Tabor Opera House at night. Image courtesy of the Tabor Opera House. Photo by Craig Hensel.
The Colorado Department of Local Affairs (DOLA) awarded $580,312 to the historic Tabor Opera House on Nov. 8, 2023 through a highly competitive matching grant process. The funds are putting a long-awaited milestone in sight after a multi-year historic rehabilitation began in 2020.
This award will enable the Tabor Opera House Preservation Foundation to complete the final repairs to the façade by 2025 according to the Foundation.
Once the exterior rehabilitation is complete, attention will turn to the interior. The Foundation will lead visioning, fundraising, and construction to create what they hope to be a local hub for arts and culture that meets community needs.
Colorado Preservation Inc. (CPI) deemed the Tabor in danger of demolition due to neglect in 2016. In 2022, the Foundation received CPI’s Endangered Places Progress Award for its progress in stabilizing the Tabor’s four exterior walls.
The Tabor Opera House Preservation Foundation will provide the required match to the DOLA funds by tapping a State Historical Fund grant of $250,000 in addition to historic tax credits and individual donations.
DOLA reviewed the grant application based on a variety of factors, such as its connection to energy impact, degree of need, measurable outcomes, amount of request, relationship to community goals, level of local match and community support, management capacity, resiliency, and readiness to go.
“I am immensely proud of the hard work and dedication that volunteers and the Tabor team have contributed to rehabilitating the Tabor Opera House, which turns 144 years old this month,” said Tabor Opera House Foundation Executive Director Sarah Dae.
“With the new DOLA funding, we eagerly await the day when the last exterior brick is laid in place,” she added. “Then we can celebrate another important step toward our goal of revitalizing Leadville’s historic Tabor Opera House and building a welcome community center for the arts.”
More information on the Tabor Opera House is available at TaborOperaHouse.org.
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