Sumter Town Hall-Opera House

Sumter Town Hall-Opera House, also known as the Sumter Academy of Music, is a historic town hall building located at Sumter, Sumter County, South Carolina. It was built in 1893, and is a four-story, ashlar brick Richardsonian Romanesque style building. It features a four-faced clock tower that serves as a focal point for the entire area. The building was remodeled internally in 1936, converting the first floor into a movie theater and the second floor opera house into offices. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. It is located in the Sumter Historic District. The historic Opera House stands tall and proud in the heart of downtown Sumter, South Carolina and is known as one of Sumter’s Crown Jewels. Through the years this great building has served a number of purposes and has seen a great deal of change. In 1987 with the reopening of this building, its past is remembered as its future is celebrated. 1872: On January 14, 1872, the cornerstone was laid on Main Street in Sumter for a town hall and marketplace. $2,307.45 had been raised when contractors R.J. Tuomey, mason, and Hiram Phillips, carpenter, were hired to construct the building. By June the exterior was completed and painted, but the interior was still incomplete. Unfortunately, all the money for this project had been spent, and it was necessary for the promoters to obtain credit to hire A.J.

Town hall data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).