Brooks Opera House

Built in 1899 as an adjunct to the Royal Hotel, the Brooks Opera House was praised in its day as the finest theater in the Southwest. It presented popular entertainments and was also the setting for many dazzling first nights for territorial society. During its golden years, it hosted the opening session of the Oklahoma Constitutional Convention and an address by William Jennings Bryan during a campaign tour. Lon Chaney, later famed as a motion picture actor, began his career there as a stagehand. In later years, the Brooks became the Avon motion picture theater before it was razed in 1967.

Guthrie, Oklahoma · United States