The Newport Opera House is a historic civic building and performing arts venue at 20 Main Street in the heart of downtown

Newport Newport most commonly refers to: *Newport, Wales *Newport, Rhode Island, US Newport or New Port may also refer to: Places Asia *Newport City, Metro Manila, a Philippine district in Pasay * Newport (Vietnam), a United States Army and Army of t ...

, the county seat of

Sullivan County, New Hampshire Sullivan County is a County (United States), county in the U.S. state of New Hampshire. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 43,063, making it the second-least populous county in New Hampshire. Its county seat i ...

, United States. Built in 1886, it was billed as having the largest stage in

New England New England is a region consisting of six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the ...

north of

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, and continues to serve as a performance venue today. The building was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

, as "Town Hall and Courthouse", in 1980, for its architecture and civic roles, and is a contributing property in the Newport Downtown Historic District.

Description and history

The Newport Opera House is located on the east side of Main Street in downtown Newport. The -story brick building, with its clock and bell tower, is the most prominent feature of Newport's historic downtown. Architecturally the building is of a restrained Queen Anne Victorian style, with Panel Brick elements. Its main block is capped by a

hip roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downward to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope, with variants including Tented roof, tented roofs and others. Thus, a hipped roof has no gables or other ve ...

, with a

corbel In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal keyed into and projecting from a wall to carry a wikt:superincumbent, bearing weight, a type of bracket (architecture), bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in t ...

led brick cornice. Trim elements are mainly brick, but are accented with

terra cotta Terracotta, also known as terra cotta or terra-cotta (; ; ), is a clay-based Vitrification#Ceramics, non-vitreous ceramicOED, "Terracotta""Terracotta" MFA Boston, "Cameo" database fired at relatively low temperatures. It is therefore a term used ...

panels. Windows on the ground floor are topped by segmented arches, while those on the second story have round-arch tops. The tower projects from the front facade, with the main entrance at its front. It has a belfry stage, which for a time housed the

Revere bell The Revere Bell was a gift to Singapore by Mrs. Maria Revere Balestier, the daughter of Paul Revere and wife of the first American Consul to Singapore, Joseph Balestier. Cast by the Revere Copper Company in Boston, Massachusetts, it is the o ...

that now stands in front of the building. Above the belfry stage the tower has a pyramidal roof from which gabled dormers project that house clock faces. The building was built in 1886 to replace the previous town hall and courthouse which had burned down in 1885. It was designed by Hiram Beckwith, a regionally prominent architect from

Claremont Claremont may refer to: Places Australia *Claremont, Ipswich, a heritage-listed house in Queensland * Claremont, Tasmania, a suburb of Hobart * Claremont, Western Australia, a suburb of Perth * Town of Claremont, Perth * Claremont Airbase, an ...

. It served for many years as Newport's town hall and as the main courthouse for Sullivan County, and has long served the region as a performance space The rebuilt Opera House was noted to have the largest stage north of

. In 1974, the Opera House was restored, which concluded with the unveiling of the stage in 1976 and the production of ''

The Music Man ''The Music Man'' is a musical theatre, musical with book, music, and lyrics by Meredith Willson, based on a story by Willson and Franklin Lacey. The plot concerns a confidence trick, con man Harold Hill, who poses as a boys' band organizer and ...

''. Image:The Newport Opera House, evening.jpg,

References

External links

Newport Opera House Association
{{NRHP in Sullivan County, New Hampshire Theatres in New Hampshire Government buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in New Hampshire Queen Anne architecture in New Hampshire Buildings and structures in Sullivan County, New Hampshire National Register of Historic Places in Sullivan County, New Hampshire Newport, New Hampshire Individually listed contributing properties to historic districts on the National Register in New Hampshire

Description and history

See also

References

External links