Opera house renovations underway

MENOMINEE, Mich. - The Menominee Opera House was built in 1902 by a group of lumber barons.

“These men were fabulously wealthy, and they wanted a show house when people came or when they wanted to go out on a night on the town, they wanted a nice place to go,” said Mike Kaufman with the Menominee County Historical Society.

Kaufman said the venue drew many different types of acts including musicals and traveling stage shows featuring famous actors.

“The same as you would have seen on Broadway. They brought all their sets and equipment and sometimes casts amounting to 70 people,” said Kaufman.

Historic snapshots taken inside the opera house show stage hands from the 1930s, a school group in the 40s, and the main lobby in the 50s.

That same decade the building caught fire.

It later became a warehouse, but eventually stood vacant and open to the elements.

“I think it's important to, you know, maintain the history of the city,” said Bill Huntley with the Menominee Opera House Committee.

Huntley said the group wants to preserve the building and with just a couple hundred thousand dollars raised for the project, work has begun.

“Right now we're working on the façade of the building, which would be the front of the building where the main entrance would be,” Huntley said.

While the turn of the century building took just four months to build, Huntley says the $15 million renovation project planned by the group will likely take years.

“I don't know that I would see it in my lifetime, maybe, we took seven years of planning to get to the place where we are now,” said Huntley.

The reconstruction will be done in phases. As money comes in through donations and grants, work will be completed.

Meanwhile, the opera house won't sit dormant.

An area musical duo is already shooting a video inside the old building.

“It's kind of interesting. Don't know the last time anyone performed in here,” said musician Danny Van Cleve. “It's just cool playing in here because of the acoustics and it's different,” said Van Cleeve.

Huntley says by next year "Theatre in the Ruins" featuring small events and audiences of 50 to 100 people will be up and running.

He hopes show casing acts like "Fossil Unplugged" will generate interest and dollars toward the reconstruction project.

“I think being in the ruins, seeing what's going on in the midst of the construction at least for me, and I hope for some other people they're going to think it's interesting,” Huntley said.