Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com OPINION

GRAVENHURST — I’ve often said residents new to towns like this should be obliged to take a course on its history.

A few lectures and some Q&As.

Town archivist and historian Judy Humphries would be the perfect professor along with the several other fine purveyors of the past on the Gravenhurst Municipal Heritage Committee who are happy to carry on while being mentored by the former GHS teacher and Ontario Fire College archivist. And as she was by others who preceded her.

Last week she condensed 125 years of the Opera House into a “six-minute” presentation, which even long-time residents gained new insight on its history.

Which many new to the community said they enjoyed the context and her perspective.

In case you weren’t at The Op Thursday and missed it, she shared this copy of her speech with MuskokaTODAY.com, which we believe everyone old and new should read.

It could be the start of a Gravenhurst 101 course — sans a test.

THE OPERA HOUSE AT 125

When the original Gravenhurst Town Hall burned to the ground on the 12th of July, 1897, it seemed like just another blow in a succession of disasters that had started with the Great Fire of 1887 just 10 years earlier. It had burned 45 businesses and 50 homes — the entire main street of Gravenhurst — to the ground.

But I cannot help but feel that sometimes disasters turn out to be blessings in disguise.

For example:

• Disaster Blessing #1: a new bylaw was passed after the Great Fire decreeing that all new buildings in the core area of town would be constructed of brick or stone rather than wood. The new Town Hall and Opera House would be brick.
• Disaster Blessing #2: the rate-payers of Gravenhurst voted permission for the Town Council to spend $5,000 on a new Town Hall. In today’s money that is about $193,602.38 — a lot of money in those days when the average wage was about 20 cents an hour.
• Disaster Blessing #3: In 1900, Charles Mickle, a successful lumberman with taste and experience had been elected mayor of Gravenhurst for the third year in a row. It would be under his direction that an architect would be selected to draft plans for a new Town Hall.

It is because of Mickle that we have this magnificent Opera House today.

In fact, when the dust had settled, the new building had actually cost closer to $8,000 – money that came from the fund for cement sidewalks to replace the wooden ones in the core of the town. In today’s money that’s about $329,124.05.

When the new Town Hall / Opera House opened on the 12th of March, 1901 with a gala evening of entertainment featuring just about every man, woman and child in the town, the citizens at last could get a sense of what this new building was going to mean to Gravenhurst.

Mind you, some glitches were apparent on opening night. The seats had not yet arrived for installation. Your ticket priced at either 50 cents, 35 cents or 25 cents bought you a place on the rapidly filling benches that had been brought in for the occasion or got you standing room only.

But the audience loved the entertainment so much that a second night had to be scheduled. And the entertainment was all local of course.

The Opera House would go on to become “the centre of everything” for years to come.

It was the home to Gravenhurst town town council for some 67 years with the council chambers in the Trillium Court until 1968.

For decades it was also

the courthouse for local cases.

And the bank while the first “real bank” was under construction.

Church services were held here when various churches were under construction or had succumbed to fire.

And the recruitment centre during two world wars.

It hosted Emily Pankhurst with her suffragette message to the women of the town.

High school plays, art shows, graduations and ‘Pure Gold’ variety nights were also held up here in the auditorium along with other memorable and monumental days and nights.

It was probably the first playhouse to host summer theatre in all of Ontario and possibly in Canada with John Holden’s Actors’ Colony Theatre and later the Straw Hat Players performing.

Robertson Davies directed plays performed here. Donald Sutherland built sets and then acted in dramas. Maureen Forester and Michael Burgess sang here.

And most important of all, Santa gave out his treats to hundreds of children at the end of each of his parades.

Think of the people – millions of them – who have sat in these seats.

Irene Turney reminded me today that she had ushered Otto Preminger to his seat. And Leafs great Frank Mahovlich, too, who she may have been more thrilled by.

I could go on — but I won’t — except to say how very lucky we have been to have had a reason to build this wonderful building, the centre of everything Gravenhurst for 125 years.

Thanks to Mickle and council to guide the new building to fruition.

And other mayors and councils supporting it when renovations were needed.

Notably 1993-95 when the town rallied after urgent repairs were called for by the province lest the grand dame was torn down or sold off privately as was seriously and openly talked about by council.

This has been our venue for everything creative for 125 years when communities around us were simply looking on at what we had and were green with envy!

See links to 125 celebration stories below:

HERE’S WHY THEY STILL COME TO THE GRAVENHURST OPERA HOUSE AFTER 125 YEARS — FOR ITS GRANDNESS, GREATNESS, LOCAL AND STAR-STUDDED MUSIC, ENTERTAINMENT AND ‘VISIONARY’ LIVING HERE’S WHY MUSIC, ENTERTAINMENT AND ‘VISIONARY’ LIVING https://muskokatoday.com/2026/03/heres-why-they-still-come-to-the-gravenhurst-opera-house-after-125-years-for-its-grandness-greatness-local-and-star-studded-music-entertainment-and-visionary-li/

‘CEL-E-BRATE GOOD TIMES …’ AT OPERA HOUSE IN GOOD OLE GRAVENHURST GALA THURSDAY NIGHT https://muskokatoday.com/2026/03/cel-e-brate-good-times-at-opera-house-in-good-ole-gravenhurst-gala-thursday-night/

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