Opera Block

Joe Vogel on June 27, 2016 at 4:46 am

Aune and Overby were not architects. They owned and operated the theater, along with a saloon. According to a survey of Washburn’s historic resources, the architect of the 1888 rebuild of the Opera House Block was W. H. Webster, of the Ashland, Wisconsin firm of Webster & Dodge. The rebuilding was done in the popular Romanesque Revival style.

The theater was listed in the 1912-1913 Cahn guide as the Washburn Opera House. The ground floor of the building is still standing, though altered, but the second floor, which contained the Opera House, has been entirely obliterated. The truncated building is at the southeast corner of E. Bayfield St. and 1st Ave. E..