Grayson County TXGenWeb

The Opera House
Sherman, Texas

ca 1900

The Opera House was built by the Masonic Lodge in 1880. The Masons used the third floor and leased the auditorium and second floor to the Sherman Opera Company.

The Sherman Courier
Wednesday, August 15, 1917
Fiftieth Anniversary Edition
pg. 2

The Birth of the Sherman Opera House
(From The Daily Courier of Thursday, January 25, 1882)

We learn that the directors of the Masonic Temple will have a meeting in a few days, at which time they will fix upon a time for their next regular meeting for the purpose of arranging for another meeting. And while they are meeting, the grand structure their enterprise has reared, which rises in our midst like a financial embarassment in a dull season, is liable to get inoculated with the dry rot. It takes money, we know, to build opera houses, but we have often been led to believe that they would have no difficulty in selling their bonds when their stock was paid up. Now that has been paid out some months ago but the work has stopped. In the meantime the public are suffering for the theatre. The young people want to see those representations on the stage which make a couple sit closer together; the old bald heads are just crazy for a peep at the flesh colored tights, the newspapers want their advertising bills, the reporters want their "comps" and the town cow needs some colored posters for an appetizer. Finish it up, gentlemen, finish it up.

It was built on the northwest corner of Travis and Pecan Streets which was the former site of the Union Church. The Opera House was the pivot of culture and entertainment before the turn of the century. Events included melodramas, reviews, animal shows, Shakespearian Theater, temperance lectures, church revivals and acrobatic performances.

The building later housed the Mahan' Business College, Timberman's Service Station and other businesses. The building was later remodeled with the third floor removed and the building became the home of Atherton's Music Company.