The Opera House
will be Closed on:
New Years Day
Memorial Day
4th of July
Labor Day
Christmas Day
About Us
Minden
Opera House was built in 1891 and featured plays and Monday
night dances that drew traveling bands until entertainment
events at the facility ceased in the late 1940's. The old
building, which was being used by a hardware store, was gutted
and transformed into a showplace of wood, brass, murals, and
fiber optics.
For over a century
the opera house as constructed by W.T. Thorn has stood. There are
many memories of this place stored within the minds of local residents
and many stories which have been told and retold. Now with the construction
of the newly designed Minden Opera House occurring at the turn of
a new century, well over 100 years after its beginning, new life has
been breathed into this historic structure. There are new happenings
about to occur and new stories waiting to be created.
The Kearney County
Community Foundation worked for several years on the planning and
completion of the project which was supported totally by grants and
donations and owns the 109 year old opera house. The Minden Opera
House Board was elected from organizations in the community to operate
the facility. Memorial Day weekend of 2000 marked the grand opening
of the beautiful "new" Minden Opera House.
The mural
on the ceiling of the opera house includes fiber-optic lighting
which gives the people below the mural, a stars-in-the-sky effect.
There are
four Kearney County people from history portrayed on the mural.
They are:
George
P. Kingsley,
a banker in Minden who was instrumental in bringing irrigation
to the area and for whom Kingsley Dam is named;