Grand Opera House facade elevation drawing, Cincinnati Ohio

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The Grand Opera House in Cincinnati, Ohio, was one of the city's major theaters in the late nineteenth century, and this elevation drawing records how its street front was meant to look. An elevation is a flat, head-on architectural drawing, so it shows the facade's proportions, doorways, and ornament without perspective, which made it the working document builders and owners relied on. Theaters of this era were designed to impress as much from the street as from inside, with the entrance and exterior detailing signaling a city's cultural ambitions. Drawings like this one are valuable to researchers because they capture the design intent of a building that may since have been altered or lost.

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