The Matthews Opera House & Arts Center
Experience Black Hills cultural life at one address -- from our region's most talented visual artists, community theatre actors, live music --both local and national, and lectures. We're in the heart of downtown Spearfish, SD. Come through our doors and be amazed.
Today, the Matthews Opera House is the centerpiece of the Spearfish Arts Center and the home to an active community theater. It is once more an ongoing scene of live theater, concerts and art events throughout the year.
Our History -- A Vibrant Century
It all began in 1906...
Opened in 1906 the Matthews Opera House was the setting for stage productions and traveling shows through the 1930's. Built by a local Wyoming rancher, Thomas Matthews, at the cost of $50,000, the Opera House opened on December 3, 1906 with a political farce-comedy called "The Lion and the Mouse." Throughout the next 10 years the popularity of the Opera House remained unquestioned. Many traveling repertory companies paid repeated visits to the Matthews during that time. However, as the decade drew to a close in 1919, competition from "moving pictures" developed in Spearfish and fewer live performances were scheduled.
The Matthews takes on many lives...
Renamed "The Princess Theater" in 1920, the Matthews was run primarily as a movie house over the next 10 years with occasional live shows still playing on the stage. The "golden age" at the Opera House came to a halt in 1930 when the owner of the Princess Theater moved out and opened a new building down the street. Over the next 25 years the Opera House was used for varied events from a practice basketball court, to a shooting gallery and occasional dance hall. But the elegance of the interior faded as the building fell into general disuse by the mid 1950's. Broken windows provided easy access to pigeons that roosted among the stage hangings.
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