Opera House

One of Glendora's most historic buildings in the downtown area presently houses the Village Vault Restaurant, at 161 N. Glendora Avenue. This landmark was built in 1906 by C.A. Weaver and was occupied by the First National Bank with the town’s Opera House upstairs.  

First National Bank of Glendora was chartered 1907 with Carrol Whitcomb, son of George Whitcomb as President, and M.C. Wentworth as cashier. The present-day restaurant proudly displays the original vault door from the bank which has been completely restored.  

Early photographs of the building show statues of Beethoven and Mozart decorating the outside upper portion where the Opera House was located. The double doors on the north side open to a wide stairway, which was once a grand entry way, and this remains much the same as it did in years gone by. The Opera House was the social and cultural center of the community in the early days. 

For years many who have worked within the old Opera House have reported strange sounds emitting from the walls. Marcia Evans remembers this strange experience. “I was working the late shift at the café and was trying to get cleaned up so that I could leave when several of the bus boys and I started to hear this strange moaning coming from the men’s bathroom. I asked one of the guys to go inside and check things out to make sure that none of the customers was in there sick or something. Carlos came out and told me that there wasn’t anyone but there was a foul order in the room. I noticed the same horrible smell in the office and had everyone look around to try to locate the odor. Perhaps some food got behind something. The odor reminded me of spoiled cheese or rotten eggs. We searched the place and couldn’t find a thing. Then we heard this banging in the ceiling that sounded like some sort of code. I remembered the morse code signals my dad taught me as a kid and tried to read the signals but realized that they were the same thing over and over again. 

It spelled “help me”. We searched the entire place for something that we couldn't see, but never found a thing. I finally decided to check upstairs to see if anyone was in the real estate offices or in the theater. When we got up there, we found nothing unusual. The real estate office was locked tight, and the sounds started up again only this time they seemed to be coming from inside of the theater room. The doors up there are usually open, so Carlos brought a flashlight and turned it on. 

Together we slowly entered the room and thought we could make out a shape of a woman dressed in a formal gown. Carlos flashed the light in her direction and sure enough we could now make out her full figure. She stood on the stage with her arms outstretched as if a about to speak her line in a play. The woman looked in our direction and asked us to either come in and sit down or leave so that the show could continue. We entered the room lightly lit by that of the full moon outside and found no one else except the actress. She motioned with her hands for us to take chairs and found that there were only three or four scattered around the room. Carlos looked at me and I at him and we knew that this had already become an experience of a lifetime, so we sat down and waited. The woman started reciting strange and macabre sounds as if in a weird play. We watched as the inarticulate woman continued and I noticed that there was a freezing cold chill through the tiny room. I rubbed my arms, which had goose pimples all over them and glanced at Carlos who nodded that he too felt the cold air around us. The actress leaned to her side and picked up a large hat that looked as though it was covered in feathers. She placed it on her head and looked back into the audience of two at The Opera House and stated, “And that was my one night in Rome”. Then she just stood there as if waiting for an applause or something.  

Carlos and I clapped and noticed that in the dimly lit room we could see the wall behind the woman but what we didn't realize until that moment was that we could see the wall right THROUGH HER. I almost screamed. The woman thanked us and smiled at us continually until she looked around and told us the play was over. As she turned towards the still yet slightly opened door it slammed shut as if someone had grabbed it from the other side. Carlos ran towards it and tried to get it open, but it wouldn’t budge. I knew that there was another door towards the back of the room and headed towards there but found it also locked tight. We hadn't started to panic yet, and I looked towards the stage and yelled at the Ghost “You unlock these doors and let us out! You got us up here and performed your weird play, now Let us OUT!” with this order both of the doors clicked as if someone had turned their locks and the doors opened simultaneously. Carlos and I ran downstairs locked up the coffee shop and left for the night. I was so freaked out with what had happened I quit the next day and never returned to that strange building. Carlos continued there for another year or two claiming to have run into the Ghostly actress again several time before he finally left the company as well."  

Kouri, Michael J. The Most Haunted Places in Glendora. Burbank, CA. Tapestry Autumn Press, 2001.

The First 100 Years Limited Edition 1887-1987. Glendora , CA. Liberty Enterprises, 1986.

Price, Ryan Lee. Postcard & History Series Glendora. Charleston , SC. Arcadia Publishing, 2008.