A woman – a long-time local resident – was taking a tour of the Napa Valley Opera House a few weeks before the 2003 grand opening.

She walked up the stairs and into the theatre – the first time she had seen inside in many years. As she looked around the freshly restored hall, she began shaking her head with amazement.

“I was one of those who took part in that ‘buy-a-brick’ program many years ago,” she told her guide, “and I remember going home to my husband that night and saying, ‘we will never live to see that building restored.’”

Indeed, for residents who have lived here more than six or seven years, early memories of the Napa Valley Opera House are of an eyesore marked by tattered awnings, dusty storefronts and long windows shuttered by plywood.

For those who dared to venture inside the hall, the scene was catastrophic: paint and plaster peeled from sagging walls, and a gaping hole grew in the ceiling. Adding to cosmetic woes were structural problems. Through the years, the building had been wounded by floods, neglect, and even the Great Quake of 1906.

It seemed an ignoble end was the fate for this magnificent theatre, which had been the cause of so much excitement in 1879.

By the 1970s the Opera House had become a nuisance and a potential liability for the city. Would fire bring it down? Would its brick walls collapse? The city pressed the owners for a solution. Eventually the building faced one of two fates: complete demolition, or conversion into a shopping complex.

Such scenarios would have been inconceivable to Napans in 1879, who believed they were building a theatre for the ages. As construction of the Opera House wrapped up, the Napa Daily Register reported on the event with obvious civic pride:

“The Napa Opera House stands completed, a substantial, well-built, finely finished edifice – an ornament to the city and an enduring monument to the public spirit of its owner, G. W. Crowey. A better building and finer hall of its size cannot be found outside of San Francisco.”

There were good reasons for the accolades. The exterior was designed by the Newsom brothers, who later designed the Carson Mansion in Eureka. Local architect Ira Gilchrist, who had earned respect in Napa for his planning of the Court House, was also involved,.

The elaborate Italianate façade was matched with equally splendorous furnishings inside; the theatre boasted an illustrated curtain, a painted proscenium, a huge 24-light chandelier overhead and a spectacular curved staircase leading to the balcony.

The Opera House officially opened with a production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore. In those days, Napa numbered just 5,000 people. Since the success of the theatre was not assured, the owner George Crowey built the stage on the second floor, which enabled him to offer shops on the first floor of the building and earn a steady income. Today’s lobby was originally the quarters for a saloon, a butcher shop and a dry goods store.

Crowey also followed another practice of that era: by calling his venue an “Opera House,” he could distinguish it from bawdy burlesque stages and other less-respectable venues.

When the Opera House opened, its sumptuousness reflected the prosperity and aspirations of the town. Just three days before the grand opening of the building, Register editors grew even more effusive in their praise:

“It affords us more than ordinary pleasure to be able to say that Napa has at last one of the finest and most complete Halls in the State…We have now a substantially built, conveniently arranged and thoroughly furnished hall which must become known far and wide to theatre managers as one of the handsomest, best appointed, most commodious halls on the coast. Hereafter, first-class troupes will visit us – troupes that our people will take pleasure in patronizing….Up to date we have been the prey of frauds and humbugs; from this on we will be favored with the best the city affords, if we show our appreciation of it by a liberal patronage.”

Napans responded with enthusiasm. Removable wooden benches made the auditorium suitable for everything from traveling theatre troupes to temperance rallies and elaborate masquerade balls. For popular events, the hall could seat as many as 1,350 people crammed onto wooden benches. (Today’s maximum is 500 - fire codes have changed substantially from the 1800s!)

In 1905 Jack London read from the stage. Other celebrities who appeared here throughout the years included the legendary soprano Luisa Tetrazzini, boxing champion John L. Sullivan and John Philip Sousa’s band. By the turn of the century the Opera House was booked almost every night, playing host to vaudeville acts, light opera, public meetings, concerts and high school graduations.

Yet times changed. After the turn of the century, as traveling theatre companies died out, the Opera House was used less and less, although the first-floor stores continued to be rented. The 1906 quake wounded the building. Then audiences drifted away; movies took over popular entertainment, automobiles made people more mobile and the vaudeville circuit began to break down.

At last, the theatre went dark in 1914. While the first-floor shops continued to be rented out, the upstairs hall – “one of the handsomest on the coast” – was used as an armory, then a rug-cleaning warehouse, then nothing.

For years the pride of Napa sat empty. Generations of Napans came and went without ever knowing the building’s former glory. Still, it took decades for the Opera House’s biggest threat to emerge – the enthusiasm for “modernization” that took hold of urban planners during the 1960s.

Several historic buildings had been razed in Napa before sights were turned in earnest on the Opera House. In 1973, concerned citizens managed to stave off threats to the building by getting the Opera House listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The cause was kept alive through lean years by a group of concerned citizens, led by artist Veronica di Rosa, and historic preservationists John Whitridge III and Thomas Thornley. Threats were constant – in 1980, the city was on the verge of forcing the owner to tear down the Opera House or bring it up to code – a costly proposition.

Yet efforts to bring back the building gathered steam over time. Volunteers formed a non-profit organization in 1985 to restore the theatre, and later raised funds to buy the building. Regrettably, neither Ms. di Rosa nor Mr. Whitridge lived to see the completion of their dream.

In the meantime, Napa Valley Opera House, Inc. began reaching out to the community. The organization created a performing arts program to take professional artists to local schools (an activity that has served thousands of local schoolchildren and continues today).

The turning point came in 1997, the year William F. Kieschnick began his first term as President. To provide the community with a remembrance of the past and a vision for the future, the organization restored the beautiful Italianate façade to its original elegance. Also that year, Robert Mondavi and his wife Margrit issued a challenge grant of $2.2 million. The gift gave tremendous impetus to the fundraising efforts, and the second-floor theatre was named in honor of Margrit Biever Mondavi. Volunteers met the challenge, and restoration work moved ahead rapidly.

Plans were put into place to reopen the Opera House as a functioning theatre. The first floor was converted into a cabaret stage and lobby space. Michael Savage, formerly the Managing Director of San Francisco Opera, joined as Executive Director in 2000.

After an 88-year drought, artists came back into the hall in June 2002, when the first-floor Café Theatre was inaugurated with a performance by legendary jazz singer Dianne Reeves. Now the transformation of the Opera House from a building into a performing arts center could finally take root.

But the big event – the August 2003 Grand Opening of the restored Margrit Biever Mondavi Theatre – is what makes this story a dream come true. Today, the Napa Valley Opera House once again is the pride of the Napa Valley. Its restoration is the fruit of decades of effort, tens of thousands of hours of volunteer work and genuine tenacity in the face of overwhelming odds.

After a national search, Evy Warshawski was named Executive Director in 2004, and the NVOH now boasts a year-round calendar of events plus a staff of ten full-time professionals overseeing marketing, development, box office, finance and production.

The fact is the Napa Valley Opera House would not be here today were it not for the heroic efforts of Napa Valley citizens. From “buy-a-brick” programs to hard-hat concert fundraisers, Napans of all ages and walks of life have donated time, money and expertise to restore this wonderful hall to its former splendor.