The Cedarville Opera House is a historic

theater Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actor, actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The p ...

in the village of Cedarville,

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. Erected in 1888 on Main Street in downtown Cedarville, it has been a premier part of community life since its construction.Owen, Lorrie K., ed. ''Dictionary of Ohio Historic Places''. Vol. 1.

St. Clair Shores St. Clair Shores is a suburban city bordering Lake St. Clair in Macomb County of the U.S. state of Michigan. It forms a part of the Metro Detroit area, and is located about northeast of downtown Detroit. Its population was 59,715 at the 2010 ...

: Somerset, 1999, 537. Built of brick with elements of stone,,

Ohio Historical Society Ohio History Connection, formerly The Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society and Ohio Historical Society, is a nonprofit organization incorporated in 1885. Headquartered at the Ohio History Center in Columbus, Ohio, Ohio History Connect ...

, 2007. Accessed 2011-08-18. the opera house is a

Romanesque Revival Romanesque Revival (or Neo-Romanesque) is a style of building employed beginning in the mid-19th century inspired by the 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque architecture. Unlike the historic Romanesque style, Romanesque Revival buildings tended to ...

structure that has served a wide range of purposes in the community. Besides its primary function as a home for the

performing arts The performing arts are arts such as music, dance, and drama which are performed for an audience. They are different from the visual arts, which are the use of paint, canvas or various materials to create physical or static art objects. Perform ...

, the two-and-a-half-

story Story or stories may refer to: Common uses * Story, a narrative (an account of imaginary or real people and events) ** Short story, a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting * Story (American English), or storey (British ...

building has housed the offices of Cedarville's mayor and village council, its jail, its fire and police departments, its waterworks, as well as the township trustees' office for Cedarville Township. When Cedarville's was built, the opera house as an institution was a center of social life in rural Ohio: the

public sphere The public sphere (german: Öffentlichkeit) is an area in social life where individuals can come together to freely discuss and identify societal problems, and through that discussion influence political action. A "Public" is "of or concerning th ...

was nearly nonexistent except for the village opera house, which typically served as a meeting place for travelling

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

acts, political events, musical performances, and

graduation Graduation is the awarding of a diploma to a student by an educational institution. It may also refer to the ceremony that is associated with it. The date of the graduation ceremony is often called graduation day. The graduation ceremony is a ...

ceremonies. Because the first floor has always been used as offices for the various organizations that used the building, public events were typically held on the second floor, which has been little modified by the years; it is one of Ohio's least changed historic performance halls. In 1984, the Cedarville Opera House was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

, qualifying both because of its historically significant architecture and because of its place in local history. It is one of two National Register-listed properties in Cedarville and one of two National Register-listed opera houses in Greene County, along with the Harper Mausoleum and George W. Harper Memorial Entrance and the Jamestown Opera House respectively.

References

{{NRHP in Greene County, Ohio Music venues completed in 1888 Buildings and structures in Greene County, Ohio City and town halls in Ohio Police stations in the United States Defunct police stations Defunct prisons in Ohio Defunct fire stations in Ohio Former library buildings in the United States Theatres on the National Register of Historic Places in Ohio National Register of Historic Places in Greene County, Ohio Romanesque Revival architecture in Ohio U.S. Route 42 Opera houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Ohio 1888 establishments in Ohio