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Metropolitan Opera House
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| Location: | 515 Washington St., Iowa Falls, Iowa |
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| Built: | 1899 |
| Architect: | O'Meyer & Thori |
| Architectural style: | Renaissance, Italian Renaissance |
| Governing body: | Private |
| NRHP Reference#: | 75000690[1] |
| Added to NRHP: | February 20, 1975 |
The Metropolitan Opera House (MOH) is an historic opera house in Iowa Falls, Iowa and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Commissioned by Eugene S. Ellsworth, the house was designed and built in 1899. Three stories tall, the MOH was designed in the style of Italian Renaissance which was currently in vogue in late 19th-century America. The ground floor of the original theater once sat 441 people and the balcony seated another 390. The original stage of the house had a width of 66 feet and a depth of 30 feet with large wings extending to each side. Offices existed on the second and third floors at the front of the building. Much of the house's interior has been altered to accommodate the movie theatre that now operates there. However, a ballroom on the third floor is still largely intact.[2]
The Metropolitan Opera House opened with its first performance on December 27, 1899 with an audience numbering over 800 people, an occurrence which was later proclaimed in the local newspaper as the "biggest social event in the history of Iowa Falls." During its early years the house staged operas, such as Charles Gounod's Faust, and plays, like Uncle Tom's Cabin and The Merchant of Venice. The theatre garnered a reputation in the area as the "big time theater in a little town" and drew patrons from neighboring towns and cities into Iowa Falls. The house was also host to several notable artists, including Otis Skinner, Walker Whiteside and John Phillip Sousa and his band. In the 1920s, the venue was used both for vaudeville performances and as a cinema house for silent movies. In 1930, the house's first sound system was installed. Between 1930-1954, the house continued to be used to present films, now with sound, and as a venue for the concerts and drama and dance productions of Ellsworth College and Iowa Falls High School. Today the house is still used as a movie theatre under the ownership of BigTime Cinema, a movie theatre chain in the states of Iowa and Missouri.[3] The movie theatre's previous owner, Bob Fridley, significantly renovated the house in 1997.[2]
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