Our Past Is Present April 17, 2018

April 17, 2018

            On Tuesdays, we bring you stories about the history of the C.L. Hoover Opera House, which is located at the corner of Seventh and Jefferson Streets in Junction City.  Today’s story comes from a Daily Union newspaper article dated October 8, 1904.  The article is about a matinee performance given on Friday, October 7, 1904. The story line was “Grand Concert By Sousa’s Band – Music that Will Long Be Remembered By A Big Audience."

            Here is what was in the article:  John Phillips “Sousa gave a matinee concert in the Opera House Friday afternoon that will long be remembered by all who heard it.  There was not a vacant seat in the house. The program opened with the overture to “William Tell”.  The second movement, which was the storm scene, was taken at a tempo, which was simply hair-raising.  Mr. Herbert Clarke then followed with a cornet solo in waltz tempo.  It was a composition he had written and was well received. 

            The suite was Sousaesque from beginning to end and had the marked rhythm peculiar to all of Sousa’s compositions.  The last number on the program was undoubtedly, the vocal solos by Miss Estelle Liebling, which shows a rarely trained voice of wide compass and remarkable sweetness.” This concludes the article from 1904.

It was also interesting to read in that same newspaper that on the same date, but in the evening, there was a formal opening of the city’s new high school building with a reception.  The reception was provided by the school board for the school’s patrons, students and faculty.  That building is where the Geary County Museum is today – at the corner of Sixth and Adams Streets. Our Museum was the city’s “new high school” referred to in the Daily Union publication of October 8, 1904. 

            Join us for “Our Past Is Present” from the Geary County Historical Society on the blog each weekday.