{"nrhp_refnum":"02001454","name":"Smith's Opera House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"82 Seneca St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Geneva","county":"Ontario County","state":"NY","lat":42.86674269300005,"lon":-76.98399230099994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1979-10-10","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":[],"significance_levels":[],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A three and one-half story brick and stone theater at 82 Seneca Street in Geneva, Ontario County, New York, built in 1894 as Smith Opera House and later known as the Geneva Theater.","why_significant":"It has served as Geneva's main center of cultural activity from its 1894 construction onward, first as an opera house and then as a movie and community theater. It is also an important example of late nineteenth century architecture with a largely unaltered Renaissance-inspired facade by the firm Pierce & Bickford, and it is tied to the philanthropist William Smith.","narrative":"Geneva's largest theater, at 82 Seneca Street, began as Smith Opera House in 1894. William Smith, a nurseryman, banker and philanthropist, financed it after a fire destroyed the earlier Linden Hall opera house. The building combined a theater with a commercial block holding a post office, shops, offices and a lecture room. Its five-bay brick and stone facade, designed by Elmira architects Pierce & Bickford, uses Renaissance details, terra-cotta ornament and a lively roofline with a balustrade and frontispiece. Schine Enterprises bought the building in 1927 and had it remodeled from 1929 to 1931 by Victor A. Rigament, adding a Baroque interior and seating for 1,484. It then operated mainly as a movie house while hosting concerts, graduations, wartime bond rallies and church services. After closing in 1977, local citizens worked to keep it open as a performing arts center.","period_of_significance":"1800-1899","architect_builder":"1894: Pierce and Bickford (facade; Leon Lampert and Sons of Rochester for the auditorium); 1929-31 interior: Victor A. Rigament","architectural_style":"Renaissance-inspired facade details; Baroque interior motif from the 1929-31 renovation","criteria":[],"status_note":"The theater closed in November 1977; a citizens' group working through Geneva Concerts, Inc. took an option to buy it and was keeping it running with concerts, plays, movies and community events.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:50:39.321255-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/02001454.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/02001454/0721ef0737-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/02001454/0721ef0737-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Marcbela","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Smith_Opera_House.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Marcbela</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Smith_Opera_House.jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"14000225","name":"Geneva Downtown Commercial Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/new-york/geneva-downtown-commercial-historic-district-14000225/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75320538","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smith%27s_Opera_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7544868"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/ontario-county/smiths-opera-house-02001454/"}