MEAFORD HALL OPERA HOUSE
HOSTS GEORGIAN FESTIVAL THEATRE
Story and photos by Barb & Ron Kroll
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Meaford Hall Opera House, a wonderful old building from 1908, is located two hours northwest of Toronto, Ontario, on the shores of Georgian Bay. "Nearly every town in Southern Ontario had an opera house in the late 1800s until WWI," says Claudia Staines, marketing/administration director for The Georgian Theatre Festival, which is housed in the building.
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| Claudia Staines, marketing-administrative director for The Georgian Festival Theatre, at Meaford's Opera House. Meaford, Ontario. |
| Photo © Barb & Ron Kroll |
"Meaford Hall Opera House has had many lives. Farmers pulled carts through the barn-like doors to load market stalls in the basement," explains Staines. In her office, we view one of six heavy steel vaults used by the town council for municipal records. We walk into an art gallery with an old wooden door labelled: Judges Room. This room was the provincial court.
Police department with jail cells
Our biggest surprise came when Staines unlocked a door with a Meaford Police Dept sign. Inside, three doors with black iron bars swing open to reveal jail cells, complete with original wooden cots. "The cells were last occupied pre-WWII," says Staines. "In the late 90s, the theatre used the police department as a gift shop, and the cells for storage."
We couldn't wait to see the theatre on the second floor, with its Edwardian décor. Excellent acoustics made it Meaford's cultural centre for nearly 100 years. We imagined the concerts, road shows and political speeches given by John Diefenbaker and Lester Pearson on the old wooden stage.
Theater seats with hat racks
The fold-down wooden seats, with ornate cast iron legs, fascinated us. Staines showed us the wire-frame racks, below, for men's hats. (Ladies wore their hats.) "The opera house purchased 500 of these seats for $1200 in 1908. Renovations, completed in December 2005, added 240 new cushioned seats to the main floor of the theatre. We saved 150 of the old seats for the balcony."
Broad-beamed patrons may want to book the modern main floor seats. The widest wooden seat is 41 cm (16 inches). The narrowest is only 37 cm (14.4 inches) across.
TRAVEL INFORMATION
Georgian Theatre Festival: www.geotheatre.org
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