NORWAY — The town has applied for a $200,000 federal grant to complete structural renovation of the historic Norway Opera House on Main Street.

The project is the final piece of a multiyear, $1.5 million project that has been funded by several groups.

If issued, the Northern Border Regional Commission grant will be used to repair the back wall and roof of the 1894 building, said Dennis Gray, president of the Norway Opera House Corp. that owns the building. The town is acting as the funding agent for the corporation in the grant application.

The corporation will be responsible for a 20 percent match. Town funds will not be used for the project.

The town took the three-story brick Opera House by eminent domain in 2010, because a partial roof collapse in 2007 rendered it structurally unstable. Two of the five storefronts were occupied and had to be vacated when the roof collapsed. The others, as well as the second floor ballroom and third floor balcony, had been empty for years.

Since that time, the five storefronts have been renovated and reopened for business and the back wall stabilized, but the roof and back wall renovation is still incomplete, along with that of the upper floors.

Gray said the work will allow the removal of the temporary trusses on the second floor and the replacement of the thousands of bricks removed from the back wall during that initial project.

Town Manager David Holt, who completed the grant application, called the structure the “centerpiece of the business plans for the downtown that was once a hub of commerce for western Maine.”

The building has 17,618 square feet and sits on about a quarter of an acre between Main Street and Pennesseewassee Stream in the historic village district.

The application has been supported by the Board of Selectmen, who OK’d the application on June 27 and the Opera House Corp. board of directors as a way to create private sector jobs, encourage tourism, invest in the future of Main Street for the creation of more jobs, local commerce and tourism.

Additionally, Holt said the project is necessary to continue future plans to restore the historic theater, which was the centerpiece of the community for many years and used for graduations, dances, shows and meetings. Famous crooner Rudy Vallee performed at the theater in 1935.

ldixon@sunjournal.com

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