Lost Las Vegas 41 - NMHU

Tamme/Duncan Opera House
Photo Courtesy of Dorothy Sahula-Dycke
51. Tamme/Duncan Opera House NE corner Douglas & 6th 1886-ca.1965
Charles Tamme was born in Braunschweig, or Brunswick, Germany in 1844. As he was growing up he became interested in the American west. Tamme pursued an adventurous life in the western United States, which included three life-threatening attacks, once by a bear and twice by Native Americans. Before coming to Las Vegas with the railroad in 1879, he was a freighter and a farmer. After he and his friend George Ward had established the Monarch Billiard Hall and the Ward & Tamme Opera House, Charlie built this Victorian sandstone opera house that laid an important foundation to the emerging New Town commercial district. Charlie and his wife Emelie were significant contributors to the cultural and aesthetic well-being of Las Vegas. Govenor Miguel A. Otero Jr. wrote of Charlie Tamme that, "he was as gentle and kind as a woman and honest as the day is long."*

J.S. Duncan, a New Yorker, tried his hand at many businesses. He was a sutler at Fort Union in 1869, a freighter for Browne and Manzanares Company, a grading contractor for the A.T. & S. F. railroad, a livery stable owner and later a Mayor of East Las Vegas. He bought the Opera House from an exhausted Tamme in 1897, but sold it because the movies were too much competition for him. The Opera House was demolished for a drive-thru bank.

*M. A Otero Jr., My Life on the Frontier 1864-1882, pg. 103


Charles Tamme
Photo Courtesy of Dorothy Sahula-Dycke
Emelie Tamme
Photo Courtesy of Dorothy Sahula-Dycke

Back Building List
Click Here for Tour Main Page		 Next