After 108 years, theatrical performances have finally returned to the Burwell Opera House. The Gibson City Restoration Association (GCRA) held walking tours of the Burwell Opera House this past weekend in conjunction with the town-wide Harvest Fest. The walking tours consisted of a 30-minute tour through the upstairs Opera House, where members of the Association pointed out architectural features of the opera hall and recently uncovered treasures discovered during clean up. During the tours, actors portrayed individuals who were important to the history of the building.
Some of the recently uncovered treasures include stained glass windows hidden by a false ceiling. As Nicole Curtis would say " Why in the hell would you cover that up?" It's so beautiful. We'll get better pictures as we continue demo, but these windows are in pretty bad shape and will need some major restoration work. Luckily, one of our tourists gave us the name of a stained glass restoration expert. Thank you! We appreciate everyone being as excited about this project as we are!
Also uncovered was not one but two keys to doors within the building. They were found above the door frames, of all places! Now, has anyone seen the doorknobs? People take the weirdest things...we only have 2 remaining doors upstairs, despite having about 10-12 doorways. Several of them were large pocket doors - which just hurts my heart that they are gone!
But, back to the historical reenactments...
Two separate reenactments were held as part of the walking tour. Rylie Cline and Kale Bauer, GCMS high school students, portrayed Isabella and Moses Burwell, respectively. Their reenactment consisted of a conversation the couple might have had as Moses went about re-building the Burwell Building in 1883 following a devastating fire that destroyed most of the East side of the block. They portrayed how Moses' wife, Isabella, persuaded him to bring some 'culture' to Gibson City by making the second floor an Opera House. Cline and Bauer's performance was held in the old Grand Hall. The script for Cline and Bauer's reenactment was written by Bauer and was absolutely fabulous (if you ask me, which no one did, but this is my blog, so I'm gonna tell you anyway).
The second historical renactment was held in the Southwest room that was once home to Arther and Esther Wachs (pronounced WAX) who owned and operated Wachs Variety Store on the first floor from 1942-1958. Ellen Hankes, a strong supporter of the GCRA restoration efforts, portrayed Esther Sandburg Wachs, sister of the Pulitzer Prize winning poet and author, Carl Sandburg. Hankes spoke of the difficult life that Esther had growing up and how she might have felt lonely and sad moving to Gibson City, away from her family and friends. And, how the life of running a variety store might not have been the life she imagined for herself while attending Lombard College in Galesburg, IL where she studied music.
To see a photo of Esther and her brother Carl, see this link: https://digital.library.illinois.edu/items/ff48c7b0-5da8-0134-1dcc-0050569601ca-1#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&r=0&xywh=-3315%2C-335%2C11471%2C6672 . I would include the picture here, but this researcher has not gotten permission to republish it and the last thing I need is a copyright lawsuit. Am I right!?
It was interesting to the tour guides, and even Ellen herself, that while she was performing her reenactment, the battery-operated stage lighting would often flicker and change colors. Perhaps Esther was sending us a message that she approved of our portrayal of her and her life? Or perhaps, it was simply a glitch in the lighting? We shall never know...however, it is interesting to note that the same lighting brought into the Grand Hall had no such glitches at all.
The Gibson City Restoration Association purchased the Burwell Building back in June and has been holding fundraising activities to raise money to help fund the restoration, as well as, to share the history of this wonderful and iconic structure which is so important to Gibson City's history. To support our efforts or to learn more about our efforts, click the QR code below to subscribe to our website.
Huge thank you goes out to Kale Bauer, Rylie Cline, and Ellen Hankes. These wonderful people donated their time and talents to help us with these tours. They acted in warm conditions (at least there was a breeze coming in from the south windows) over the span of two days. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more exciting restoration details.
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