Taken from the website, "Stop #16 on The Lafayette Trail
Description MIHP HA-816, November 1976 (
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“This brick municipal building has a severe neo-classical façade characterized by alternating brick pilasters and recessed panels. Decorative corbelled bands mark the transition between the upper and lower stories. Originally built as a three-story structure, the building has had many uses including: public school, town hall, and city opera house. In the 1920s it suffered a fire which reduced it to two stories. . . A two-story brick wing with a granite foundation is attached to the rear, giving the entire structure a T-shape. . . The severely symmetrical facade is composed of five brick pilasters flanking recessed panels which have decorative corbelled bands at the top of each of them. . . First it was a school house on the first two floors and a town hall on the third.” At the time of the inventory, this was owned by the City of Havre de Grace.
On May 28, 1867, the Board of Town Commissioners authorized the purchase of a lot south of and adjoining the old Town School House, provided it did not cost more than $500. By June 1867, they voted to accept a plan for a three-story building for a School House and Town Hall. That was followed by issuing an advertisement in Wilmington and Baltimore newspapers for bids to build the “200,000 brick building” (that was the number of bricks).
A building located next door had originally served as an early School House, Town Hall/Council Room, Police Station/Lock Up. Called the “Little Brick School House,” it was opened in 1822 with four children and William Stidman as the first teacher. By 1830, there were 130 children in the school. In 1877 an addition was built onto the Little Brick School House and the building became the city jail. Today, that original building has been expanded as a fire house.
This current building was opened by the Board of Town Commissioners, led by Colonel J. Thompson Frieze (1826-1898), in September 1871 as a school house, with Professor S. Tammany as the School Principal. Charles T. Wilson (one of the four teachers in the town at the time of opening) described the new building as “a fine, substantial, brick structure, three stories high, the first and second stories two rooms each, fitted out for school purposes, and the third story for a Town Hall.” Two years later, in September 1873, it became the Havre de Grace High School. The building appears on the Sanborn Insurance Map of 1885 as a public school/town hall. However, in 1889 the Town Commissioners hired Cecil County contractor, Eli S. Sentman (1833-1902), to use his skills and craftsmanship to remodel the building.
School enrollment was so high (up from 371 pupils in 1878 to 500 in 1896) that under Mayor Robert K. Vanneman a cornerstone was laid for a new school on July 21, 1896, at Congress Avenue and Juniata Street (with an anticipated cost of $25,000). When the school moved to that location in 1897 the first floor of this building became the City Hall and the second and third floors evolved into what became known as the “Opera House.” Opera was rarely performed, but the title denoted a more respectable entertainment than the term, “theatre,” which was considered morally corrupt in the early 20th century. The sidewalk in front of it was dug up in the early 1900s to lay water and sewer pipes for the building.
On the second floor, the City Opera House was showing movies and presenting other productions by 1908 and it was in full operation by 1917. In February 1921 the building had a huge fire and was partially burned but it was rebuilt during the winter of 1922-23 without the third floor. The City Council signed a contract in November 1921 to reduce the walls of the City Hall down to the second-story level and to cap the roof at just two levels. The repaired building contained the City Council room and Library on the first floor and an auditorium on the second floor.
In 1924, this building also housed the first town library, established through efforts of Mrs. Frederick W. Steiner. It was located in the front of the building and was a private library, supported by membership fees and a contribution by the City. In 1960, the library merged with the county library system and relocated.
Over the years the city-owned property has served many purposes including a public school, police station, vaudeville shows, movie house, meeting space for various civic organizations (including Brownies/Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts), a teen center for dances in the 1970s-1980s, theatrical productions, and as seat for the Havre de Grace city government from 1897-1993, when a new City Hall was built on Pennington Avenue.
Police Headquarters were moved to the room known as the Boy Scout Room in the City Hall in September 1953 and the small Police Booth in the street was disposed of. Shortly after that, the bell from the Old School House was mounted in front of the City Hall in 1956.
On May 14, 1960, presidential hopeful John F. Kennedy received a key to the City from Havre de Grace Mayor Walter McLhinney during a rally in front of City Hall. Kennedy was in the midst of a whirlwind Maryland primary election campaign orchestrated by longtime Harford County resident U.S. Senator Joseph D. Tydings.
Around 1979, the second floor became home to the Tidewater Players, a local theater group founded by city resident Harry Malin in 1979. The Players continued to use the second floor for many years and installed comfortable theatre seating in the late 1980s. In 1991 the building was restored to its turn of the century look through the cooperation of Tidewater Players, Tri-County Diving and Rescue Club, and the Havre de Grace Beautification Commission.
A magnificent tin ceiling with an exquisite border, painted by local James Nemeth, was the architectural highlight of the Hall and new period light fixtures were installed. After the new City Hall opened on Pennington Avenue in spring 1993, the ground floor of this building was used for several purposes, while Tidewater Players continued to use the second floor.
The building was redesigned and restored in 2014 to accommodate about 250 in the theatre and was opened in August 2017. Called the Cultural Center at the Opera House, with a nod to its history, it provides arts ranging from theater, music, dance and film for the community and region.
County Records
Built 1870. 15,232 sq ft, 29,500 sq ft lot. Exempt commercial."