The Tabor Opera House is the three-story brick theater that silver king Horace Tabor built on Harrison Avenue in Leadville in 1879, in just 100 days. More than 145 years later it is still the cultural heart of North America’s highest incorporated city, with live shows, films and guided tours through a stage once graced by Oscar Wilde and John Philip Sousa.

Leadville was one of the West’s rowdiest silver boomtowns when Tabor, who went on to become the town’s first mayor, raised his opera house of stone, brick and iron at 308 Harrison Avenue. It opened on Nov. 20, 1879, and quickly drew the biggest names on the circuit. Oscar Wilde lectured here, John Philip Sousa performed, Buffalo Bill took the stage and a circus once marched live tigers past the curtains. Local legend says the trap door at center stage was cut for Harry Houdini, though any proof of his visit has, fittingly, vanished. After the silver crash of 1893, Tabor had to sell the building. It later served as the Elks Opera House, and Leadville resident Evelyn Furman, who bought it in 1955, opened it for tours and performances until her death in 2011. The City of Leadville bought it in 2016, and the nonprofit Tabor Opera House Preservation Foundation is now restoring it. The National Trust for Historic Preservation has named it a National Treasure.

Inside, you can sit in the theater’s original red velvet Andrews opera chairs, look up at the balcony and peek into the Tabor Suites and the refreshed Tabor Second Story Museum. In 2020, a historic stage scenery expert exploring the upstairs found hand-painted curtains and drops dating as far back as 1879, which the Tabor calls the largest collection of historic stage scenery in North America. A few pieces are displayed on stage. Public guided tours run from late May to mid-October, Friday through Sunday, and take you through the museum, into the theater, onto the stage and down to the dressing rooms. Private tours are available by appointment. The rest of the year, the best way inside is to catch a show: the Tabor hosts live music, theater, community events and films, and its Tabor Youth Collective offers young people workshops, free films and show tickets.

See what’s playing and buy tickets on the Tabor Opera House events page. This week the Tabor stages The Addams Family musical Oct. 22 through 24, 2026, followed by a screening of Beetlejuice (1988) on Friday, Oct. 30, at 7 p.m. and The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) on Sunday, Nov. 1, at 3:30 p.m.