Restoration of South Dakota opera house making strides

After the show started, when it was dark, he would go to the balcony and open the exit door, and a half-dozen of us would scramble up the fire escape and go sit in the dark theater until the show was done.

With its opulent theater, swimming pool, bowling alley and billiard room, the Homestake Opera House quickly became a fixture in the mining town after philanthropist Phoebe Hearst gifted it to the Black Hills community in August 1914.

More than $3 million has been invested in the fabled structure since the conflagration that took its roof and charred an ornate interior that featured gold-leaf, plaster corbels and an angel-topped proscenium.

While a 2013 assessment by TSP Inc., a Rapid City-based architectural and design firm, pegged costs of restoring the theater's stage area at $8 million, Homestake Opera House supporters have been content to tackle the massive project one wall at a time.

Funded through an anonymous $10,000 donation in honor of the late Jim and Betty Dunn, longtime Homestake supporters and community activists, and a matching grant from Deadwood Historic Preservation, the project has restored a 30-by-10-foot wall near the stage.

For Caserio, who spent a lifetime in Lead and long ago created lasting memories sneaking into the Homestake theater with his buddies for Saturday morning shows, the transformation of the opera house has been nothing short of remarkable.