Corning Opera House
800 Davis Ave., Corning, IAThe Coming Opera House (1902) at 800 Davis Avenue is locally significant under Criterion A in the area of Performing Arts as the building most closely associated with live stage entertainment in Coming. Between the early 1880s and the early 1930s Corning could boast of at least one opera house in operation, sometimes two operating concurrently. The present Corning Opera House, the subject of this nomination, 15 at least the third building known to have served as a performa Coming. The first known opera house, G.C. Calkin's (1883) at 8th and Benton, is non-extant. The second, the Palace Rink Opera House (pre-1886) at 6th and Adams, has been dramatically altered and is deemed ineligible for the National Register at this time. The present opera house offered a variety of theatrical productions to residents of Corning and the surrounding area for over thirty years (19021934), serving as a community gathering place and the center of the town's cultural life. Its construction was noted as a culminating achievement in Corning's social history: that it was called "an ornament to the city" reveals its importance as a source of civic pride. Its association with the attached city hall also reflects the opera house's prominence in town life.
Between c. 1920 and 1931, the opera house functioned primarily as a movie theater, the largest of its kind in Coming for ten years, but it also housed vaudeville shows and high school plays on occasion. The opera house's period of significance begins with its construction in 1902 and ends with the last live production known to have been staged there. Blue Heaven, directed by Milo Green in 1934
The Corning Opera House is an opera hall, the intermediate type of theater structure, by virtue of its second-floor location, relatively small stage, two exits, lack of box scats, and spare interior decoration. Its raked floor with fixed, cushioned opera chairs, its raked, horseshoe balcony, and the fact that it has specialized rooms backstage, on the other hand, indicate that it was designed with the presentation of drama in mind rather than as a multifunctional hall. As such it is the best remaining evidence live stage theater tradition in Corning,
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1993.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.