Gallup Independent, July 4, 2009

100 years ago in Gallup

By Bill Donovan

Independent correspondent

GALLUP- A century ago, the center of social life in Gallup was the Kitchen’s Opera House, which was constructed in 1895 and for the next 45 years hosted hundreds of concerts, plays and boxing matches.  There were even the occasional oratory contests and poetry readings, which, for some reason, didn’t attract the same number of people as the boxing matches.

Almost every issue of the newspapers during those years mentioned the Opera House, talking about events that took place there or promoting some other event.

Then, a number of years ago, Roger Zimmerman, whose family owned Zimmerman’s Western Wear, got interested in the history of the place since his family owned it and it was located above the store.  He began talking to Gallup families about their memories of the place and eventually wrote a history book of the place, which became a chronicle of the town’s cultural history.

This included the Gallup riot of 1935 and the prohibition years in Gallup- which also included laws prohibiting the sale of liquor to Indians after the national prohibition ended.

Zimmerman, who lives in Albuquerque, published the book himself, and it had limited distribution, but he always felt that a lot of people had an interest in Gallup’s history.  So he decided to recently put his book on the Internet for anyone who wanted to read about Gallup history and see if members of their family-if they were old timers- were mentioned.  

The book is available on www.kitchensoperahouse.com.

Several years after he wrote the book, there was a resurgence of interest in the Opera House after the Zimmerman family sold the business and building to Louis Bonaguidi, who owns and operates City electric Shoe Shop, another long-time Gallup business.

After the Independent published a couple of stories from the book, Zimmerman got interested again in talking to Gallup’s old-timers and eventually interviewed 18 more people for the continuation of the story of the Opera House.