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From Times Herald August 1991: Built in 1916, the three-story building is steeped in town history. It has served at various times as the town's entertainment, cultural and social center. There was an auditorium with a stage where local residents held operas and staged old-time medicine shows, vaudeville acts, burlesque and silent movies. Church services were held there on Sunday mornings. The top floor was a large open room where dances and town meetings went on. It was founded by Herbert Smith. Clayton Welch took over in 1945 and opened a roller rink in the building.
At one time, the school conducted classes there, and basketball games were held there. The basement contained a two-lane bowling alley and pool tables. There were stories about how bootleg whiskey was once manufactured there during Prohibition. Some people remembered a long building just south of the Opera House called the Ten Cent Building which was used for parking horses and buggies.
Source: Ron Glowczewski
It burned down on Tuesday, August 20, 1991. It was located at 45 South Main Street. It was built in 1916. When it burned, the 5 fire departments called to the scene stayed there fighting the fire for 9 hours (4:30 pm Tuesday to 1:15 am Wednesday) and in the meantime, drained the towns 110,000 gallon water tower on it and had to drive north of town to pump water out of a private pond to compensate.
The buildings owner, a Eugene Wilson, told authorities that there was only 4 to 6 barrels of cyanide located in the ruins of the structure. They eventually pulled 100 barrels of cyanide out of the wreckage (83 barrels out of the basement and another 17 barrels sitting behind the place).
The destruction of this structure pretty much marked the death of Carsonville. The untimely departure of the Opera House left a huge void downtown, a year later, the independent hardware store down the street folded, as well as the huge grain elevator on the west edge of town a few years after that.