Smyrna, Delaware

With its Italianate, Second Empire architecture, mansard roof, and brick exterior, the Smyrna Opera House is an outstanding example of the Second Floor Opera House, so popular in the second half of the 19th century and virtually non-existent in today’s communities. In the 1870s nearly every community had such a structure. Today there are perhaps half a dozen restored examples in the United States, and the Smyrna Opera House is the only one in Delaware. 

The Opera House rose in 1870 to literally become the center of Smyrna and Clayton life, hosting community events from high school graduations to cotillions, parties and turkey suppers. Formally known as The Old Town Hall, it has housed a theatre, Town offices, police and fire stations, a public library, a movie house called the Roxy, a lodge hall and even a jail. The barred windows of the jail are still visible.  

Among those who appeared at the Opera House were noted abolitionist Frederick Douglass; suffragettes Grace Greenwood, Lucy Stone, and Olive Logan; entertainers General Tom Thumb and Ada Gilman; musicians Frank Corbett and his Boston All-Star Orchestra and the Amphion Male Quartette; and, William Jennings Bryan, who spoke here while campaigning for president in 1900.  

The Opera House seen today is a restoration of the original. On Christmas night 1948 a fire swept through a block of downtown Smyrna, consuming the third floor and bell tower. Rather than raze the entire building it was decided to roof over the remnants. For a half-century the wounded hulk was little more than storage space. But in 2003 a $3.6 million recreation project brought the Opera House back to its 1887 appearance.  

The Town government offices moved out of the fire-compromised Opera House into this Colonial Revival building in 1976.