Vermontville Opera House
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Vermontville Opera House | |
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| Location | 120 E. First St., Vermontville, Michigan |
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| Coordinates | 42°37′38″N 85°01′28″W / 42.62719°N 85.02449°W |
| Area | less than one acre |
| Built | 1895 |
| Built by | Rawson & Brown; John York |
| Architectural style | Late Victorian |
| NRHP reference No. | 93000620[1] |
| Added to NRHP | July 14, 1993 |
The Vermontville Opera House is an auditorium located at 120 East First Street in Vermontville, Michigan. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993.[1]
Vermontville was first settled in 1836; it slowly developed, and in 1871 was incorporated into a village. At some point before 1881, an opera house was constructed in the village, and was owned by a succession of local residents until it burned in the mid-1890s. In 1895, the Vermontville Township purchased this plot of land and began construction of the opera house on the site, with the cornerstone laid on August 27. The building was completed in 1896.[2]
The auditorium was well-used for dances, lectures, plays, musical performances, and vaudeville over the next several decades. The first story of the opera house originally housed office and meeting spaces for Vermontville Township and Village, along with the village's fire apparatus at the rear of the building. In 1948, the Vermontville Library took over the former village council rooms. In 1973, the fire department moved out and the library expanded; the building itself was renovated by infilling the former fire house doors.[2] As of 2018, the building still housed both the library and the Township offices.[3]
