The Civic Opera House wears a throne-like crown of terra-cotta, its vertical lines pulling the eye upward toward the Chicago skyline. Samuel Insull built this forty-five-story giant in nineteen twenty-nine, driven by a dream to bring high art to the masses during the Jazz Age. He poured a fortune into the grand interior, but the Great Depression arrived just as the curtains rose. Insull lost his empire, and the opera company folded only three years after the opening night performance.
Civic Opera House
cultural
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