1905: Neepawa's Opera House burns, is rebuilt and collpases !
1/11/2011 at 11:34 PM
1905 was not a good year for opera lovers in Neepawa.
On Jan 12 1905 the Jubilee Block burned to the ground. In all 8 businesses were lost but most important to the town would have been the Bell telephone exchange and the Neepawa Opera House on the top floor. (The opera house did multiple duty as a regional theatre and auditorium).
By summer 1905 construction was well underway on a stand-alone hall at the same location. In October, before it opened thankfully, the exterior walls collapsed ! The Free Press reported that it "... now presents a scene more depressing than was left by the fire, which destroyed the structure on the same site last January". (Oct 20, 1905).
Poor archtiecture was to blame and construction had to start again.
It was not until March 1906 that I can find the first record of a gathering at the new Neepawa Opera House,(a large evangelical church meeting).
How did THAT opera house stand up ? Very well, indeed. In fact, around 1932 it was rechristened the Roxy Theatre and is still in use to this day !
My post at has links to photos, newspaper clippings etc. for this story.
http://thiswaswinnipeg.blogspot.com/2011/01/jan-12-neepawas-opera-house-burns-falls.html