'By 1980, the place had gotten really shabby, a lot of pigeons were living in here and there was a debate about taking down the whole building,' Jon Lewis, vice president of the opera house board, told me on a recent tour of the facility.Ĭivic pride prevailed, however. In 1961, the building's clock tower was taken down. The fire marshal declared the balcony unsafe and closed it off not too long before the opera house was shuttered. Worse, it had suffered significant damage from a leaking roof. By the early 1950s, the opera house had been painted over with dull gray paint and plaster was peeling off the walls. It was a prestige thing.'īut time and lack of maintenance took its toll. And to be honest, they wanted to show off to other towns in the area. The townsfolk and farmers needed something to do on weekends. 'It was a major source of pride to have a nice place for community gatherings and theater productions. 'It may seem especially extravagant now for a small town, but at the turn of the 20th century, it was common for places like Stoughton to have their own opera house,' said Christina Dollhausen, the facility's events coordinator. Backstage graffiti dates to the early days of the theater. For the next five decades, it was the site of plays, concerts, operas, recitals, fiddlers' contests and madrigals, as well as conferences, weddings, temperance meetings, rosemaling workshops, fashion shows, auctions, political rallies, conferences and high school graduations.

The theater's opening performance was 'The Doctor's Warm Reception,' penned by playwright Ullie Akerstrom. Upstairs, however, people were treated to a charming, Victorian theater with nearly 500 seats, several large chandeliers, four boxes for special seating and an ornately decorated ceiling. Even the small burg of Stoughton - which had only 3,431 residents in 1900 - got into the swing of things, opening a lovely, three-story opera house in 1901 that included a soaring clock tower.īut folks in Stoughton were a practical sort (the community was settled mainly by Norwegian immigrants, after all), so the first floor and basement of the Richardsonian Romanesque structure were designed to house city offices, as well as the police department, library, fire department and jail. In the late 1800s, cities and towns around Wisconsin vied with one another by putting up impressive public buildings.

Michael perry stoughton opera house