Metropolitan Opera House
515 Washington Avenue,
Iowa Falls,
IA
50126
515 Washington Avenue,
Iowa Falls,
IA
50126
1 person
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1902 Sanborn calls this the Metropolitan Opera House, but 1911 and later show it as the Metropolitan Theatre. If Fridley had anything to do with that name, it was a renaming after many years as the Met.
Was renamed the ‘Met’ by around 1944, when the lobby was redone, and a new marquee added. That still existed when the building was listed in 1975.
Typo in the listing, ‘Hose’. The ‘in recent years’ is a bit vague and confusing, and no longer accurate. Seems to have maybe taken place in the 1990s? The history on the theater website is not terribly clear.
Early 1900s photo added via the I grew up in Hardin County, Iowa Facebook page.
The Mertropolitan Opera House has been independently operated since 2013. It is no longer operated by Fridley Theatres. They now go by The Metropolitan Opera House. Theyt show first run attractions. Website
This appears to be the correct spelling of the name of one of the architects of this theater: Didrik A. Omeyer. Somehow the NRHP document slipped an inapposite apostrophe into his surname. He was apparently of Norwegian ancestry, not Irish, and so was his partner Martin P. Thori. Their firm was located in St. Paul, Minnesota.
The additional information notes style is Italian Renaissance.
Some additional photos here:
http://tinyurl.com/4dm2df
There is a small photo of the Met on this site:
http://tinyurl.com/4qp59w