The Calumet Theatre is a historic theatre located at 340 Sixth Street in the town of

Calumet, Michigan Calumet ( or ) is a Village (United States), village in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Upper Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. The village is located within Calumet Charter Township, Michigan, Calumet Township, Houghton County, Michiga ...

. It is also known as the Calumet Opera House or the Calumet Civic Auditorium. It is integral to, but a separate unit of, the Calumet municipal building. The structure was designated a

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

State Historic Site in 1971 and added to 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 ...

in 1971. It is one of the 21

Heritage Sites A national heritage site is a heritage site having a value that has been registered by a governmental agency as being of national importance to the cultural heritage or history of that country. Usually such sites are listed in a heritage registe ...

which partners with the

Keweenaw National Historical Park Keweenaw National Historical Park is a unit of the U.S. National Park Service. Established in 1992, the park celebrates the life and history of the Keweenaw Peninsula in the Upper Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is a federal-local ...

. The theatre was the original home o
The Red Jacket Jamboree
an old-time radio variety show.

History

The village of Calumet was a prosperous community at the close of the nineteenth century, primarily due to the rich vein of

copper Copper is a chemical element; it has symbol Cu (from Latin ) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orang ...

mined by the

Calumet and Hecla Mining Company The Calumet and Hecla Mining Company was a major copper-mining company based within Michigan, Michigan's Copper Country. In the 19th century, the company paid out more than $72 million in shareholder dividends, more than any other mining company ...

, located just south and east of the village. In 1898, the community decided that an

opera house An opera house is a theater building used for performances of opera. Like many theaters, it usually includes a stage, an orchestra pit, audience seating, backstage facilities for costumes and building sets, as well as offices for the institut ...

was required to serve the people of Calumet.Theatre History
from the Calumet Theatre. Local architect Charles K. Shand was chosen to design the building, and

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

interior designer William Eckert developed a crimson, gold, and ivory color scheme for the interior.Calumet Theatre
from the state of Michigan The theatre opened on March 20, 1900, with the

operetta Operetta is a form of theatre and a genre of light opera. It includes spoken dialogue, songs and including dances. It is lighter than opera in terms of its music, orchestral size, and length of the work. Apart from its shorter length, the oper ...

''The Highwayman'', by

Reginald De Koven Henry Louis Reginald De Koven (April 3, 1859January 16, 1920) was an American music critic and prolific composer, particularly of comic operas. Biography De Koven was born in Middletown, Connecticut, and moved to Europe in 1870, where he receive ...

and Harry B. Smith, on tour from

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street ** Broadway Theatre (53rd Stre ...

. The theatre was one of the first municipal theatres in the country. It soon attracted attention from America's finest actors, actresses, and other theatre greats, such as

Frank Morgan Francis Phillip Wuppermann (June 1, 1890 – September 18, 1949), known professionally as Frank Morgan, was an American character actor. He was best known for his appearances in films starting in the silent era in 1916, and then numerous sound ...

(later famous for his roles in ''The Wizard of Oz''),

Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. Douglas Elton Fairbanks Sr. (born Douglas Elton Thomas Ullman; May 23, 1883 – December 12, 1939) was an American actor and filmmaker best known for being the first actor to play the masked Vigilante Zorro and other swashbuckling roles in si ...

Lon Chaney, Sr. Leonidas Frank "Lon" Chaney (April 1, 1883 – August 26, 1930) was an American actor and makeup artist. He is regarded as one of the most versatile and powerful actors of cinema, renowned for his characterizations of tortured, often gr ...

John Philip Sousa John Philip Sousa ( , ; November 6, 1854 – March 6, 1932) was an American composer and conductor of the late Romantic music, Romantic era known primarily for American military March (music), marches. He is known as "The March King" or th ...

Sarah Bernhardt Sarah Bernhardt (; born Henriette-Rosine Bernard; 22 October 1844 – 26 March 1923) was a French stage actress who starred in some of the most popular French plays of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including by Alexandre Dumas fils, ...

