The Woonsocket opera House
(Park Theatre)
The story of Woonsocket's Grand Theater
The Woonsocket Opera House Company was organized under a charter granted in June 1887 to a group of Woonsocket businessmen. The company was authorized to expand $100,000 with which to build an entertainment center. Members of this company were Edwin B. Miller, president; F.L. O’Reilly, vice president; Willard Kent, secretary; F.G. Jillson, treasurer and seven directors.
In the spring of 1888, construction began on North Main Street near Monument Square, Through the efficient work of Willard Kent, architect, and Horace A. Jenckes builder, the $80,000 building was ready for use in the fall of that same year. Coincidentally the same year that Woonsocket became a city.
The style was described as Romanesque, a blending of Tuscan and Roman architecture. The front of the building included offices, a hotel annex, a store and lobbies. The walls of the six-story theater were brick resting on a granite foundation and trimmed with brownstone. The stage was 54 feet deep and 65 feet wide, and the building had a seating capacity of 1,500 people. According to The Patriot, the Opera House was “one of the most magnificent buildings of its kind, exterior and interior, in the whole of the United States”. The Opera House opened to the public on September 20, 1888. That evening a touring repertory company presented a melodrama entitled, “Ingomar, the Barbarian”.
In 1913 the Opera House transitioned to vaudeville performances and film and was renamed the Park Theatre. Over the years, its popularity declined until 1942, when Woonsocket textile and real estate magnate Arthur Darman purchased the theatre and invested $150,000 into improvements. It reopened on November 6, 1942, as the New Park Theatre. Darman sold the theater in 1945, after losing money on his investment, and the theater closed in 1963 and was left abandoned.
