Goff's Opera House (Goff's Dramatic Hall) 730 West Center Street Midvale, Utah 84047 (1891 - After 1918) |
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.[2]
Polk’s Utah Gazetteer listed Goff’s Dramatic Hall as being in West Jordan in 1903, with Hyrum Goff as manager. [3] By 1918, West Jordan had come to known by its present name of Midvale and the theater was known as Goff’s Opera House.[4]
The theater was 34 feet wide, according to the 1911 Sanborn fire insurance map, with a stage, scenery, and a 16-foot high ceiling.[5]
1. “Isaac Goff”, familysearch.org, retrieved June 2014
2. "[Entertainment at Goff's Dramatic Hall]", Salt Lake Tribune, 26 February 1899, page 9
3. Polk’s Utah Gazetteer and Business Directory, 1903-1904
4. Polk’s Utah Gazetteer and Business Directory, 1918-1919
5. “Midvale, 1911: Sheet 04”, J. Willard Marriott Library, retrieved June 2014