WANTED!
If you have any pictures of the Opera House and how it played a role in the history of our little community I'd love to borrow them so I could scan them and put them on this site with your story.
If you're not familiar with the scanning process . . .it's simple, quick and does NO harm to the original!
THANK YOU!
Tim
Before the new Opera House
The original Kunz Hardware prior to 1895
About 1896
The Kunz Hardware and Opera House as it appeared just after completion around 1896. The road was unpaved and you can see the trees in front are a little smaller than in the 1905 picture. Enlargement of the sign attached to the telephone pole (2 old doors hooked to the pole) show that the picture was taken in November. On the Close-ups Page you can see in the windows. There are stoves, guns, chandeliers, dressers, canned goods on shelves, etc., a true "general" store!
About 1905
Note in this picture the porch on the front of the building and hitching posts. There was no paved road at this time and no vehicles other than horses and wagons. Note the lack of the fire escape on the side of the building, which was added later and is now again absent.
About 1915
The Opera House is in the background, by this time the side fire escape and door had been added and they were showing silent movies upstairs in addition to using it as a roller skating rink, holding local high school graduation ceremonies, community meetings and dances. It was also the American Legion Hall, as evidenced by the lettering still visible above the front windows inside. According to the titlework, the lower portion of the building was divided down the middle about this time and the US Post Office occupied the West side of the building from 1915-1935, while the East side held various businesses including farm implement sales, clothing and possibly a grocery at one time. Mr. Hirsh started a clothing store in the building about 1925 and bought it a few years later. The upstairs was eventually used as the central warehouse for all the Hirsch Clothing Stores throughout Southern Illinois. An elevator (hand-powered) was installed in the back of the store to haul goods upstairs and still remains, in good working order.
Mid-to-late 1950's
In this photo you can see that the fire escape was again missing and the original storefront had been remodeled to the current windows with black glass/ivory glass inlaid lettering with the P.N. Hirsch store name above the windows and brownish tan canvas awnings. The store front was remodeled about 1949 according to Mr. Nevins Ware, the manager for P.N. Hirsch back at that time. I think this picture was taken in the late 1950's or early 1960's and was taken when they used to close the square for the annual Pinckneyville Mardi Gras Halloween Parade. This was taken in the afternoon during the Children's Parade, the main parade took place later,. after dark, with lighted floats, bands from surrounding communities and hundreds of costumed marchers. This is a tradition that continues each year on the Saturday night just before Halloween and serves as a homecoming celebration for our community, although it no longer starts on the square or closes the main highways through town as it used to.
March 11, 2003
This is how the building looked when I initially got it, windows boarded up and home to about 500 pigeons due to gaps in the plywood and the access door onto the roof being left wide open for several years. The white notices placed on the lower boarded up windows were condemnation notices placed by the City of Pinckneyville. At the time the building was the home of hundreds of pigeons and in terrible condition, the roof in the rear of the building had collapsed and there were numerous areas where the roof was leaking as well. Laying on the sidewalk in front of the building are flashing warning lights on caution board easels to keep people from using the sidewalk in front of the building. The pigeon droppings were NASTY!!!
May 15, 2008
Looking a little better. We just completed tuckpointing the exterior and part of the brick repairs on the interior of the building. The windows are back in the upstairs and the roof no longer leaks. The next step will be to finish securing the exterior of the building and protecting the interior from the elements as much as possible in a nonheated or air conditioned building by redoing the guttering and then putting the windows back in the lower storefront. The plan is to reconstruct the lower section to look as it did originally as closely as possible. As you can see when comparing the picture here to the 1896 picture, the chimneys on the top west side of the building and the upper west wall parapet are no longer there. Due to water leaks the mortar disintegrated and the top portion of the wall and chimneys fell and had to be rebuilt in the early 1980's. In this picture the discoloration on the mid-portion of the wall is the area that had just been ground out for tuckpointing that day. You can see the scaffold on the sidewalk the tuckpointers were using.
One Idea for Restoration of the Lower Storefront
Here's one idea I had for restoration of the lower windows but at this point the final plan is still undetermined. I have purchased 2 matched sets of original vintage double doors for both front entrances. The original doors (one set is still upstairs on the balcony area) measured a little over 9'5" tall and the replacement sets are the same!