Page 70 - Demo

68Saving the Opera HouseWhen Lynn Corson called to order a few of our Studio Indiana books, he mentioned an old building that we might like to photograph. It contained a third-floor opera house in the Carroll County community of Delphi. He said it was a space that had been unused for nearly 100 years. It sounded intriguing, so John and I made plans to visit.When we parked our car in front of the threestory, Italianate edifice, Anita Werling, President of the Delphi Preservation Society, was already waiting for us. After introducing herself, she explained that the Society had owned two-thirds of the large building in front of us for several years, and had recently been able to purchase the remaining third. She then described the exterior restoration work that was already underway. They were getting rid of all the inappropriate remodeling that had been added over the years, installing new wood dentil trim, and they had a crew busy scraping and painting the upper windows.However, Anita added, there was much more to be done%u2014and some of it was structural. Several sagging scissor roof trusses had to be lifted and reinforced, and the roof itself needed replacing. She went on to explain how the front fa%u00e7ade would look like it did in the early 1900s. %u201cWe can%u2019t go back to how it appeared when it was built in the 1860s. Too much has happened to the building for that.%u201dAnita then opened a nondescript door. In the dim light, we saw an intimidating flight of wide, very steep, wooden stairs, leading upwards. %u201cCan you imagine ladies in high-button shoes and long dresses ascending these?%u201d she mused. I couldn%u2019t%u2014it was difficult enough for me in jeans and sneakers. Anita said that, years ago, this opera house was closed for good because, after a fire damaged a nearby opera house, the local Fire Marshall feared these stairs would make for a poor fire escape.When we reached the second-floor landing, we stopped in front of a pair of tall, blackenedwith-age, moss-green doors. Anita unlatched one, swung it open, and we climbed another set of stairs, more narrow than the others, in darker Delphi Opera House (Steps at rear of tiers.), Delphi%u2014Carroll Co. (788.02)