The Opera House History Continued!

It was profoundly important. It would not only bring in shows from outside the area, whereby these folks would need hotel rooms and restaurant meals which helped support the local economy, but it brought in many visitors from other communities to attend the events, and this too stimulated business on the railroad and in some town stores and shops. Then of course there was the employment generated by keeping the hall cleaned up, maintained, and staffed during the season. When the movie era began, a projection booth was built, a screen was installed, and since there already was a ticket booth, not too many other renovation was needed to start up the movie business. Even before movies the hall had magic lantern shows, or slide shows, often with hand colored high quality slides. Then the vaudeville circuit came and the Chataqua circuit, the jazz bands, and other such acts that were popular in the later part of the 19th century, and the early part of the 20th, not the least of which was the revived black-faced minstrel show. Secret societies were a big thing about this same time, and so the P. O. S. of A. bought the hall, and along with the P. O. A., held their meetings there. But the hall continued as a show place too. A piece was built on the south side, and a basement kitchen and dining hall was put under this piece. Now in addition to shows and meetings, banquets and dinners of all sorts could be held at the hall, and indeed sometimes all three at the same time.

After WWI, a veterans group used the upstairs as a meeting place, and had all manner of captured German helmets, swords and other war paraphernalia stored there. (They also put two German machine guns on their American Legion plot on the Cedar Hill cemetery, along with a British naval rifle {now displayed in front of the VFW below Paxtonville}). When I was a boy, we kids would play war with the “cannon” as we called the naval rifle, and the machine guns, and also in the hall itself, we would helmet and dress ourselves up, take sword in hand and duel. It is a miracle that we did not inflict serious injury on ourselves from these mock battles. I have often wondered what happened to those wonderful artifacts.

To be continued