Home | John Cooper on Oscar Wilde © 2026

Lecture Tour of America 1882

Writing and Research on Oscar Wilde

Aurora

Illinois


Coulter Opera House

Friday, March 3, 1882


The Decorative Arts

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Verification

Newspaper report

Chicago Tribune, March 5, 1882, 5

Venue

Coulter Opera House

Broadway and Downer Place, Aurora, IL


Opened: October 1874

Named for: John R. Coulter, Sr., stockholder

Closed as a theatre: 1890

Building extant: became a bank, latterly Merchants Bank and Fifth Third Bank, but the property is now Coulter Court Residences (affordable housing)


Image: Google Streetview

Accommodation

No record is currently available as to whether Wilde stayed overnight in Aurora, but it is entirely possible he traveled on by train the 50 miles to Chicago, which was his base for this midwest leg of the tour. 


He was certainly in Chicago on the following afternoon prior to traveling up to Racine, WI, for an evening lecture.


John Cooper on Oscar Wilde © 2026