The St. George Opera House, also known as the St. George Social Hall, is a historic building in St. George,

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

. It was originally built by the St. George Gardeners' Club as a

wine cellar A wine cellar is a storage room for wine in bottles or barrels, or more rarely in carboys, amphorae, or plastic containers. In an ''active'' wine cellar, important factors such as temperature and humidity are maintained by a climate control system ...

. As wine demand decreased, the building was expanded to host theatrical productions. It operated in this capacity until sold to the

Utah-Idaho Sugar Company The Utah-Idaho Sugar Company was a large sugar beet processing company based in Utah. It was owned and controlled by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and its leaders. It was notable for developing a valuable cash crop a ...

in 1936. It was restored to an opera house in 1988 and is again open to the public.

History

In 1861,

Brigham Young Brigham Young (; June 1, 1801August 29, 1877) was an American religious leader and politician. He was the second president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), from 1847 until his death in 1877. During his time as ch ...

sent three hundred

Mormon Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, the principal branch of the Latter Day Saint movement started by Joseph Smith in upstate New York during the 1820s. After Smith's death in 1844, the movement split into severa ...

families to the south reaches of

Utah Territory The Territory of Utah was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from September 9, 1850, until January 4, 1896, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Utah, the 45th state ...

to establish a new settlement. Young envisioned a Mormon state that was completely self-sufficient, and one important goal in this regard was the production of

cotton Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor pe ...

. The region settled was much warmer than the northern

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the capital and most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in Utah. With a population of 200,133 in 2020, th ...

, and it was thought that this would be good weather for cotton. Unfortunately for the settlers, this was not the case. The climate was too hot during the summer, producing only small harvests of cotton. The original function of the St. George Opera House was a wine cellar.

Grape A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus '' Vitis''. Grapes are a non- climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters. The cultivation of grapes began perhaps 8,000 years a ...

production was an important secondary source of income for the settlers. The St. George Gardeners' Club formed in the mid-1860s to provide community support for farmers. In 1864, as one of their first projects, they built the cellar as a cool place to store surplus wine and to process grapes. It was mostly constructed below-ground along a hillside. As wine demand diminished due to closing mines and pressure from the church, new plans were made for the cellar building. The Gardener's Club sold it to the Social Hall Company in the late 1870s. Extensions were added on the top and to the west of the main cellar to create a stage and seating for up to four hundred patrons. The performing arts were an important part of Mormon culture, and Young always ensured that artisans were among the families sent when organizing new settlements. Miles P. Romney was president of the Social Hall Company and the St. George Dramatic Association, occasionally performing in some of the plays. Shortly after it opened, Mormon missionaries shipped materials from a bankrupt

opera house An opera house is a theatre building used for performances of opera. It usually includes a stage, an orchestra pit, audience seating, and backstage facilities for costumes and building sets. While some venues are constructed specifically fo ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

to the St. George Social Hall. The hall hosted its first

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...

1886. The hall was deeded to the local LDS church in 1900, as it was hopelessly in debt to it. However, the church continued to run productions in it.

The Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

forced the church to sell the property to the

in 1936. They used the building to process sugar beet seeds, an important source of income for

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a nontrinitarian Christian church that considers itself to be the restoration of the original church founded by Jesus Christ. The ch ...

. They sold the property to the St. George Neighborhood Redevelopment Agency in 1988, who restored the building to again function as an opera house.

References

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St. George Opera House
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint George Opera House National Register of Historic Places in Washington County, Utah Opera houses in Utah Buildings and structures in St. George, Utah Theatres on the National Register of Historic Places in Utah 1864 establishments in Utah Territory Theatres completed in 1886 Music venues completed in 1886 Opera houses on the National Register of Historic Places Event venues on the National Register of Historic Places in Utah