Thursday, February 23, 2006

Mallory Landmarks: The Opera Block

The Mallory Opera Block, built during 1872, was the first major Mallory project in Chariton.

Occupying a quadruple lot at the north end of the west side of the square purchased by Mallory for $5,000 from Chester W. Cowles on March 13, 1872, the block contained four businesses on its ground floor and offices and club rooms on the second and third floors.

A stair in the middle of the east front served the opera house, located behind rental areas and entered on the second floor. This was the cultural and social center of Chariton for 30 years.

The Opera Block and two adjacent buildings were destroyed during January of 1904 in one of Chariton’s most disastrous fires. Later that year, Jessie (Mallory) Thayer sold the north half of the lot to Horace Larimer and N.B. Hollinger (this building later housed Montgomery & Ward) and the south half to Simon Oppenheimer, who built the double-fronted buiding that still bears his name.

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