The Cedarville Opera House is a historic theater

Theater (structure)

A theater or theatre is a structure where theatrical works or plays are performed or other performances such as musical concerts may be produced. While a theater is not required for performance , a theater serves to define the performance and audience spaces...

 in the village of Cedarville

Cedarville, Ohio

Cedarville is a village in Greene County, Ohio, United States. The population was 3,828 at the 2000 census. It is the home of Cedarville University and Cedarville High School.Cedarville is part of the Dayton Metropolitan Statistical Area...

, Ohio

Ohio

Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. Erected in 1888 on Main Street

U.S. Route 42

U.S. Route 42 is an east–west United States highway that runs northeast-southwest for 355 miles from Cleveland, Ohio to Louisville, Kentucky. The route has several names including Pearl Road from Cleveland to Medina in Northeast Ohio, the Cincinnati and Lebanon Pike in southwestern Ohio and...

 in downtown Cedarville, it has been a premier part of community life since its construction.

Built of brick with elements of stone, the opera house is a Romanesque Revival

Romanesque Revival architecture

Romanesque Revival is a style of building employed beginning in the mid 19th century inspired by the 11th and 12th century Romanesque architecture...

 structure that has served a wide range of purposes in the community. Besides its primary function as a home for the performing arts

Performing arts

The performing arts are those forms art which differ from the plastic arts insofar as the former uses the artist's own body, face, and presence as a medium, and the latter uses materials such as clay, metal or paint which can be molded or transformed to create some physical art object...

, the two-and-a-half-story

Storey

A storey or story is any level part of a building that could be used by people...

 building has housed the offices of Cedarville's mayor and village council, its jail, its fire and police departments, its waterworks, and its library, as well as the township trustees'

Trustee

Trustee is a legal term which, in its broadest sense, can refer to any person who holds property, authority, or a position of trust or responsibility for the benefit of another...

 office for Cedarville Township

Cedarville Township, Greene County, Ohio

Cedarville Township is one of the twelve townships of Greene County, Ohio, United States. The 2000 census found 5,092 people in the township, 1,264 of whom lived in the unincorporated portions of the township.-Geography:...

. When Cedarville's was built, the opera house as an institution was a center of social life in rural Ohio: the public sphere

Public sphere

The public sphere is an area in social life where individuals can come together to freely discuss and identify societal problems, and through that discussion influence political action...

 was nearly nonexistent except for the village opera house, which typically served as a meeting place for travelling vaudeville

Vaudeville

Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...

 acts, political events, musical performances, and graduation

Graduation

Graduation is the action of receiving or conferring an academic degree or the ceremony that is sometimes associated, where students become Graduates. Before the graduation, candidates are referred to as Graduands. The date of graduation is often called degree day. The graduation itself is also...

 ceremonies. Because the first floor has always been used as offices for the various organizations that used the building, public events were typically held on the second floor, which has been little modified by the years; it is one of Ohio's least changed historic performance halls.

In 1984, the Cedarville Opera House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places

National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

, qualifying both because of its historically significant architecture and because of its place in local history. It is one of two National Register-listed properties in Cedarville and one of two National Register-listed opera houses in Greene County

Greene County, Ohio

Greene County is a county located in the state of Ohio, United States. The population was 161,573 in the 2010 Census. Its county seat is Xenia, and it was named for General Nathanael Greene, an officer in the Revolutionary War. Greene County was established on March 24, 1803.Greene County is part...

, along with the Harper Mausoleum and George W. Harper Memorial Entrance and the Jamestown Opera House respectively.