Levy Opera House

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The Levy Opera House is an opera house built in 1851 at 350 Park Street on the northwest side of Court Square.[1] The last performance in the building was held in 1912 with an appearance by the Imperial Russian Ballet.[2]


History

The General Assembly authorized construction of a Town Hall for Charlottesville. The building was a Classical Revival designed to seat 600 people. The first opera was staged in 1861.

The building was purchased by Jefferson Levy in 1887. He renovated it and turned it into the Levy Opera House the following year. Following closure in 1912,

in 1912, the building was occupied by the Jefferson School for Boys, following the closing of the Levy Opera House, which resulted from competition from the newly opened Twyman's Main Street Entertainment Palace. The building stood vacant for many years becoming the Parkview Apartments, (renting out housing to men with extremely low incomes).

In 1972, the Perry Foundation bought the structure to stop it from being torn down to make way for a service station. In 1977, a group known as the Town Hall - Levy Opera Foundation bought the property and planned to re-purpose the building. The federal government become interested in purchasing the property for federal courts, which at the time were held in the Post Office Building on Market Street. When plans fell through, the Hedgerow Corporation bought the building to use as a data processing center. In 1981, the interior spaces were redesigned by local architect Henderson Heyward into office spaces. [3]

The building was purchased by Charlottesville and Albemarle County in 2002 for $5,375,000[1] and is now designated for use as a court building. The Charlottesville Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court, 16th Judicial District of Virginia and the Albemarle Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court, 16th Judicial District of Virginia were located in this building prior to completion of the replacement building at 411 E. High Street.[4] The City of Charlottesville Circuit Court also used the Levy property during completion of renovations and addition to the Circuit Courthouse at 315 East High Street - during which the Clerk's Office and Records Room, located on the lower level of the Circuit Courthouse, were temp. moved to the Levy property.Template:Citation

Future renovations

The building is part of a discussion about upgrading the Albemarle County court system. See Albemarle County Courts Relocation for more information.

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Levy Opera House record from the City Assessor.
  2. Web. This Day in Charlottesville History, City of Charlottesville, retrieved March 12, 2012.
  3. Web. Courts Master Plan Study, Dewberry, FPW Architects, NCSC, Courts Master Plan Study, Albemarle County, September 2012, retrieved June 5, 2014.
  4. Web. Albemarle County: We're gonna need a bigger court!, Brendan Fitzgerald, C-VILLE Weekly, Portico Publications, December 29th 04:06pm

External links