The Galesburg Opera House
By Barbara Schock
In his
autobiography, Always the Young Strangers, Carl
Sandburg writes of the fire which destroyed the
Opera House at the corner of Prairie and Main
Streets. He was almost 9 years old at the time. He
describes how the stage and curtains burned. He
remembered seeing “Hamlet” performed there as well
as the Kickapoo Indians who sold patent medicines.
He had also seen a diorama of the Battle of
Gettysburg, one of the most dramatic battles of
the Civil War.
The next day, young Sandburg returned to the site
of the fire which was still smoldering. In his
imagination he could see the stage, the orchestra
pit and the balcony where he had sat so many
times. It was all thin air with the smell of the
fire rising above it.
There is a small problem with the story. The Opera
House fire occurred on December 30, 1886, but it
was the Galesburg Opera House erected by Charles
Brechwald in 1870. The building stood on the south
side of the Public Square near the east corner.
Charles Brechwald was born in Germany on December
31, 1829, to Michael and Margaret Brechwald. In
1853, he emigrated to Cook County, Illinois, where
he worked on a farm for about a year. For the next
eight years he worked for the Chicago, Burlington
and Quincy Railroad Company supervising the use of
steam machinery for cutting wood. In 1854, he
married Barbara Walz whom he had met while living
in Cook County. They had seven children, of whom
five survived to adulthood.
In 1863 Brechwald established a wholesale liquor
dealership in Galesburg and it became one of the
largest in West Central Illinois. With two
partners, he erected a three-story building on the
Public Square. The first floor housed several
saloons. On the second floor were offices for
various attorneys and a jury room. A large meeting
room was located on the third floor.
After members of the County Board succeeded in
moving the County Seat to Galesburg from
Knoxville, Circuit Court sessions were held on the
third floor of the Brechwald building. The theater
curtain served as a backdrop for the legal
proceedings. County records were also stored in
the building. When theatrical productions were
slated for the facility, the courtroom furniture
was removed and chairs were brought in for the
audience.
The Knox County Courthouse was completed in the
fall of 1886 and occupied shortly after the first
of the new year. It contained commodious
courtrooms for legal proceedings. There was also
space for county offices and records.
Charles Brechwald died of spinal sclerosis at his
home on January 13, 1884. His sons, Fred and Nick,
continued with the wholesale liquor business and
the opera house. It was refurnished and repainted
in 1885.
The Brechwald Opera House promoted a variety of
entertainments. The Knox College Archives holds
several programs from the 1880s which describe
classical music programs, fund-raisers for the
Galesburg Hospital and an evening of entertainment
for Post 45, Grand Army of the Republic, an
organization of Civil War veterans who had served
in the Union Army.
After the fire, efforts were made to erect another
opera house on the property, but were
unsuccessful. Several of the walls were used to
build a two-story building which provided space
for businesses and offices. Four years later, the
Auditorium Theater on the southeast corner of
Broad and Ferris Streets was erected and opened in
November, 1890, by another group of liquor
dealers. It was named after the Auditorium Theater
which had recently opened in Chicago. The
Galesburg theater closed in 1925.
During the 19th century in the Midwest, opera
house was a common term for any large space with a
stage. Galesburg was fortunate to have several
halls, some of which seated as many as a thousand
people. The competition was fierce in those days
before the introduction of movies, radio and
television.
The stories of the other opera houses in Galesburg
will appear in the future as research is
completed.
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| Date | Title |
| April 14, 2013 | The Galesburg Opera House |
| April 8, 2013 | Grocery Stores and Sample Rooms |
| April 1, 2013 | A Hearty Breakfast |
| March 25, 2013 | The Lost Wallpaper Legend |
| March 18, 2013 | Martin G. Sandburg |
| March 4, 2013 | The Edison Talking Machine |
| February 25, 2013 | Joe Elser, Civil War Veteran |
| February 18, 2013 | Remember the Maine... |
| February 11, 2013 | Lincoln's Birthday |
| February 4, 2013 | Curiosity |