• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
RuralSWAlabama

RuralSWAlabama

Rural Southwest Alabama: Attractions

  • Region Map
  • By Attraction
  • By County
  • By Town
  • Open for Tours
  • More
  • Show Search
Hide Search

Greensboro Opera House at Greensboro, AL (built ca. 1903)

| Greensboro in Hale County  

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The Greensboro Opera House was built in 1903 on the site of an earlier opera house. The original, built in the 1890s, had burned the preceding year. Although it was grand in design for a small town like Greensboro, the Greensboro Opera House was typical of opera houses built across the nation at that period – a three story building with retail stores on the ground floor and theater and offices on the second and third. The Greensboro Opera House served as a multi-purpose cultural facility for visiting theater groups, local drama, concerts, lectures, town meetings, and dances. With the advent of motion pictures, the Opera House served as the first movie theater in the area before a dedicated movie theater was constructed.

Although it continued for some years as a meeting place and performing arts center, the Greensboro Opera House gradually declined and, suffering the effects of the depression, closed permanently on the eve of World War II.

For more than half a century the Greensboro Opera House sat deserted. In 2003, a group of interested citizens formed Greensboro Opera House, Inc., a 501(c)3, for the purpose of purchasing the Opera House, rehabilitating it, and returning it to a multi-purpose cultural center. Since 2003, Greensboro Opera House, Inc. has purchased the building and paid for it in full. In 2016, the restored first floor of the property was unveiled as a space for meetings, live performances, art exhibits, lectures, and other events.

This building is a contributing property to the Greensboro Historic District that listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). It is located on the southeast corner of Main and Beacon Streets at downtown Greensboro (32.704052,-87.594239 – Google Maps).

Sources: 1) GreensboroOperaHouse.org, 2) NRHP “Greensboro Historic District” Nomination Form.

Tags: alabama, black belt, greensboro, hale county

Explore more

About This Website

Welcome to rural southwest Alabama. This website is dedicated to twelve counties located in rural southwest Alabama which includes a large portion of Alabama’s Black Belt area. This region is known for its rich and diverse heritage, historic homes and churches, and natural beauty. This website contains details about historic and interesting places that you will find in this area of Alabama.

PLEASE NOTE THAT MOST OF THE HOMES INCLUDED ARE PRIVATE RESIDENCES AND, UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED, ARE DRIVE BY ONLY.

We hope that you enjoy this website.

Be sure to like our Facebook page

Dedicated to the memory of Stacy Milstead Henson (1978-2008) & Inez “Sis” Watts (1924-2007).

Footer

Copyright © 2025

  • Facebook
  • Instagram