Farmville Town Hall/Opera House/Armory/Fire station

Town Hall/Opera house

The town hall was originally built on September 9, 1855 by Messrs. Burton and as an opera house. The town hall is currently located at 116 North Main Street. The opera house was the first building to be owned by the city of Farmville and was the first to receive electricity. Also, the opera house owned the oldest telephone in the city. The hall was also used as an armory before it became a town hall . In 1911, the opera house was shut down because it could not show the motion pictures and the Opera was moved to another theatre. Today, the building is used for office buildings for town hall.

The Opera House cost about $4, 000 to be built, according to Longwood professor Dr. Bruce Speas and the seating capacities ranged between 500-750. Ironically, there never was a full opera performed at the opera house. Opera singers and plays (drama and tragedies). Most residents of Farmville are unaware that the opera house existed in their history. This implies that the lapse in the memories of these residents that the Reconstruction destroyed the records of the town.

Sources:

Bradshaw. H. Clarence. History of Farmville Virginia 1798-1948. Farmville Herald. Farmville, Virginia. 1944.

Farmville Herald. “Drama Unfolds Underneath the Theatre: Archaeologists Uncover a part of Farmville’s past”. https://www.farmvilleherald.com/2016/02/drama-unfolds-beneath-theater-archaeologists-uncover-evidence-of-farmvilles-past/ (accessed November 2019).

Farmville Herald. Today and Yesterday in the Heart of Virginia. Farmville Herald. Farmville, Virginia. March 29, 1935.

Harris. Warren, G. “Crute Theatre,” Cinema Treasures, http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/20578 (accessed November, 2019).

_____. Prince Edward County Virginia Heritage 1754-2008. Farmville Herald. Farmville, Virginia.2008

Speas, Bruce. Theatre Symposium, Theatre and Travel: Tours of the South. University of Alabama Press. Volume 13. 2005.