Background
This book is the accounting of the activities of Kitchen’s Opera House in Gallup, NM, which was built in 1895. The manuscript was compiled from available newspaper articles that were published between 1890 and 1952 and from property abstracts. This is a historical document that outlines the origin of the opera house, its main activities, and its demise. This helps explain the functions of one of the major centers for multi-racial, multi-ethnic, and multi-cultural assimilation in Gallup. It helps explain how the melting pot concept advanced significantly in that community. As far as is known, this is the only book that reports on Gallup’s history as reflected in the functions of a single facility.
The book provides a history of one facility that still partly functions after 114 years of existence. The original two-story brick building had a saloon and café on the first floor and a large hall on the second. The facility was owned by one 
family for the first 47 years and the book provides an in depth review of their personal and public activities through this period. Many significant events affecting Gallup and New Mexico history occurred in the hall and this book provides this information.
The hall was last used in 1952. The café is known as the Eagle Café and has been in operation with that name since 1922 and for most of those years it was operated by persons of Japanese descent. Pressures on their lives during WWII are discussed. The café has been in continuous operation since 1895. The saloon operated as a bar with various names for the period 1895-1968. Bootlegging activities related to the bar are discussed. Since 1968, the bar is now part of a dry goods store.
Over 1200 newspaper articles were extracted from microfilms and selected information ( ~25%) from these was extracted and quoted. Information was selected because it was either an interesting account of some event or because it provided insight to some operation or historical happening that was thought to be of importance to Gallup history. Names of individuals were left in the quotes so some families may be interested in it from a genealogical perspective.
Activities of three persons are highlighted to document their impacts on the events. The first was Peter Kitchen as he was the prime mover behind getting the facility built and in directing its many years of operation. The book documents some of his financial problems in keeping the facility solvent and also of two major family tragedies that occurred. The second was Guido Zecca, who was a boxing promoter, later State Senator, who provided a high level of activities for over a decade. The third was Martha Roberts, who was a Communist organizer that in four short months heavily influenced the origination and orchestration of coal miner’s strike activities in 1933, which triggered a period of martial law in the community.
The section on Gallup Journal Stories contains a document titled STORIES FROM KITCHEN'S OPERA HOUSE IN GALLUP, NEW MEXICO. This new document provides first-person stories of events that occurred over the history of the Opera House. Eighteen Gallup residents shared their rich experiences on the activities of the hall, cafe, and bar.