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Lecture Tour of America 1882

Writing and Research on Oscar Wilde

Des Moines

Iowa


(Moore's) Opera House

Wednesday, April 26, 1882


The Decorative Arts

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Verification

Newspaper report

The Centerville Times, May 2, 1882


Newspaper article

The Iowa State Register, April 27, 1882


"THE WORLD WONDER WILDE,


visited this aesthetic city yesterday, and lectured last evening at the Opera House."


Source: 

No newspaper clipping available yet. Reference to the primary source comes The Palimpsest, Volume XVIII, No. 6: June, 1937, published by State Historical Society of Iowa, Des Moines, IA, 1937 (Briggs, John Ely, editor).

Venue

(Moore's) Opera House

Walnut and Fourth Streets, Des Moines, IA


Built as: "Moore's Hall," a three-story brick building, the first exclusive amusement hall in the city (W.W. "Billy" Moore) 

Enlarged: 1873

Dedicated: February 5, 1874

Seating capacity: 1400

Ceased operating: probably later in the 1880s when other opera houses were built, and it became a museum and vaudeville show known as "Wonderland." Structure extant at least until 1904

Accommodation

Aborn House

Court Avenue, at Fourth Street, Des Moines, IA


Built: 1871-73

Opened: c. May 10, 1873

Destroyed (fire): September 21-22, 1994


"An 'aesthetic' newspaper representative visited the British (sic) peculiarity at his rooms in the Aborn House"

The Iowa State Register, April 27, 1882


John Cooper on Oscar Wilde © 2026