The Waycott Opera House

One of our lovely, frontier era buildings in Old Colorado City, on our city's west side. I've always known this one as the "Meadow Muffins Building" (because of a popular bar by the same name that has been there for as long as I can remember -- now it's called Mother Muffs), but I learned tonight that its official name is the Waycott Opera House or Mack's Opera House. Although downtown lost quite a few gems in the 1970s thanks to an ill-conceived and regrettable "revitalization," Old Colorado City has retained a high percentage of its historic commercial buildings. I appreciate that. I've never noticed the "Mack's Ice Cream and Candy" sign painted on the side of this one. How could I have missed it all these years? Googling those words brought me to THIS site. Scroll down to the section on Colorado City, what Old Colorado City was called before it was annexed by Colorado Springs in 1917. (FYI: that's not the original name, though; founded by Anthony Bott in 1859,  Colorado City was actually called El Dorado at first.) The site explains that the Waycott Opera House was built in 1901, and other than the opera on the second floor, its spaces served a number of different purposes over its first few years. At some point, Mack's Ice Cream and Candy was in the basement and a vaudeville theater was on the first floor. The third floor was a dance hall early on, and later held meeting spaces for various fraternal organizations. Fascinating! I've actually gone to private parties and shows on the second floor, when my friend Eric lived in a loft there over a decade ago. I never knew its original purpose. You learn something new every day!