, and Madame

Helena Modjeska Helena Modrzejewska (; born Jadwiga Helena Mizel; October 12, 1840 – April 8, 1909), known professionally in the United States as Helena Modjeska, was a Polish-American actress who specialized in Shakespearean and tragic roles. She was success ...

among others. As time wore on, the theatre began to lose popularity, due mostly to the decline of the local economy and the increasing popularity of movies. In the late 1920s, the theatre was converted to a motion-picture house, serving in this medium until the 1950s. Summer stock theatre was brought back to the Calumet Theater in 1958, and performed there every summer until 1968, and returned in 1972. In 1975, the auditorium was restored for the

centennial A centennial, or centenary in British English, is a 100th anniversary or otherwise relates to a century. Notable events Notable centennial events at a national or world-level include: * Centennial Exhibition, 1876, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. ...

of Calumet. In 1988-89, the exterior of the theatre was restored. In 1983, the Calumet Theatre Company was incorporated as a

non-profit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

.About Us
from the Calumet Theatre In 2013, the theater began working on adding an elevator to improve accessibility for the second floor and balcony. The elevator was installed in 2018. Three staff members as well as volunteers help to operate the Theatre. Today, the Calumet Theatre is home to as many as 60 theatre-related events a year, with an estimated 18,000 people attending.

Description

The Calumet Theatre is a two-story

Renaissance revival Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th-century architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range of ...

structure constructed from yellowish-brown brick. The building sits on a

Jacobsville sandstone Jacobsville Sandstone is a red sandstone formation, marked with light-colored streaks and spots, primarily found in northern Upper Michigan, portions of Ontario, and under much of Lake Superior. Desired for its durability and aesthetics, the sa ...

foundation, and has a copper roof with copper

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative Moulding (decorative), moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, ar ...

s. A porte-cochere covers one entrance, and a clock tower originally rising to include a bell) stands nearby. An illuminated

marquee Marquee may refer to: * Marquee (overhang), a secondary covering attached to the exterior wall of a building * Marquee (structure), a structure placed over the entrance to a hotel, theater, casino, train station, or similar building. * Pole marquee ...

is at the Sixth Street entrance. The theatre itself originally held 1200 seats. With the closure of the 2nd balcony, and addition of the movie projection booth on the 1st balcony, the Theatre now holds 700 seats and features 5 fantastic murals on the

proscenium A proscenium (, ) is the virtual vertical plane of space in a theatre, usually surrounded on the top and sides by a physical proscenium arch (whether or not truly "arched") and on the bottom by the stage floor itself, which serves as the frame ...

arch.

Ghost stories

Some of the visitors to the Calumet Theatre hope to catch a glimpse of the reputed

ghost In folklore, a ghost is the soul or Spirit (supernatural entity), spirit of a dead Human, person or non-human animal that is believed by some people to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely, from a ...

of the theatre, Madame Helena Modjeska. The story of the ghost first emerged in 1958, when actress Adysse Lane claimed that the ghost of Madame Modjeska appeared to her during a performance when Lane had forgotten her lines. Since then, unexplainable happenings have occurred. Many people have heard music and felt cold air from nowhere. The Calumet Theatre was featured as a haunted location on the paranormal TV series ''

Most Terrifying Places Most or Möst may refer to: Places * Most, Kardzhali Province, a village in Bulgaria * Most (city), a city in the Czech Republic ** Most District, a district surrounding the city ** Most Basin, a lowland named after the city ** Autodrom Most, moto ...

'' which aired on the

Travel Channel Travel Channel (stylized as Trvl Channel since 2018) is an American pay television television channel, channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, who previously owned the channel from 1997 to 2007. The channel is headquartered in Manhattan, with ...

in 2019. The segment showed how the town and the theater are connected to the Italian Hall massacre that killed 73 people on Christmas Eve at the nearby Italian Society Hall in 1913.

References

External links

Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Calumet Theatre, The Buildings and structures in Houghton County, Michigan Theatres on the National Register of Historic Places in Michigan Michigan State Historic Sites in Houghton County Tourist attractions in Houghton County, Michigan Theatres completed in 1900 Renaissance Revival architecture in Michigan National Register of Historic Places in Keweenaw National Historical Park National Register of Historic Places in Houghton County, Michigan Individually listed contributing properties to historic districts on the National Register in Michigan 1900 establishments in Michigan