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Back to Facade and Feasibility StudyStanly News and Press May 9, 1991 Opera
House will come alive with music Saturday
By
BRIDGET HUCKABEE For the first time
in 79 years, the sound of music will fill the Albemarle Opera House. Saturday Gena
Poovey, visiting artist at Stanly Community College, will stand on the old
wooden stage, her lyric soprano filling the building. There will be no
satin curtains, no horse-drawn carriages pulled up outside. But for a few hours,
the spirit of the old building will come alive and citizens of Stanly County
will see the rare historical property that stands in their midst. From 10 a.m. to 4
p.m. during Albemarle's “Celebration Stanly", the Opera House opens to the
general public. Carriage tours of the downtown area stop off there; refreshments
will be served and a narrative history given. Once the focal
point of Stanly County's cultural life, the Albemarle Opera House sat empty and
desolate for years. Hidden above Starnes Jewelers and Satin and Lace, it
remained dark and unused. Outside, the town and county grew. Busy surviving
depressions, recessions and world wars, people had little time for minstrels and
troubadors. After long shifts at the mill or on the farm, it was sports or radio
or television. Today, few people are even aware the Opera House still exists. But there is a new
spirit stirring, a new interest in America's history, a new interest in local
history. No longer quick to tear down, America is taking a second look at its
old buildings. Where possible they are preserving, restoring, and bringing back
to life the solid structures of the past. As
Gena Poovey’s voice fills the Opera House Saturday, “Celebration Stanly”
will proudly advance this spirit. |