3-80 Richwood Opera House and Town Hall

Counties

3-80 Richwood Opera House and Town Hall

Side A: The Richwood Opera House and Town Hall was erected in 1890 as a community center designed to house the town council chambers, fire department, jail and opera house. The Richardsonian Romanesque styled building served Richwood in all these capacities for nearly 75 years. The Opera House was the site of minstrel shows, concerts, movies, lecture courses, revivals, farmers’ institutes, commencements, and community meetings. The second floor gymnasium was used for a men’s independent basketball league, dance classes, and as a teen center after World War II. Construction of an interurban railway running between Richwood and the resort town of Magnetic Springs in 1906 provided an expanded audience for the Opera House. (continued on other side)

Side B: The Richwood Symphony Orchestra made its home here in the 1920s – 1940s. The Opera House later became the Union Theatre, which closed in the 1960s, and the space was used to meet the growing needs of the municipal government. The fire department was housed here until 2001 when a new station was built. The Richwood Opera House and Town Hall is significant as a nineteenth century town hall that continues to function as the village’s center of government in the twenty-first century. A restored 1903 clock sits atop the tower, being the inspiration for the Richwood village motto, “Where the clock strikes hospitality.”