Old stage scenery from Leadville's Tabor Opera House sat moldering for years. Now, it's considered a

Old stage scenery from Leadville’s Tabor Opera House sat moldering for years. Now, it’s considered a treasure.


LEADVILLE — When mining magnate Horace Tabor decided in 1879 that the rowdy silver boomtown of Leadville needed some cultural spiffing up, he built an opera house. In just 100 days, he brought in enough wagonloads of stone, brick and iron over hair-raising mountain passes to erect the massive and elegant three-story Tabor Opera House.

The ornate performance center had all the high-brow accouterments of that era — gas lighting, ceiling frescoes, custom carpets — and magically beautiful, hand-painted curtains and stage sets.

That stage scenery, along with more pieces added in later years, has been moldering in the Tabor attic under layers of coal and bat guano dust for more than a century. But it has recently been brought out of hiding by a historic stage set specialist (yes, there is such a thing) who has been cataloging and studying the stage pieces, and has declared the lot to be the finest collection of stage scenery on the continent.

“This collection could be a real showcase and an extreme draw in North America. It takes your breath away,” said Wendy Rae Waszut-Barrett, the owner of a Minnesota-based company called Historic Stage Services, LLC., the only one of its kind in the country.

Read more: https://coloradosun.com/2020/10/04/tabor-opera-house-renovation-old-scenery/