{"nrhp_refnum":"73000638","name":"Hawkinsville City Hall-Auditorium","other_names":["Old Opera House"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Lumpkin and Broad Sts.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Hawkinsville","county":"Pulaski County","state":"GA","lat":32.28277972800004,"lon":-83.46859565699998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1973-03-01","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Entertainment/Recreation","Architecture","Social History"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A brick building at the corner of Lumpkin and Broad Streets in Hawkinsville, Pulaski County, Georgia, built in 1907 as the Old Opera House. It served as both city hall and theater, and was designed by W. R. Gunn.","why_significant":"The building brought commercial live theater, concerts and noted speakers to central Georgia, whose residents previously had to travel to Atlanta or New York. It is also a rare, nearly unaltered example of an early twentieth-century opera house. Its plain, functional design is noted as architecturally interesting.","narrative":"Built in 1907 at the corner of Lumpkin and Broad Streets in Hawkinsville, the Old Opera House combined a city hall with a full-scale theater. Architect W. R. Gunn of Macon and Atlanta designed a brick building with varied rooflines, a keystone entrance arch and a marble cornerstone carved like an open book. Inside are 576 seats, two balconies, a deep stage, a fly loft that holds eight sets of scenery and three tiers of dressing rooms. Before it opened, most central Georgians had to travel to Atlanta or New York to see professional theater. Touring companies played Hawkinsville, sometimes for a full week, and railroads ran excursion trains for popular shows. The hall also hosted Chautauqua programs and visiting speakers. Over time it served as a library, club house and temporary church. The building is valued as a rare, nearly unaltered example of an early twentieth-century opera house, and its plain, functional design is noted as architecturally interesting.","period_of_significance":"20th Century (specific date 1907)","architect_builder":"W. R. Gunn, architect (of Macon and Atlanta); J. L. Huggins, general contractor","architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Condition listed as fair and unaltered; owned by the city and described as occupied, with plans for use as a museum and auditorium.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:40.652143-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_GA/73000638.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/73000638/0d83b58c07-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/73000638/0d83b58c07-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Blastoids","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hawkinsville_City_Hall-Auditorium.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Blastoids</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:Hawkinsville_City_Hall-Auditorium.JPG"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"04001349","name":"Hawkinsville Commercial and Industrial Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/georgia/hawkinsville-commercial-and-industrial-historic-district-04001349/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/93209283","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawkinsville_Opera_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q16892201"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/georgia/pulaski-county/hawkinsville-city-hall-auditorium-73000638/"}