116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Time Machine: Cascade Opera House
Site became the public library
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“It’s a giant pigeon roost. It’s been there so long that people who pass it every day rarely see it,” according to a 1966 Gazette story about the vacant, derelict Cascade Opera House, a landmark in the small Iowa community that has territory in both Dubuque and Jones counties.
The first version of the opera house was built in 1892-93 as the Columbia Opera House. It was named for the 400th anniversary of what was then recognized as Christopher Columbus’ discovery of America.
Paul Becker Sr., a contractor and builder, built the opera house out of brick made locally by William Grogan. Grogan brick also was used the same year to build the Faber Hotel diagonally across the street.
The opera house was opened on the second floor of the building. The first floor housed D. A. English’s hardware store and the Herman & Dennis dry goods store.
Electricity hadn’t yet reached Cascade, so the building was lit by kerosene lamps. Stage lighting came from ceiling and footlight lamps.
Electricity came in 1895 when Cascade residents voted, 101 to 38, to grant a franchise to an electric light company to install a plant. The plant cost $7,000 to build. The town fully tested its new light system in July.
Churches used the building for their church fairs, and, in 1899, while St. Martin’s Church was being built, it was used for church services.
A bigger house
Cascade residents recognized the need for a bigger and better opera house in 1917.
The Cascade Opera House Co. was formed “for the purpose of providing and conducting a theatre in the city of Cascade,” the Dubuque Times-Journal reported in February. In March, a contract was let with J.B. Aitchison & Sons for $6,650. The price excluded the cost of steel and some other construction materials that had already been purchased earlier to avoid price increases.
With chairs, scenery and other equipment included, the total cost was estimated at $15,000 – a little over $400,000 in today’s dollars.
Most of Cascade’s citizens subscribed to stock in the new corporation. The new building also would be used as a community center.
The new opera house opened Aug. 31, 1917.
Patrons paid $3 per seat to watch the musical comedy “The Toymaker’s Dream.” John Ramm, a director of the opera house, said attendees arrived at the theater by carriage, dressed in their finest.
A few months later, it was the site of a rally to raise money for the war work fund for the YMCA, YWCA and War Camp Recreation Committee during World War I.
Many uses
The opera house was versatile. While it staged drama and musical productions, it also hosted local talent on its stage. Seats could be removed to hold dances. Orchestras came in from Dubuque and Oelwein for social events and costume balls.
It was cleared out for a roller-skating rink in later years, and a basketball team played there.
The opera house had some success as a movie house for a time, but interest waned with the advent of television.
Library in, then out
By 1966, the old building had been empty for many months. Old curtains flapped through broken windows. Town officials negotiated a deal with the building’s owner, Jim Becker, son of the opera house’s builder, to buy the building with the intention of demolishing it.
Demolition began in February 1967.
Cascade’s first public library, a one-story brick building that cost $62,000, opened on the First Avenue site in August 1968.
It was constructed using funds from under the federal Library Service and Construction Act of 1966, which covered half the cost. The city of Cascade covered the remaining cost from municipal light plant funds.
The library moved to a new facility on Second Avenue SW in March 2025, after 55 years at the First Avenue building.
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