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Information
212 N. Main (across from Post Office).
St. George, UT 84770
This building was the primary location for socials, performances, and dances
held on a movable floor. The Opera House was (and still is) the social hub
for Washington County and the tri-State area.
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History
In 1861, President Brigham Young called 300 Mormon families to settle the
Virgin-Santa Clara River area to grow cotton and grapes. Elder George A.
Smith, for whom St. George is named, presided over southern Utah. Elder
Erastus Snow and Elder Orson Pratt led the company into Dixie.
Dixie was a barren land -- dry, windy, dusty, and suffocatingly hot during
the summer. Conditions were grim. Water was scarce and unpalatable. Sickness
and death were common, there was little food and little hope. The Saints
needed an escape from their heavy burdens. Entertainment and cultural development
provided the answer.
Brigham Young had purposely included people with a wide diversity of talents
and ethnic backgrounds -- musicians, writers, actors, artists, teachers,
vocalists, poets, and others with an aptitude for the arts -- originating
from the eastern and southern U.S., Scandinavia, Great Britain, and Switzerland.
Elder Erastus Snow organized lectures, dances, parties, lyceums, and concerts
to prop up the spirits of the people. The first play, "Eaton Boy", was presented
in 1862 in a make-shift bower made of posts and brush near where the Tabernacle
now stands. Such was the need and appetite for entertainment in this struggling
little community.
The first public building built by the settlers was the St. George Hall.
It was built in 1862 as a place of recreation, entertainment and education.
St. George Hall was soon joined by the Gardener's Club Hall and the Tabernacle.
Various plays and event were staged in these building. The Golden Farmer,
The Charcoal Burner, Sweet-hearts and Wives, Black-eyed
Susan, Toodles, and the plays of Shakespeare were performed among
others.
In 1864, prominent local artists formed the St. George Lyceum and Dramatic
Association with the support of Elder Erastus Snow.
In 1875, the Gardener's Club erected a building for the purpose of making
and storing sacramental wine for the Church. The spacious upper floor was
made available for social gatherings and events. Known as the "Wine Cellar",
the building soon became the hub of the community's recreation.
In 1880, a new wing was added to the Wine Cellar, making the upper area
almost 2-1/2 times larger. No longer used for storing wine, and now called
the Social Hall, the building had a unique mechanical floor that could be
inclined toward the stage for theater presentations or made level for dances
and parties.
The Social Hall seated 200-400 persons. The original area became the stage
and dressing rooms. Backdrops, scenery and a proscenium curtain were acquired
from a bankrupt New York theatrical company. A new generation of drama,
comedy and operas began. "Play tonight!" was anxiously proclaimed regularly
across the valley and beyond.
Locally-produced attractions charged 50-75 cents per ticket -- a high price
for the time. Most patrons paid in kind: molasses, vegetables, fruit, flour
and other commodities. A pair of shoes, and item very hard to come by, would
provide tickets for an entire family.
Literally dozens of plays and musicals were produced and repeated over the
next several decades: The Stranger, The british Slave, Look
Before You Leap, The Gun Maker of Moscow, Kathleen Mavourneen,
The Rose of Etterick Vale, Pissaro, Summer and the Frost
King, Damon and Pythias, and many more.
One memorable play was Jennie Brown or Relief
of the Lucknow with Martha Snow, Frank Snow, John Woodbury,
Josephine Snow, Joseph Bently, and Horatio Pickett. In the emotional final
scene, the heroine is mistreated and denied her children by the villain.
A tipsy miner in the audience became enraged, jumped to his feet and vowed
to kill the scoundrel with his pistol. Friends interfered but the gun went
off and put a bullet hole in the ceiling.
During the early 1900's to the mid-1920's, the Social Hall was called the
"Opera House" because of the many operettas and vaudeville shows that were
presented during host years. Most notable of these were Pinafore
and Robin Hood.
The Social Hall/ Opera House functioned for 50 years as the center of Southern
Utah's cultural activities. A generation of pioneers cast their heavy loads
aside and laughed, cried smiled and cheered.
In the 1930's the Social Hall/Opera House was sold and used as a sugar beet
seed cleaning plant for many years. Later, it was abandoned -- not a fitting
end for such a grand lady. The laugher, once gone, has now returned to this
historic place.
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