Photos of Historic Significance!
1894
1894
An exterior shot from the old Bishop's Market parking area. You can see a couple men working on the winter's supply of firewood. I am guessing Carl Pettengill is one of them.
1894
1894
1894
The original structure, built in 1894 is pictured here. No residential wing had been added until sometime between 1906-1908. The barber shop is on the left (note the barber pole), the clothing and general store was in the center. The Opera House was on the second floor with a secret "Aroostook Club" on the top floor. We are guessing it was a gathering area where local businessmen met from time to time.
1924
1894
1940's
The fully completed structure. Dated 1924. The back wing shown on the left, the second & third floors are the residential part of the building. The first floor under the residence was a grain and hardware store. It is said that the 4th floor over the residence was used as a ball room. It seems to make sense given the finished walls and open space.
1940's
1940's
1940's
An old photo of the inside of the theatre. It featured well over 240 seats, including the balcony which also had seating.
1940's
1940's
1940's
Wall murals painted in the 1930's still exist today. They were painted by a Nick Paola who later went on to work for Walt Disney.
1980's
1940's
1940's
The ticket booth. The first site seen when entering the building from the main theatre entrance. A concession area was on the left with a very large popcorn maker and a vast display of candies and other snack items that were available for purchase during the shows.
Don't Get Stuck In The Now!
Embrace Some History!!
The Opera House was built in 1894 by Columbus L. Pettengill, an area lumberman. The second floor of the building, then known as Pettengill Hall, was a place where people gathered for functions from vaudeville, revivals, town meetings and church services, high school plays and high school graduation ceremonies! It was also home to a general and clothing store in the bottom floor and a barber shop!
In around 1907, a large back section was added to be a residential quarters and to add more business space and was attached directly to the original building. It was just two stories tall initially but within a couple years, an additional 2 stories were added, making the addition a 4 story structure. The basement housed a 2 lane bowling alley, the first floor was a feed and grain store which also featured other farming necessities. The second and third floors were the house which had 7 bedrooms. One on the second floor and 6 on the third.
In the 1920's, the second floor of the main building was converted to a movie house and silent films began to play. Folks came from all over to check out what was, at the time, a state-of-the-art center with many new offerings that no one had ever before experienced! Someone would sit at the piano in front of the stage a play music that coincided with the films to show excitement and engage with the audience as at the time, films were silent with no dubbed audio of their own.
More History
In the latter part of the 1920's, audio began to be dubbed into the films and transition away from silent films took place. The theatre was then given a fairly basic audio system to display the sound. From a room in the back corner of the theatre, a person was in charge of maintaining the volume and the fading of the audio.
The theatre continued this same use until the late 1960's when it was closed for good. The family was faced with new regulations and limitations that made it almost impossible to continue the use of the theatre. Given their age, they decided to not invest in the modernization required and to close the theatre.
The building stayed in family ownership until the 1980's when a Knapp couple from Alaska came to town and took an interest in purchasing it. They soon bought the building and named it The Island Falls Opera House as a tribute to the idea of what the building had in it's history! They opened an appliance store in what was the old general/clothing store on the first floor. They operated the store for a few years and intended to reopen the theatre but were never able to make that happen.
They updated the heating systems and made some preservations to the building that surely helped to keep it intact for many more years to come! They were also the successful applicants that got the building it's listing on the National Register of Historic Buildings, a branch of The National Park Service! This recognition allows for certain preservation activities to take place without the necessity of completely modernizing everything to present day code and requirements.
The Knapps later sold the building back to the Pettengill family and they held ownership of it until the mid 1990's when a lady from Southern Maine named Agnes purchased it from them with a dream to revive it herself.
A bit more history and some recent news!
Agnes lived in the main residence and invested a lot of money into the building during her time of ownership. Her dream to reopen the theatre was never met but she was a vital part of the building's continued life. She had all the windows replaced, enclosed porches built all the way around the building which helped keep the weather away. She had the building completely insulated and vinyl siding and trim installed throughout! She also had the old knob and tube wiring removed and new modern circuit breakers and wiring installed throughout.
Agnes was an elderly lady by this time and she became unable to live alone here and eventually went into a nursing home. The building was sold a time or two more after her departure. Each person having some kind of plan to do something great with the place, but no one ever was able to get anything off the ground. The last person to own the building before we purchased it, owned it for around 15 years, of which all of those, the place sat vacant.