Mission and History

After the first Barre City Hall, built in 1886, was destroyed by fire in 1898, the current building was erected on the same site. The Opera House, considered the finest in Vermont, opened on August 23, 1899, and originally seated 1,000 patrons. For its first forty-five years, the Opera House served as a performance space and community gathering site for such important events as the appearances of Helen Keller and her teacher Annie Sullivan, socialist Eugene Debs, George M. Cohan and his family, anarchist Emma Goldman, and John Philip Sousa and his band. In 1912, the Opera House’s outer balcony served as a political soapbox for President William Howard Taft and as a backdrop for a Barre rally featuring former President Theodore Roosevelt. Through the thirties and forties, the Opera House functioned primarily as a movie theater with occasional breaks in the schedule for variety shows, boxing, and wrestling matches. With the opening of more modern movie theaters in town, the Barre Opera House’s doors closed in January 1944, not to open again for almost forty years.

Starting in the mid-seventies, a groundswell of community interest and support culminated in the re-opening of the Opera House in October 1982, despite the dingy walls, broken windows, lack of proper seats and heating. Since then, the Barre Opera House has continued its work towards complete restoration and renovation. One year it was the installation of a heating system, the next came theater chairs on the main floor. Curtains, stage lights, and other amenities were gradually added, as the community contributed the necessary time, talent, and financial resources. Increased usage and attendance led to our second major capital construction project, completed in 1993. This million-dollar project included the installation of an elevator, making the box office, lobby, stage and dressing rooms handicap accessible. Balcony seating was restored, raising our seating capacity to 645.

The work didn’t stop there. In subsequent years we have added a full-service box office, a hearing assistance system and state-of-the-art heating, ventilation and air conditioning. In the summer of 2005, we began a complete overhaul of our theatrical lighting system, beginning with the replacement of our electrical wiring, which was completed in 2006. 2008 saw the installation of a brass railing around the perimeter of the orchestra pit, and the replacement of the brass rails in the opera boxes that went missing during the theater’s period of disuse. In 2010, we sound-proofed the theater from the busy downtown street noise by adding interior storm windows.  During the Covid pandemic, we took advantage of the theater being closed to mount a third capital campaign to renovate the stage rigging and restore the orchestra section seating to a rich burgundy color which completes the color scheme throughout the theater. We are currently installing a programmable exterior illumination system to highlight the building and brighten downtown Barre, and we plan to illuminate the balcony stained-glass window to make it visible from the outside of the building. To date, scores of generous individuals, organizations and businesses have contributed over three million dollars to the rebirth of this historic treasure. 

Now gloriously restored to 19th-century grandeur and 21st-century technology, the Barre Opera House offers a wealth of cultural programming, including 20-25 presented performances a year. Over the years we have booked some of the most famous touring acts in the world, including Jackson Brown, Robert Cray, Pilobolus, and in the last few years, Ladysmith Black Mambazo and Los Lobos.

We serve a broad range of ages. We host summer theater camps and student matinees, where busloads of school children are brought in to experience live performing arts first-hand. And, as the Opera House is accessible to those with physical and hearing disabilities, we serve a large community of people with special needs.

We also partner with local artists, serving as a high-quality rehearsal and performance facility for local performing groups. The Opera House is the home of The Vermont Philharmonic, The Green Mountain Youth Symphony, The Vermont Fiddle Orchestra, Moving Light Dance, Contemporary Dance and Fitness, The Miss Vermont Pageant and many other organizations. Local individuals and non-profits use the Opera House for fundraisers and special functions. And we host public forums and large community meetings for the City of Barre.

Altogether, our events attract over 25,000 visitors annually to the Opera House. Although our audiences come largely from Central Vermont, where we are the only performance space of our size, we regularly attract patrons from all over the state, including population centers of Chittenden County Vermont and the Upper (Connecticut River) Valley, surrounding states, and Quebec.