01/12/2025
Hard Scrabble at the Vergennes Opera House. Nice cover of “Peaceful Easy Feeling” by the Eagles.
Built in 1897, Restored in 1997, Thriving Today
Promoting & Celebrating a Sense of Community
PO Box 88/120 Main Street
Vergennes, VT
05491
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On February 12, 1897, the citizens of Vergennes gathered in front of the newly built City Hall and Opera House to witness a ribbon cutting ceremony of the opening of the newly built City Hall and Opera House. The structure was built for $12,500 and was $2,500 over budget. The downstairs hosted city services while the theater space was on the second floor.
For the next 50+ years, the Opera House served as the community’s gathering space, hosting community political and civic events, performances as part of the vaudeville circuit, minstrel shows, community celebrations, dinners for war heroes, high school graduations and high school plays.
In 1955 the Vergennes Union High School opened complete with an auditorium. The student’s no longer needed the Opera House theater for their productions and graduations. Between 1955 and 1974, the Opera House struggled to find its relevance in the community and it was used less and less and began to show signs of neglect. Finally, in 1974, the city leaders had ten barn cables installed inside the Opera House pulling together the north and south walls of the space and rending the theater unusable.
Deterioration began to take place in earnest so by the time the Friends of the Vergennes Opera House , FVOH, was formed (1993), the hall was filled with broken windows, fallen plaster, pigeon droppings and a leaking roof. In short, it was a mess.