The Opera House
The Opera House, built in 1888, was located on Williamsboro St. behind the Court House. The year that it opened its first floor held the town hall the public market, the fire department, and a small jail; the second floor served as an opera house. Early pictures show a three story plus belfry as part of the building. In 1921 the building was damaged by fire and the house changed both in structure and function after that time. Through the years that followed it was the site of a wholesale grocery (Morgan and Crews Wholesale) and the home of the American Legion as well as an auto dealership (Sterns-Knight Auto Company), the Headquarters Military Company, possibly a forerunner of the National Guard. In 1958, its downstairs was converted into a fire house. Today this building houses Granville County offices, including County Permits. February 4, 1921 (OPL)--Opera House Fire--While on his rounds at 1 o'clock Wednesday morning (Feb. 2, 1921) Night Officer Roscoe Clark, of the police force, discovered fire in the rear of the old market house on Williamsboro Street, situated between the Taylor-Cannady Buggy Company's plant and the municipal building and in close proximity to the county jail at the rear end. Officer Clark turned in the alarm at five minutes past 1 o'clock and about five minutes later the firemen had three streams of water on the smoking building, which was ready to break into flame at any moment. They were aware that the building contained a quantity of explosives and oils, but this did not deter the brave fire boys, both white and black, from fighting the fire from close range, and report after report, like that of a cannon, was heard in the interior of the building as the fire ate its way up through the structure to the belfry where the fire bell, operated by electric current, gave forth a most doleful sound for twenty minutes, and a still more mournful sound when it left its hanger and plunged to the ground floor with a crash at 2 o'clock. By this time there were at least 500 people at the scene of the fire. It was a bitter cold night and the snow was falling. One could have read a newspaper by the light of the flames anywhere within a half mile of the burning building, and many sat at their windows and watched the flames shoot heavenward, die down and rise again. It was the biggest fire Oxford had witnessed since the conflagration when two whole blocks were reduced to ashes (fires of 1885 and 1887). |
Notice the stocks and pillars in the courtyard
to the right of the building. The first floor housed an open market place.
The Opera House was located on the second floor. The third floor was used for storage. |
The falling glass from the windows in the auditorium above the garage was constant menace to the firemen--Charles Harris, colored, received injuries about the hands of no serious nature. A doctor was summoned from the crowd of spectators and his wounds were treated.
The cell in the municipal building, thirty feet from the burnt building, contained a lone prisoner, and the county jail, forty feet from the raging fire, contained nine prisoners. It was pitiful to hear them pleading for release, pending the arrival of Mr. Conrad Walters, the jailer, lest they be roasted alive. It was perhaps the first time that some of them asked God to be merciful. Mr. Walters arrived in due time and led them to a room in the court house and kept them there until the fire died down, and when they were later returned to their prison home, the walls of their cells had been made comfortably warm by the burning building.
The cell in the municipal building, thirty feet from the burnt building, contained a lone prisoner, and the county jail, forty feet from the raging fire, contained nine prisoners. It was pitiful to hear them pleading for release, pending the arrival of Mr. Conrad Walters, the jailer, lest they be roasted alive. It was perhaps the first time that some of them asked God to be merciful. Mr. Walters arrived in due time and led them to a room in the court house and kept them there until the fire died down, and when they were later returned to their prison home, the walls of their cells had been made comfortably warm by the burning building.