By Sheila and Joe Markley
These letters came from the marquee of the Colonial Theater, now the C.L. Hoover Opera House. For many people this is the look and memory they have of the building. That all went away, when the Opera house was restored to its 1898 look in the renovation of 2008.
Now there is another building at 131 West 7th Street being added to the Opera House complex to create more rehearsal and meeting rooms to accommodate their growing youth education programs, in addition to other improvements.
One of the new rehearsal rooms has been designated as the Colonial Room. The plan was to refurbish the old Colonial Theatre marquee letters, relit and hung in that new room.
In the original marquee there were two sets of Colonial letters. The red letters were outlined in white neon tubing. The Opera House owned one full set of the letters, minus the glass neon tubing.
During the COVID lockdown the basement was cleaned and organized which is where the Colonial letters were stored, but there was a surprise....the "C" was missing. Email messages and Facebook messages were sent out explaining the mystery.
Extension agent Chuck Otte answered after his wife, Jaye, alerted him to the search. Chuck had a "C" and "O" that still had the neon intact and were from the second set of letters.
Otte had purchased the two letters at a fundraising auction for the Opera House renovation approximately 30 years ago. He donated both letters back to the Opera House.
Latter, Heather Hagedorn, Geary County Historical Society Director, informed Opera House officials that the Museum had the missing C. Two years ago the Museum requested the loan of that "C" for their Alphabetical History Exhibit.
In memory of the Colonial Theater one rehearsal / even space in the second story of the new building will be named the Colonial Room. Officials hope to display the refurbished letters on the wall in that room as an architectural tribute to the history of the Opera House.