Page 15 - AAA Magazine – AAA Ohio Auto Club – November 2018

The Woodward Opera House, located in Mount Vernon, Ohio, is the oldest authentic 19th-century theater in the United States.
business people and a small group of them created the Palace Guard. Since then, the theater has gone through several restorations and additions, including a 2008 multipurpose addition and 2013 and 2016 restorations to the façade and exterior.
The Akron Civic Theatre, also on the National Register of Historic Places, is another of Eberson’s atmospheric theaters. Designed to look like a night in a Moorish palace garden, the midnight blue ceiling
in the auditorium includes twinkling stars and drifting clouds. The walls in the auditorium, the entrance and the lobby are designed to resemble a Moorish castle, with Mediterranean-style carvings.
The Akron Civic Theatre is the last remaining theater of 11 opened by Marcus Loew, who founded Loew’s Theatres Inc., the former movie theater chain. Loew hired Eberson to design the theater in 1929. The theater closed its doors from mid-2001 to November 2002
to undergo an extensive $19-million renovation that included renovating and modernizing dressing rooms, the sound system and plumbing. The theater also made improvements to its heating, cooling and ventilation system, roof exterior and electrical service, among other things. The 2,672-seat theater has a full schedule that draws audiences to concerts and theatrical productions throughout the year.
Like the Marion Palace Theatre and the Akron Civic Theatre, the Canton Palace Theatre also was designed by Eberson. The building was designed in a Spanish Colonial Revival style and the atmospheric theater, which opened on Nov. 22, 1926, resembles a Spanish courtyard, again with a starry midnight sky with clouds that seem to float across the ceiling. The theater still has the machine that makes the clouds float across the sky.
After a period of decline, the Canton theatre closed on its 50th anniversary in 1976 and also was facing demolition. However, as is the case in many cities across Ohio and the United States, concerned citizens stepped forward and saved the architectural gem. The Canton Jaycees stepped up and acted as a holding organization for the theater until the Canton Palace Theatre Association formed to take it over. The association reopened the building in 1980 and the theater has undergone ongoing renovations since.
It remains a popular venue in Canton for movies, concerts and other local events.
The Opera House Era
Old opera houses dot the downtown
landscapes of many small towns throughout
the United States, and Ohio is no exception. Throughout the 19th century, opera houses were the center of the arts. Usually, commercial spaces occupied the first floors of these structures while the opera houses were on the second floors.
We at Hardlines Design Co. have worked on the restoration of one such opera house for the better part of 20 years. The Woodward Opera House, located in Mount Vernon, Ohio, is the oldest authentic 19th-century theater in the United States. Hardlines Design Co. is currently renovating the building as an effort to bring
its historical significance to the forefront. This multiphase project, which began in 2002, was slated for completion in September.
A main challenge for us has been integrating the restoration of an 1850s theater building with the adaptive reuse of an adjacent building. Once complete, the project will include a restored opera house theater, two smaller performance venues and the restored annex.
The Woodward was the idea of Ebenezer Woodward, a local businessman in Mt. Vernon
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The Woodward. Photo courtesy of Hardlines Design co.
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