AFTER 98 YEARS, OPERA HOUSE GETTING FACELIFT

Leadville’s Tabor Opera House hasn’t seen a major renovation since 1902 — about 23 years after it first opened in North America’s highest incorporated city. But thanks to historic designations and millions in public-private money, it’s about to get a new face (and brain, so to speak).

Scaffolding went up this week on the damaged south and west exterior walls, according to a publicist for the building, and workers are preparing to fix crumbling bricks and leaking windows. Built in 1879 by Colorado mining magnate Horace Tabor, the structure suffered decades of deferred maintenance before the building’s Preservation Foundation and the city of Leadville raised nearly $1.5 million to kickstart the process.

The larger rehabilitation is expected to take years, however, and the planned, late-summer

2021 reopening is just the first phase in a $10 million plan to bring the venue back to its former glory. Backers envision community and rental space, a modernized stage and theater, and retail space in two street-level storefronts.

But first, funds must be raised to ensure future renovations are possible, organizers said, and that process will continue. National campaigns, governmental agencies such as the Colorado State Historical Fund, and federal Park Service dollars will also be used in the effort.

The money is newly crucial, given that Tabor boosters canceled the opera house’s 2020 summer season due to the coronavirus pandemic. Visit taboroperahouse.net for updates or to donate.