The Smyrna Opera House was located in the Old Town Hall. It stood on land owned by Samuel B. Fisler, a prominent Smyrna citizen and resident dentist. It was leased for $40.00 per year until it was eventually bought from Fisler’s widow, Susannah, for $800. The Town of Smyrna has owned it ever since. It began in 1869 as a combination Town Hall, Opera House and Community Meeting Center
In 1887, the Smyrna town fathers enlarged the Smyrna Opera House, adding an extension that housed a proper stage on the second floor and the fire department on the first. The ‘Old Town Hall ’ had truly become a “full-service †center for the community, housing as it did, on the first floor, the Town Hall, the Fire Department, the Police Department, and the local lock-up (two tiny barred windows on the South Street side of the building are the sole surviving remnant of this colorful part of Smyrna ’s history. )The second floor was devoted to the Opera House, and the third was used as a lodge hall.
Christmas 1948 marked a joyful holiday season that turned unexpectedly to tragedy. Holiday lights, which the Town always strung along the mansard roof, sparked a fire that destroyed the clock tower, the third floor, and portions of the balcony. Stories of the efforts of the fire fighters that night became the stuff of local legend. Fifty years later, at the ground-breaking for the restoration of the building, one eye-witness remembered vividly the brave soul who mounted a ladder to direct a hose against the fire and stayed there for the duration, frozen to the rungs by the spray until he was literally chipped loose several hours later, coated completely in ice. Ironically, when Wilson Cabinet Co. had been burned out earlier that same year from its location across the street, the firm moved its office to the former theatre in the Town Hall only to find itself burned out again. Eventually, the sections that had been the most damaged were removed, and the building was reduced to a two-story flat-roofed structure.
Then in 1994, the Smyrna-Clayton Heritage Association was formed with a mission to preserve and promote the cultural heritage of the greater Smyrna-Clayton area. After considering several projects, the Association decided to turn its attention to the possibility of restoring the Opera House. It seemed, at first, a remote prospect, given the depredations of time and the elements, but after commissioning a structural analysis and a feasibility study, they decided that the Old Town Hall deserved a second chance.
Today, the restored Smyrna Opera House and the accompanying, newly built Annex stand ready to welcome the community once again to their cultural home. It has been a long, expensive, and sometimes difficult process, but in the end, the result seems worthy of the effort. The Opera House, with its long tradition of service to the area, faces a future as one of the community ’s proudest ventures. It will be an embodiment of the faith, pride, and support that Smyrna and Clayton have in their citizens, their children, their past and their future. It is the once and forever dream, made true. -Mary M. Turner
The History of The Smyrna Opera House
Taken from the Smyrna Opera House web site. http://www.smyrnaoperahouse.org/pages/5/index.htm
The Smyrna Opera House was located in the Old Town Hall. It stood on land owned by Samuel B. Fisler, a prominent Smyrna citizen and resident dentist. It was leased for $40.00 per year until it was eventually bought from Fisler’s widow, Susannah, for $800. The Town of Smyrna has owned it ever since. It began in 1869 as a combination Town Hall, Opera House and Community Meeting Center
In 1887, the Smyrna town fathers enlarged the Smyrna Opera House, adding an extension that housed a proper stage on the second floor and the fire department on the first. The ‘Old Town Hall ’ had truly become a “full-service †center for the community, housing as it did, on the first floor, the Town Hall, the Fire Department, the Police Department, and the local lock-up (two tiny barred windows on the South Street side of the building are the sole surviving remnant of this colorful part of Smyrna ’s history. )The second floor was devoted to the Opera House, and the third was used as a lodge hall.
Christmas 1948 marked a joyful holiday season that turned unexpectedly to tragedy. Holiday lights, which the Town always strung along the mansard roof, sparked a fire that destroyed the clock tower, the third floor, and portions of the balcony. Stories of the efforts of the fire fighters that night became the stuff of local legend. Fifty years later, at the ground-breaking for the restoration of the building, one eye-witness remembered vividly the brave soul who mounted a ladder to direct a hose against the fire and stayed there for the duration, frozen to the rungs by the spray until he was literally chipped loose several hours later, coated completely in ice. Ironically, when Wilson Cabinet Co. had been burned out earlier that same year from its location across the street, the firm moved its office to the former theatre in the Town Hall only to find itself burned out again. Eventually, the sections that had been the most damaged were removed, and the building was reduced to a two-story flat-roofed structure.
Then in 1994, the Smyrna-Clayton Heritage Association was formed with a mission to preserve and promote the cultural heritage of the greater Smyrna-Clayton area. After considering several projects, the Association decided to turn its attention to the possibility of restoring the Opera House. It seemed, at first, a remote prospect, given the depredations of time and the elements, but after commissioning a structural analysis and a feasibility study, they decided that the Old Town Hall deserved a second chance.
Today, the restored Smyrna Opera House and the accompanying, newly built Annex stand ready to welcome the community once again to their cultural home. It has been a long, expensive, and sometimes difficult process, but in the end, the result seems worthy of the effort. The Opera House, with its long tradition of service to the area, faces a future as one of the community ’s proudest ventures. It will be an embodiment of the faith, pride, and support that Smyrna and Clayton have in their citizens, their children, their past and their future. It is the once and forever dream, made true. -Mary M. Turner