Smith Opera House

Built in 1894, the Smith’s Opera House operated as an opera house and vaudeville theatre until it became the flagship of the Schine Circuit Inc. on March 17, 1931 opening as Schine’s Geneva Theatre with Buster Keaton in “Parlor, Bedroom and Bath”.

This majestic opera house was renovated by architect Victor Rigaumont in a unique combination of Art Deco and Baroque motifs. There are also evidences of Victorian and Moorish influences. By the 1950’s it had been renamed Geneva Theatre. It closed as a full-time movie theatre in the late-1970’s.

This theatre is registered with the Smithsonian as well as the National Register for Historic Places. Famous names to have graced its stage include: George M. Cohan, Isadora Duncan, Al Jolson, Itzhak Perlman, Wynton Marsalis, Billy Joel, and Dave Matthews¡just to mention a few.

Located in downtown Geneva at the head of beautiful Seneca Lake, the Smith Opera House was proudly entering its 107th year of operation in 2001. A $2.5 million restoration campaign was almost completed.

The opera house continues to show a wide variety of live performances year-round. On weekends, the theatre shows movies on what is the largest indoor movie screen for almost 100 miles around.

Recent comments (view all 31 comments)

Giles on March 10, 2009 at 10:00 am

what the dimensions of the screen?

Karen Colizzi Noonan on August 4, 2009 at 12:12 pm

Well neither of these marquees could come close to the stunning original Schine marquees. They knew how to do it right in those days!

TLSLOEWS on June 2, 2010 at 2:04 pm

I agree the building is great but the new marquee looks good but does not fit in.

Joe Vogel on February 1, 2013 at 1:59 pm

Ranjit Sandhu’s partial list of the works of Leon H. Lempert & Son attributes the design of the Smith Opera House building to Pierce & Bickford, but says that Leon H. Lempert, Sr., designed the auditorium and stage of the theater itself, but he doesn’t cite a source for the claim.

The March 10, 1894, issue of The Engineering Record does note Lempert as the architect for William Smith’s proposed opera house at Geneva, but doesn’t mention Pierce & Bickford. It is possible that Smith decided to change architects, though its also possible that Lempert served as consulting architect for the theater portion of the building.

In any case, even if Lempert did design the auditorium, Victor Rigaumont’s later remodeling completely transformed the interior, so it’s unlikely that anything would remain of Lempert’s design today.

Joe Vogel on February 1, 2013 at 3:36 pm

During the years 1918 and 1919, the Geneva Daily Times carries ads for the Regent and Temple Theatres and for a vaudeville and movie house called the Strand Theatre, but I find no mentions of the opera house during that time. The ads for the Strand vanish by 1920, and the Smith Opera House reappears. I wonder if they were the same theater?

DavidZornig on December 7, 2017 at 4:30 pm

Photo as the Geneva in 1964 added, Via Bob Rokitowski‎.

jeffreyt on August 21, 2018 at 11:12 am

The Opera House was known as the Strand for a short period of time

Texas2step on September 10, 2018 at 6:29 pm

Schine’s Geneva Theatre opened on March 17, 1931. The feature film was “Parlor, Bedroom and Bath” with Buster Keaton.

50sSNIPES on September 3, 2025 at 10:13 am

The Geneva Theatre closed as a first-run house in the late-1970s.

50sSNIPES on December 8, 2025 at 2:52 pm

Once known as Schine’s Geneva Theatre, and later just simply Geneva Theatre.