{"nrhp_refnum":"98000100","name":"Camden City Hall and Opera House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"54 W. Central Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Camden","county":"Preble County","state":"OH","lat":39.62895354700004,"lon":-84.64986905699999,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1998-02-12","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-story Late Victorian/Romanesque brick building at 54 West Central Avenue in Camden, Preble County, Ohio, built in 1889 as a combined town hall, fire station, jail and opera house. Lloyd & Hewitt of Oxford, Ohio, were the contractors.","why_significant":"The nomination argues it is Preble County's last example of the late 19th century combination town hall and opera house, a building type that paired municipal offices on the first floor with a performance hall on the second. It is listed under Criterion C for architecture. It is compared with other listed Ohio municipal opera houses.","narrative":"Camden City Hall and Opera House, at 54 West Central Avenue, is a two-story brick building completed in 1889 for the village of Camden, Ohio. It measures 44 by 88 feet, with a limestone foundation, mansard roof and round-arched windows and doors topped by limestone lintels with keystones. Municipal offices, a council chamber, a jail and, from 1895 to 1970, the volunteer fire department occupied the first floor. The second floor held an auditorium and balcony seating over 600, and the building opened on May 11, 1889, at a cost of $15,000. It was altered over time: electricity in 1899, removal of the belfry in 1920, and removal of the stage for a gymnasium in the early 1930s. A fire in December 1988 damaged the north side and led to boarded openings. It is significant as the last surviving example in Preble County of the combined town hall and opera house, a type common in small Ohio towns of the late nineteenth century.","period_of_significance":"1889 - ca. 1930","architect_builder":"Lloyd & Hewitt, Oxford, Ohio, Contractors","architectural_style":"Late Victorian/Romanesque","criteria":["C"],"status_note":"Following a fire in December 1988, all windows and all but two doors were boarded up; the form lists current function as work in progress.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:52:06.735693-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_OH/98000100.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/98000100/69910be9d3-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/98000100/69910be9d3-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Christopher L. Riley","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Camden_City_Hall_%E2%80%94_Camden,_Ohio.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Christopher L. Riley</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Camden_City_Hall_%E2%80%94_Camden,_Ohio.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71991037","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q138656760"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/ohio/preble-county/camden-city-hall-and-opera-house-98000100/"}