It is hard to believe that such a magnificent and beautiful building would be changed and covered up. The historic Tibbits Opera House is the second oldest theater in Michigan. It was built in Coldwater because the town is located halfway between Detroit and Chicago it was a popular resting point for many travelers. In the 1930s it was converted into a movie theater and the second empire architecture was covered up and hidden underneath with a modern-looking facade.
The Tibbits Opera House converted into a movie theater in the 1930s from Wikipedia
By the 1960s the building was just an ordinary-looking brick building with some arched windows. it is hard to believe the once beautiful and ornate building was stripped of its grandeur and left standing as a plain-looking brick box in downtown Coldwater.
The Opera House as it looked in the 1960s from Wikipedia
With the old opera house slated to be demolished for urban renewal, a band of Coldwater citizens formed the Tibbits Opera Foundation and Arts Council in 1963. Over the decades they slowly began restoring the old building starting with the interior first. At the turn of the millennium the exterior was renovated and by 2011 the facade was brought back to its second empire design and looks the way it did when it was first constructed.
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