104.) Beede would later be active managing other theatres in Seattle, such as Beede's Madison Park Theatre, and the Orpheum Theatre in Denver, CO (1899).įrye's choice of French Second Empire styling, considered some of the most fashionable and sophisticated of the time, underscored the opera house's cultural importance. (See Seattle, Washington, City Directory, 1884, p.

Beede was Frye's lessee, booking entertainment for the opera house. Built of brick faced with stucco, the facades were detailed in an typical Victorian grid pattern, while the fourth floor featured an elaborate mansard roof-a design the Post-Intelligencer described as 'French street architecture.' At a cost of about $125,000, this was the most expensive building constructed in the city at the time.' (See Jeffrey Karl Ochsner and Dennis Alan Andersen, Distant Corner, Seattle Architects and the Legacy of H.H. The theater, which seat more than one thousand, occupied half the site, with its entrance facing Marion. The Frye Opera House-completed in the Second Empire Style-opened in late November or early December 1884, but according to Ochsner and Andersen, in their book, Distant Corner, 'the building was not fully completed until the next year.' They described it as follows: 'Measuring 120 feet square, the building included stores facing Front Street, with three floors of offices above. He also operated the Seattle Pharmacy.īy 1884, he had saved enough money to open a first-class theatre, commissioning Irish-born architect John Nestor (1836-1912) to design the Frye Opera House on the northeast corner of Front Street (later renamed 1st Avenue) and Marion Street. Frye collaborated with Henry Yesler (1810-1892) and Arthur Denny (1822-1899) to build the first sawmill to produce lumber for local use and export and also partnered on an early grist mill. Like most of the pioneers, he stayed vocationally flexible, performing several jobs to make money. German-born George Frederick Frye (1833-1912), migrated to Seattle, WA in 1853, two years after the Yesler Party brought the first cluster of white settlers to Puget Sound. John Nestor, its architect, designed the performing arts space in the then fashionable Second Empire Style. It contained shops with the street addresses of 900, 902, 904, 906 and 908 Front Street in 1888.īuilt in 1883-1884, the short-lived Frye Opera House occupied an early place in Seattle's cultural development, providing a venue for high culture in a rough-and-tumble lumber town.

(See Seattle, Washington, City Directory, 1887, p. The Frye Opera House stood on the northeast corner of Front Street (later renamed 1st Avenue) and Marion Street.

History of the opera house