Legion unit purchased the site, soon
adding a lot behind it on Eigleberry St.
After part of the Opera House was torn
down, the American Legion building was
constructed at the corner of Fifth and
Eigleberry Streets. The following year, the
remaining east side of the structure along
Fifth Street was remodeled and turned into
a National Guard Armory. Another section
of property, now 64 W. Fifth Street, was
sold to Doctors Elmer and Wayne Chesbro
for a new brick medical building.
The remodeled Armory space and new
Legion building held an auditorium, a
banquet room, offices, kitchen and store-
room for the local National Guard unit.
By 1940, the new Wheeler Civic
Auditorium and Armory were constructed
at Sixth and Church Streets. The following
year, the old Armory on Fifth Street was
GILROY • MORGAN HILL • SAN MARTIN
MAY/JUNE 2016
razed to make way for medical offices for
Dr. Leon Melkonian. By the 1950s the
Legion building on the corner of Fifth
and Eigleberry Streets was turned into
medical offices and a beauty parlor. More
recently it has been used as an alterations
shop. The American Legion built a newer,
larger facility one block away, on Sixth and
Eigleberry Streets. The site is now known as
the Veterans Building.
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