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Goff's Opera House (Goff's Opera House, Goff's Dramatic Hall) 730 West Center Street Midvale, Utah 84047 |
Goff’s Opera House occupied the second floor of the Goff Mercantile and was reached by an enclosed, external staircase. The mercantile opened in 1891, replacing a store built in 1872 by Hyrum’s father, Isaac, and his mother-in-law, Clarissa Arnold. The first floor was converted into a mortuary in 1915 and the building was extensively remodeled in 1954. A new mortuary was built in 1954 at 8090 South State Street.[1]
An evening of entertainment at Goff's Dramatic Hall in 1899, presented by the Lafayette Memorial committee, was attended by an audience of about 400.[5]
Polk’s Utah Gazetteer listed Goff’s Dramatic Hall as being in West Jordan in 1903, with Hyrum Goff as manager.[2] By 1918, West Jordan had come to known by its present name of Midvale and the theater was known as Goff’s Opera House.[3]
The theater was 34 feet wide, according to the 1911 Sanborn fire insurance map, with a stage, scenery, and a 16-foot high ceiling.[4]
1. “Isaac Goff”, familysearch.org, retrieved June 2014
2. Polk's Utah Gazetteer and Business Directory, 1903-1904
3. Polk's Utah Gazetteer and Business Directory, 1918-1919
4. “Midvale, 1911: Sheet 04”, J. Willard Marriott Library, retrieved June 2014
5. "Entertainment at Goff's Dramatic Hall", 26 February 1899, Salt Lake Tribune, page 9