THE SWEDISH METHODIST CHURCH
Was organized in 1880 by Rev. C. S. Carlander. The church building is located on Myrtle and Fourth streets, and cost $2,000.
THE YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION
Has a membership of seventy-five and a frame building erected in 1872 at a cost of $1,200.
PUBLIC BUILDINGS.
The court house and other public buildings of the city are creditable specimens of architecture, rooms convenient and well adapted to the purposes of their construction. The present court house building is the third erected. Its cost, including that of the jail buildings, the wall around them and other improvements, has been something over $75,000. The city hall, at the corner of Myrtle and Third streets, is a substantial and convenient building. It contains also room for the city officers. The public school buildings have kept pace with the growth of the city. In the summer of 1887 the city erected a high school building at a cost of $60,000. The engine house is a good building, centrally located. An elegant union depot was built in 1887, of brown stone from the Apostle islands, at a cost of $30,000.
The Opera House.—The opera house occupies the site of the old Lake House, on Main street between Nelson and Chestnut streets. It was commenced in 1880 and finished in 1881, under the supervision of L. W. Eldred, architect. Its size is 90×120 feet, ground plan, and four stories in height, or seventy-one feet from lower floor to cornice. The style of architecture is a blending of the Queen Anne, Victoria and Gothic. The entrance to the upper part of the building is by a stairway twelve feet wide, in a lofty, ornamental turret. The auditorium is 64×120 feet, and beautifully and elaborately finished and furnished, and is capable of seating over 1,200 persons. It is well lighted, being supplied with 130 gas jets, warmed by steam, and well ventilated. The stage is 39×64 feet, complete in all its appointments, and supplied with all the necessary stage scenery, wings, border bridge, balcony, interior and other decorations. The ceiling of the auditorium is superbly frescoed and the cornice is adorned with medallions of Shakespeare, Haydn, Schiller, Goethe, Dickens, Handel, Scott, Longfellow, Mozart, Tennyson, and Beethoven. The parts of the building not occupied for stage purposes are appropriated to halls, offices and stores.
SOCIETIES AND ASSOCIATIONS.
I. O. O. F.—Lodge No. 1, organized June, 1849; Stillwater Lodge, No. 51, organized January, 1876.
Masonic.—St. John's Lodge No. 1, organized 1849; Washington, Royal Arch Chapter, No. 17, organized March, 1868; Bayard Commandery, K. T., No. 11, organized March, 1878.