MARYSVILLE — In the 1980s, the Marysville Opera House was anything but grand.
Police were a constant presence at the nightclub that occupied the hall. Inside, the once-stately walls were slathered in Pepto-Bismal-pink paint.
Around town, there were cries to tear it down.
A few residents saw a civic treasure in need of a pick-me-up. The Marysville Fine Arts Committee took the first step in 1982 and successfully added the Opera House to the National Register of Historic Places.
In 2018, after leasing the Opera House for several years, the city of Marysville bought it for $1.44 million. Improvements followed, including new LED lighting and a fire suppression system.
Today, the Marysville Opera House has reclaimed its starring role as a community hub for theater, concerts and gatherings.
Its dance card is full. Nearly every week it hosts musical acts, business summits, weddings, dance classes or bingo and, one day a year, the Seattle Opera.
The theater’s chandeliers, leaded glass and pressed tin ceiling catch the eye. An ornate wooden ticket booth, antique pipe organ with patented “mouse-proof pedals” and tufted love seat add a roaring-20s, speak-easy style.
Audiences and performers love the vibe. “It has a bit of a feel like the old movie palaces or concert halls from a century or so ago,” said Traci Morgan, an Everett resident who attended a Chicago tribute band show.
Everett musician Andrew Vait, recently took the stage to perform his musical tribute to Elton John, “Madman Across the Water.” The Opera House strikes a familiar note, Vait said. “It feels like you’re at grandma’s house, or church or you’ve broken into the shuttered mansion on the corner of the street. There is magic in the walls.”
Speaking of magic in the walls, some claim it’s haunted by friendly spirits, said Dana Barstad, cultural arts supervisor at the city’s Parks Culture & Recreation.
Barstad hasn’t seen the apparition, “but I’ve had staff tell me they see spooky things,” she said.
Tickets for most events are $20 to $30. Nonprofit partners offer wine and beer sales.
“We want to make it affordable for the community,” said Tara Mizell, director of Marysville Parks, Culture and Recreation. Revenues are reinvested into the building to pay the mortgage and upkeep.
First on the block
Peter Condyles, president of the Marysville Historical Society and city council member, likes to say that Marysville “got there first,” outpacing its mill town rival to the south.
“We were incorporated first, and we built a theater first,” Condyles said.
Marysville incorporated as a city in 1891; Everett, in 1893. What would become the Everett Historic Theatre debuted in 1901, but that was three years after the Independent Order of Odd Fellows built the first incarnation of the Opera House, known as the Ebey Lodge, in 1898.
When the wooden structure burned down in 1910, the fraternal group replaced it the following year with the Marysville Opera House, which stands today at 1225 3rd Street.
It was a big undertaking for a timber town with just 1,200 people.
When the Opera House was completed in 1911, it could seat more than 250 — a fifth of the city’s residents.
The four-story, 20,000-square-foot theater and meetinghouse anchored the then-heart of the city, Barstad said.
The Marysville train station (destroyed in the great freight train crash of 1969 ) was located a few blocks away, making it a short jaunt for theater groups and vaudeville groups arriving by rail.
Through the years, hundreds of performers, crooner Bing Crosby among them, took the stage and penned their names on the walls.
The Odd Fellows moved out in the 1930s and a succession of private owners moved in. The grand old hall, variously housed a furniture store, roller rink, disco and a shooting range in the basement. You can still see the bullet holes.
Since taking ownership in 2018, the city has spent more than $150,000 on renovations, said parks director Mizell.
An adjacent cottage and enclosed garden, part of the purchase, serve as a staging area for performers, weddings and outdoor gatherings.
The city’s wish list includes renovating the theater’s top floor — a sunlit maze of studios, offices, kitchen and gallery space, Mizell said. Natural light floods through the soaring windows. Hardwood floors gleam.
“It’s absolutely gorgeous up there,” she said.
In the meantime, the show goes on with new bookings and new events. Vait, the Everett musician, is a fan.
“Art would not have the place that it does in our society without venues like the Marysville Opera House,” he said.
If you go
1225 3rd St., Marysville
Events: marysvillewa.gov/1322/Entertainment-at-the-Opera-House
Contact writer Janice Podsada at jpod2024@gmail.com
This story originally appeared in Sound & Summit magazine, The Daily Herald’s quarterly publication. Explore Snohomish and Island counties with each issue. Subscribe and receive four issues for $18. Call 425-339-3200 or go to soundsummitmagazine.com
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