By Ted Tyson
Beginning in June 1879, George Crowey and Ellen Hogan commenced designing a new opera house with architect Ira Gilchrist and contractor John Cox. In association with Joseph and Samuel Cather Newsom, they worked out their dream in what was then Napa’s Hotel District. By October 1879, plans were becoming a reality. The roof was under construction on the 29th of that month, and there the workers had a ring side seat to the first travail to beset the Opera House. Two of Crowey’s sons, John and William, got into a fight with August Ruesch, the cook at the William Tell Hotel. George tried to break it up. Crowey and his sons were tried for murder when Ruesch died from injuries received in the pummeling. G.W. and William were acquitted while John was found guilty of murder and sentenced to San Quentin.
![OPERA_RussianRiverFlag_01-22-1880](https://napahistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/OPERA_RussianRiverFlag_01-22-1880.jpg)
The Opera House was competed about a month late and was celebrated with a grand ball sponsored by the Unity Club on January 9, 1880. Unfortunately, Ira Gilchrist, its architect, fell from a ladder December 18, 1879, and died one week after the opening. On February 13, 1880, the first play, Gilbert and Sullivan’s H.M.S. Pinafore was performed by the Standard Theatre and the San Francisco Orchestra. The same troupe also did Trial by Jury the following night.
World War I called the Opera House into service once again. It was used as an armory for the local guard. That renaissance was brief, however, and it was abandoned again after the war. All the seats, curtains, chandelier, and other original fixtures had long disappeared.
In the 2010s, the Opera House brought on City Winery as a way to save the building and the program. Their plan to use the lower floor as a restaurant and the theatre as restaurant and bar with a ten year lease seemed a sure bet. Yet after only a few years, City Winery departed, leaving their extensive interior modifications behind. Blue Note Jazz Club is scheduled to reopen the opera house in summer 2016.
Bibliography
Napa Valley Register: The Grand Old Lady By Rebecca Yerger July 30, 2003
Napa Valley Opera Centennial : News Release from the Napa Opera Preservation and Restoration Association January 7, 1980 Contact: John Whitridge
Crowey’s Opera House Diane Rowland A paper for Drama 150( Mr. Robert Sarlos) Ms. Rowland relied heavily on a 1948 Napa Journal Article by Virginia Hanrahan.