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Back in the mid-nineteenth century, Nelsonville native George Stuart’s showboat called the Arizona traveled on canals throughout Ohio with his minstrel troupe. In 1869, the Arizona sank in the Erie Canal during a rough storm. Stuart then returned to the booming coal mining town of Nelsonville with a dream of building an opera house to serve Nelsonville and Southeastern Ohio.

Envisioning a community-based arts center where first-class performances and community events could be staged, he built a magnificent theatre with bricks made by hand from a local surface clay. The second-story playhouse called Stuart’s Opera House opened in 1879 and an article in the Athens Messenger called it, "…an ornament to the town and a monument to the public spirit of its projector." During its glory, the opera house housed a variety of events including professional touring shows of vaudeville, musicals, minstrel shows, and melodramas, community theatre, meetings, hig ...

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