{"nrhp_refnum":"71000212","name":"Woodland Opera House","other_names":["Hershey Opera House"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"320 2nd St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Woodland","county":"Yolo County","state":"CA","lat":38.677774697000075,"lon":-121.77192146099998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1971-11-05","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Entertainment/Recreation","Architecture","Social History"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-story red brick opera house at 320 Second Street in downtown Woodland, Yolo County, California, built in 1895-96 with financing from David Newcomer Hershey. It replaced an 1885 opera house at the same site that burned in 1892.","why_significant":"The nomination calls it a remarkable theatre that reflected local pride in the community's culture. It is described as one of four 19th-century California buildings designed as theatres and still intact for that use. Over 120 pieces of its original hand-painted scenery, including the drop curtain and a Rocky Mountain panorama, survive in good condition.","narrative":"Woodland's Opera House, at 320 Second Street, is a two-story red brick theatre built in 1895-96 to replace an earlier opera house on the same site that opened in 1885 and burned in 1892. The new building runs 104 feet along Second Street and incorporates the east and west walls of its predecessor. Its facade is divided into seven sections by quasi-buttresses and is almost without decoration. Inside, a 25-foot-deep stage, a horseshoe balcony and a dress circle gave a total capacity of 644, a high figure for the town's population at the time. The stage house burned in 1937. David Newcomer Hershey, a California pioneer, an agricultural landowner and a state assemblyman, financed construction with support from a syndicate of local citizens. It is listed as one of four 19th-century California buildings designed as theatres and still intact for that use. More than 120 original painted scenes survive, held by the University of California, Davis.","period_of_significance":"1895-96","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Not adhering to any clearly definable architectural style (form notes a link to the adjoining Richardsonian-Romanesque Elliot building)","criteria":[],"status_note":"Condition listed as fair and altered; the stage house burned in 1937. The form checks the property as unoccupied and advocates restoration as an operating theatre.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:31.942515-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_CA/71000212.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/71000212/79c0889e0b-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/71000212/79c0889e0b-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 2.0","author":"Flickr user basykes","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Woodland_Opera_House.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Flickr user basykes</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 2.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Woodland_Opera_House.jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"99000471","name":"Downtown Woodland Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/california/downtown-woodland-historic-district-99000471/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/123862414","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodland_Opera_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2593174"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/california/yolo-county/woodland-opera-house-71000212/"}