Butte Opera House, Colorado Postcard

The Butte Concert and Beer Hall premiered in 1896 in Cripple Creek, Colorado, a former gold mining camp. Later the theater re-premiered as the Butte Opera House. U.S. and Colorado flags fly outside of the Butte Opera House in Cripple Creek, Colorado,at an elevation of 9,494 feet . A banner welcomes visitors to the town, featuring a donkey. The town's donkey herd is believed to be made up of several direct descendants of the donkeys that were used to work the mines in the Cripple Creek and Victor mining district in the early years of the gold camp. When miners had to leave the area, often their donkeys were let loose to roam. Today, the donkey herd will roam throughout the gold camp, freely walking through the streets, neighborhoods, and hills of the area. The opera house then underwent many changes. It became the Butte Hall Dancing Academy, followed by The Watt Brothers Furniture Company, back to a theatre (under the name Teller Hall,) a skating rink, a secondhand store, an armory, an auto garage, the Cripple Creek Auto Company, and eventually fell into disuse, serving as a storage facility for the fire department located below. Early in 1999, the city of Cripple Creek began extensive renovations to refurbish the Butte with fresh paint, Victorian-era wallpaper, and period chandeliers. When final renovations were completed on the Butte Opera House in 2000, the summer melodrama that played for more than 60 seasons in the Imperial Hotel moved to the Butte. About 150 buildings called opera houses were built in Colorado between 1860 and 1920. Most no longer exist.