Rochester Opera House

Built in 1890, the Opera House Block opened with the First National Bank and Norton Pharmacy on its ground floor. On November 7, 1890, a grand opening dance launched the upper-level opera house as Rochester’s social and cultural center. Until 1933 plays, movies, lectures, dances, reunions, commencements—even boxing matches—filled the calendars, but never an opera. In 1987 this Richardsonian-style landmark, with its sixteen-foot ceilings and stained-glass windows, was restored.