Apollo Hall opened quickly after the city's
founding in 1859 and staged many plays for eager settlers. In the 1880s Horace
Tabor built Denver's first Opera House. After the start of the 20th century,
city leaders embarked on a city beautification program that created many of the
city's parks, parkways, museums, and the Municipal Auditorium, which was home
to the 1908 Democratic National Convention and is now known as the Ellie
Caulkins Opera House. Denver and the metropolitan areas around it continued to
support culture. In 1988, voters in the Denver Metropolitan Area approved the
Scientific and
