Boyne City’s Historical Past
Share on Social
Array
(
[networks] => Array
(
[0] => facebook
[1] => twitter
[2] => pinterest
[3] => linkedin
)
[has] => Array
(
[facebook] => 1
[twitter] => 1
[instagram] =>
[pinterest] => 1
[houzz] =>
[linkedin] => 1
)
)
Continuing our series of historical markers – this marker is a tribute to “The Bellamy Opera House” and is located on the wall outside the Boyne Theater. It was built in 1903 by C.I. Bellamy who came to Boyne from Luther, