Barre / Vermont / United States
Opera House History After the original Barre City Hall/Barre Opera House building was destroyed by fire in 1898, the current building was erected on the same site. The new Opera House, considered to be the finest in Vermont, seated 1, 000 patrons and opened on August 23, 1899. For its first 45 years, the Opera House served as performance space and community gathering site for such important events as the appearances of Helen Keller, Socialist Eugene Debs, George M. Cohan, Anarchist Emma Goldman, John Philip Sousa and his band, Tom Mix and his horse. In 1912, the Opera Houses outer balcony served as a political soapbox for President William Howard Taft and as a backdrop for a Barre rally featuring former President Theodore Roosevelt. Through the 1930s and 40s the Opera House functioned primarily as a movie theater with occasional breaks in the schedule for variety shows, boxing and wrestling matches. However, with the addition of more modern movie theaters in town, the Barre Opera House doors closed in January, 1944, not to open again for almost 40 years. Starting in the mid-seventies, a groundswell of community interest and support culminated in the re-opening of the Opera House in October of 1982, in spite of the dingy walls, broken windows, lack of proper seats and heating. Since then, the Barre Opera House has continued its work towards complete restoration and renovation. One year it was the installation of a heating system, the next came theater chairs on the main floor. Curtains, stage lights and other amenities were gradually added as the community contributed the time, talents and financial resources necessary. Increased usage and attendance led to our most major capital construction project completed in 1993. This community-funded, million dollar project included the installation of an elevator, making us physically accessible to the box office, lobby, stage and dressing rooms, and the re-installation of seating in the balcony, raising our seating capacity by 50% to 649. The work didnt stop there. In the years since, we have added an infrared listening system for the hearing impaired, a full service box office, and have installed a state of the art heating, ventilating and air conditioning system, built to exceptional standards to maintain the acoustical purity of the theater. In the summer of 2005, we began a complete overhaul of our theatrical lighting system, beginning with the replacement of our electrical wiring ; we hope to have all our new lighting fixtures in place by the end of 2006. The ongoing mission to restore and operate this historic facility is only possible through the continued support of our community, which views its financial contributions to the Barre Opera House as an investment in the historic and cultural quality of life in central Vermont. To date, this dedicated community of individuals, organizations and businesses has contributed close to two million dollars to the re-birth of this historic treasure.
