes containing the words opera house, opera and/or house:
“The opera house sparkled with tiers
And tiers of eyes, like mine enlarged by belladonna,”
—James Merrill (b. 1926)
“Opera once was an important social instrument—especially in Italy. With Rossini and Verdi people were listening to opera together and having the same catharsis with the same story, the same moral dilemmas. They were holding hands in the darkness. That has gone. Now perhaps they are holding hands watching television.”
—Luciano Berio (b. 1925)
“If the main timbers in the house are not straight, the smaller timbers will be unsafe; and if the smaller timbers are not straight, the house will fall.”
—Chinese proverb.