(Courtesy of Margaret Kearns)

The buildings in the background are the subject of this photo. The one on the left was Amanda Specht’s Hat Shop. The one on the right was built in 1869 as the Beavertown Opera House. It had a full proscenium stage, an orchestra pit, dressing rooms, a green room and sloped and aisled seating. It was used for traveling professional and home productions.

Later it became the POS of A hall (in the 1890s) and they had two big meeting rooms upstairs and a kitchen in the basement. They kept the theater and added a projection booth and screen so movies could be shown as well as having vaudeville, plays and musicals from time to time.

In the 1940s the theater was removed and the building was renovated to become the Rescue Hose Company firehall. After the new (present) firehall was completed, it was sold, was condemned, and torn down. Today it is a vacant lot on Center Street to the north of where Tim Moyer lived.

(Can you name at least two other uses this building had it its time? See next month’s issue for the answer.)

Answer to Last Month

After the Cara Farms Dairy Bar was sold, it became the restaurant of Carl and Shirley Deppen Young; then it was sold to Elmer and Grace Saylor Benfer; Mrs. John Smith then took it over and enlarged the establishment; finally, Toner’s Market was located here. After this, Mr. Smith used it for his private residence until Bilger’s bought it and turned it into a convenience store, today known as the Best Mart.