Becoming reality

It’s been five years since efforts began to restore Fort Recovery Morvilius Opera House to its former glory.

Work to add on to the 141-year-old building is slated to begin in the next two weeks.

Fort Recovery Friends of the Opera House celebrated upcoming construction plans with a groundbreaking ceremony Friday.

“This building we are standing next to, which is now in the historic registry, represents a bygone day when live entertainment was hugely popular,” said Kim Rammel, president of Fort Recovery Friends of the Opera House. “It was a time when the opera house upstairs would be packed with spectators to see various types of live entertainment. It has seen years’ worth of graduations and school plays. We’ve always thought, if these walls could talk, what would they really tell us?”

The opera house, a two-story building at 101 N. Wayne St., was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in February 2022.

Cy and Helen LeFevre and Jerry and Lorri Kaup of Fort Recovery purchased the building in 2019 and donated it to Fort Recovery Area Arts Council in hopes of restoring it.

Fort Recovery Friends of the Opera House committee has raised more than $2 million toward opera house renovation efforts in the last four years. Also, the group secured $500,000 at the end of June from the Ohio capital budget bill for renovation work.

“I’m just here to let you know that everybody on our board is very interested in making sure that Fort Recovery’s the best place to live,” said Jerry Kaup.

Freytag & Associates of Sidney, Ohio, is the group’s architectural consultant for its planned annex project. Construction, estimated at roughly $1 million, includes an addition connecting to the west side of the building. It will have an elevator, restrooms, foyer space and a section for catering events. 

Plans are to take the existing south room on the first floor and tear down the west wall, connecting it to the annex. The existing staircase will likely be demolished to make room for the elevator, which will make the facility handicap-accessible. 

A new doorway and windows will also be installed on the southeast portion of the building facing Wayne Street, with the plans to fill the room with local history memorabilia. The portion of the first floor currently serving as the main entrance will be renovated into a space for meetings and offices. The northernmost portion of the building — a section of the west part of it was irreparably damaged from a fire in the 1970s — will also see some work, with the fire-damaged portion being torn down and a new wall installed. (The portion damaged was not original to the building.)  

Project director Rick Stahl — he’s a St. Henry resident who has worked in construction for 40 years — said plans are to get the addition built and enclosed before winter. Work on the indoor portion will continue throughout the cold-weather months. Committee members estimate the work will take between 10 months and a year to complete.

Carol Jutte, a committee member, pointed out efforts to restore the building have resulted in reconnecting lost ties between Morvilius family members.

“The Morvililus family had no idea that this was here,” she said. “And, since we’ve started this project and put the banners up, we have found Morvilius family members in Selma, Indiana, in Cleveland, Ohio, in Nebraska, in Montana, and in Florida, so, and they have all kind of found each other, so I think that’s just a neat side line that comes out of our project here.”

Brandy Jutte has been a part of the committee since it was formed. She recalled her slogan for the group at its beginning.

“We’re preserving the history of today for the future of tomorrow,” she said. “That’s really what we’re doing, and my kids, and their kids, and everybody is going to get the benefit once we’re done.”

She pointed out it takes time to see progress happening at the building, but she noted their end goal is in sight.

“It’s a dream, but it’s going to be a real dream,” she said.