Grand Forks Metropolitan Opera House Records

The Grand Forks Opera House Company was incorporated August 2, 1889. The Board of Directors included S.S. Titus (president), George Winship (vice-president), Burke Corbett (secretary), George Batchelder (treasurer), and E. J. Lander and John Birkholz (directors). The foundation for the Metropolitan Opera House was laid in the fall of 1889 and construction was completed the following year. The total cost was over $90,000. The Met held its debut on November 10, 1890, with a performance of "Martha" by the nationally renowned Emma Abbott. This performance was unique in that it was a three night engagement in addition to a matinee. The first governor of North Dakota, John Miller, came to Grand Forks to deliver the dedication speech. The first manager of the Met was George Broadhurst, hired away from the Hennepin Avenue Theater in Minneapolis. After 1907, the Met began showing motion pictures and, by the 1930s, was only showing movies. In 1940, the interior was gutted and a bowling alley was installed. The Met survived the 1997 Red River Valley Flood, and the building still stands in downtown Grand Forks. Sources: Bell, John. The Metropolitan Theatre in Grand Forks, North Dakota: The Years of Decline, 1911-1933. Call number: T1997 b413 (Master's thesis) Drake, Dawn. Production Activity and Performers at the Metropolitan Theatre, Grand Forks, North Dakota: 1898-1911. Call number: T1993 d789 (Master's Thesis) Kelsey, Vera. Red River Runs North. New York: Harper, 1951. Call number: F612.r27k4 They Came to Stay: Grand Forks, North Dakota Centennial, 1874-1974. Call number: F644.g8t48x Tomasek, Paul. The Metropolitan Opera House of Grand Forks, North Dakota. Call number: UT1971 t59 (UND Honor's Thesis) Tweton, D. Jerome. Grand Forks: A Pictorial History. Norfolk, VA: Donning, 1986. Call number: F644.g8t84 1986

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