A Dual-Purpose Building Rises on West Second
Construction begins on a new block that promises to house both a modern meat market and a cultural auditorium for the town.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Work was started today on the Dircksen Block on West Second street. The building will be 170 feet long by twenty-five feet wide, two stories high. The lower story will be used by Mr. Dircksen as a meat market and residence, and the second story will be made into an opera house. The front of the lower story will be used as a salesroom for the meat market. Immediately behind this will be a series of rooms devoted to the manufacture of the many by-products of a meat market, furnished with all the up-to-date machinery for this purpose, run by a twelve-horse power gasoline engine. Behind these rooms will be a dwelling to be occupied by Mr. Dircksen with his family. The second story is to be fitted as a first-class opera house, with a roomy stage and dressing rooms. The auditorium will be furnished with movable seats so that it can be easily and quickly cleared for a ballroom. The contract for the stone work has been let to Michael Sentel, who put his crew of men to work on the foundation this morning.
“The auditorium will be furnished with movable seats so that it can be easily and quickly cleared for a ball room.”
This building reflects the early 20th-century trend of combining civic leisure with essential local industry. The flexible design of the opera house serves as a precursor to modern mixed-use zoning, even if the primary industry here was a butcher shop.
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