{"nrhp_refnum":"96001618","name":"City Hall and Opera House","other_names":["Village Hall and Opera House"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"156 N. Water St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Loudonville","county":"Ashland County","state":"OH","lat":40.63658723400005,"lon":-82.23467982099999,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1997-01-25","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-story brick combined city hall and opera house on the east side of Water Street in Loudonville, Ashland County, Ohio, built in 1909-1910 to designs by Mansfield architect Vernon Redding.","why_significant":"It is nominated under Criterion C as a distinctive, well-preserved example of the late 19th and early 20th century combination town hall and opera house building type. It was built late in the type's heyday and differs from earlier Ohio examples because the opera house begins at the first-floor level and the design is more ornate. The opera house interior remains largely unchanged.","narrative":"Loudonville's City Hall and Opera House is a two-story building of pressed red brick, completed in 1909-1910 on Water Street at the edge of the village commercial district. Mansfield architect Vernon Redding designed it to hold municipal offices at the front and a 700-seat opera house at the rear. Terra cotta trim decorates the cornice, grouped windows and the band between floors, and an original marquee frame survives over the central entrance. Inside, the auditorium keeps its double balconies, boxes, and floral and swag ornamentation, along with a mosaic tile entry floor and original woodwork. The offices were remodeled in the 1960s, though the council chamber retains its original details, safe and railing. Its significance rests on architecture: it is a well-preserved example of the combined town hall and opera house type that spread across small Ohio towns. Unlike earlier examples, its opera house begins on the first floor. Part of the building still serves as a theater and village offices.","period_of_significance":"1910-1946","architect_builder":"Redding, Vernon","architectural_style":"Neo-classical Revival","criteria":["C"],"status_note":"Still used for village government offices and as a theater; the opera house interior was restored in 1991 and the offices were remodeled in the 1960s.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:52:07.748533-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_OH/96001618.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/96001618/d5eef7f3b7-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/96001618/d5eef7f3b7-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Chris Light (talk)","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:City_Hall_n_Opera_House_P9020192.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Chris Light (talk)</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:City_Hall_n_Opera_House_P9020192.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71986617","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio_Theatre_(Loudonville,_Ohio)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7080984"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/ohio/ashland-county/city-hall-and-opera-house-96001618/"}