Bastrop Opera House
Bastrop, Bastrop County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The Bastrop Opera House was constructed in 1889 by D. S. Green and P. O. Elzner. Elzner, a prominent local merchant, became sole owner in 1901. Over the years, it has been the scene of a variety of entertainment shows. Traveling opera and drama companies, musicians, and other artists have performed here. The Bastrop Opera House, which features a three-part facade with bays separated by pilasters, also has been the setting for graduation exercises and school proms. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1984
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Built in 1889 by D. S. Green and P. O. Elzner, the Bastrop Opera House brought traveling drama and opera troupes, musicians, and other performers to a small Central Texas town hungry for entertainment. Its three-part facade with pilastered bays marked it as a place of occasion, and over the years it hosted not just shows but graduations and school proms. The merchant Elzner became its sole owner in 1901.
Why it matters
Small-town opera houses were the cultural heart of Gilded Age America, where communities gathered for everything from grand performances to milestones of ordinary life.
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Related people
- · D. S. Green
- · P. O. Elzner
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
First National Bank of Bastrop
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Before there were banks in Bastrop County, people left their money for safekeeping with mercantile firms — until March 1889, when local men organized the Bank of Bastrop County, which became a national bank that August. Its present 1950 building stands on ground once occupied by the 1860s law office of George W. Jones and J.D. Sayers, each of whom served Texas as lieutenant governor and congressman, with Sayers also governor from 1899 to 1903. The noted trading store of John Swan Johnson stood here as well.
The Bastrop Advertiser
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After Bastrop's short-lived Colorado Reveille folded in mid-1852, young Mississippi printer William J. Cain bought its press and launched the Bastrop Advertiser as a weekly from a Main Street shop in March 1853. The paper stayed in the Cain family for generations — passing from William to his brother Thomas and then to Thomas's son — before its 1920 sale to the Smith family of Elgin. Apart from an interruption during the Civil War, it has served Bastrop continuously ever since.
Kesselus Building
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William Kesselus, a German immigrant, arrived in Bastrop in 1853 and set up as a tailor. In 1891 this building replaced his earlier frame shop, and his son Will carried on the business until 1919. It later held a succession of mercantile stores and stands as a marker of German influence in Bastrop.
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