Wheeler Opera House

Built in 1889 (Renaissance Revival architecture). Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.

From the record

“The Wheeler Opera House is located at the corner of East Hyman Avenue and South Mill Street in Aspen, Colorado, United States. It is a stone building erected during the 1890s, from a design by Willoughby J.”
Wikipedia article Wheeler Opera House, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 38 National Register listings published here for Pitkin County · listed in 1972 · category: Building · built in 1889, Renaissance Revival architecture.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
Address. 330 E. Hyman Ave., Aspen, 81611
When was it listed? August 1972
Category. building
Census division. Aspen
When was it built? 1889
Architectural style. Renaissance Revival architecture
National Register reference number. 72000276 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Fires near this property

35 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 35 fires within 5 miles of Wheeler Opera House between 1994 and 2020, burning about 6 acres in total. 12 started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	19
Natural	12
Recreation and ceremony	2
Equipment and vehicle use	1
Misuse of fire by a minor	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
6 September 1995	Natural	under an acre	White River National Forest	STEEP BEAVER
26 September 2016	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	White River National Forest	CONGO
2 September 2011	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Colorado State Forest Service-State Headquarters	ASPEN
15 September 2004	Natural	under an acre	White River National Forest	SMUGGLER MOUNTAIN
13 September 2016	Natural	2.0 acres	White River National Forest	MAROON
3 August 2009	Natural	under an acre	White River National Forest	DIFFICULT
11 August 2016	Natural	under an acre	White River National Forest	HUNTER CREEK VALLEY
4 July 2011	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Colorado State Forest Service-State Headquarters	ASPEN

Every fire recorded in Pitkin County

Mines and quarries near this property

10 of 161 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 161 workings within 5 miles of Wheeler Opera House: 151 past producers, 6 producers, 3 occurrences, 1 unknown. 6 still produce. What was taken out: Silver, Lead, Silver, Lead, Zinc, Zinc. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
A M T & D Co Tunnel	Silver, Lead, Calcium	Past Producer
A-J Tunnel	Lead, Calcium, Silver, Stone	Past Producer
Argentum-Juanita Incline	Silver, Clay, Calcium	Past Producer
Aspen	Silver, Lead, Gold, Zinc, Platinum	Past Producer	Galena
Aspen	Silver, Calcium, Lead, Stone	Past Producer
Aspen Contact Mine	Zinc, Silver, Lead	Past Producer	1892
Aspen District	Silver, Lead, Zinc, Copper, Gold, Manganese, Cadmium, Uranium, Arsenic, Antimony, Platinum	Past Producer	1879, 1882, 1968
Bushwacker Shaft	Silver, Lead, Clay, Calcium	Past Producer
Compromise Mg Co	Silver, Calcium, Clay	Past Producer
Della's	Silver, Calcium, Clay, Lead	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Pitkin County

Storms near this property

12 since 1997

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Aspen, the town this property stands in, in 12 storm reports between 1997 and 2023: 4 lightning, 4 flash flood, 2 debris flow, 1 thunderstorm wind. The reports record 1 death and 3 injuries. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
July 1997	Lightning	Aspen	1 killed	no account filed
July 2008	Lightning	Aspen	2 hurt	A family of five from Idaho were all struck by lightning while hiking on the American Lake Trail, about 9.5 miles south of Aspen. A 15-year-old girl was revived after being administered CPR. A 17-year-old boy was burned on the soles of his feet. The other three family members did not receive any significant injuries.
July 2000	Lightning	Aspen	1 hurt	no account filed
July 2023	Debris Flow	Aspen	$5,000	Debris of mud and rock fell across portions of the Rio Grande Trail outside of Aspen as a result of heavy rain from thunderstorms.
August 2021	Debris Flow	Aspen	$5,000	Pitkin County Sheriff reported the closure of Independence Pass along Colorado Highway 82 between mile markers 47 and 72 due to mudslides.
July 2007	Flash Flood	Aspen	$5,000	Heavy rain caused water and debris to flow down a normally dry drainage running through the Maroon Creek Day Use Area provided by the USFS. The water and debris average depth was 5 feet with a width of 30 feet. The flash flood hit the Maroon Creek Road and a trailhead parking lot where it spread out about 100 feet wide, clogging culverts and burying the road and day-use area under 1 to 2 feet of debris. Improved trails were destroyed and tons of debris had to be removed from the road and day-use area. Additionally, hailstones up to 1/2 inch diameter accompanied the heavy rain. There were people camping nearby in tents when the event occurred.
July 2006	Lightning	Aspen	$2,000	no account filed
July 2007	Heavy Rain	Aspen	-	Minor flooding and rockslides occurred on Highway 82 just east of Aspen.
June 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Aspen	-	no account filed
August 2001	Flash Flood	Aspen	-	no account filed
July 1998	Flash Flood	Aspen	-	no account filed
July 1998	Flash Flood	Aspen	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Pitkin County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Property	Distance	Listed
Armory Hall, Fraternal Hall	under 500 feet	1975
Hyman-Brand Building	under 500 feet	1985
Pitkin County Courthouse	under 500 feet	1975
Collins Block-Aspen Lumber and Supply	0.1 miles	1987
New Brick-The Brick Saloon	0.1 miles	1987
Riede's City Bakery	0.1 miles	1987

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 72000276 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Pitkin County	All 38 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.