Explore "Lone Women" by Victor LaValle on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
John Ming, successful cattleman, built the Ming Opera House in Helena in 1880. There had been human beings in Montana before the likes of John Ming, of course, but buildings like the opera house were erected to erase their memory. Majestic and ambitious but also a bit like introducing a non-native plant to a new land. In time it would seem as though the Ming Opera House had always been around and there was no "before" before it. Only a wild and empty land.
Even for Helena, Ming's opera house impressed. Seating for nine hundred, thirty-two sets of scenery, gas lighting throughout the building. A granite foundation, sod basement and dressing rooms beneath the stage. Tiered seating with side-boxes faced with wrought iron. The Ming Opera House thrilled its visitors.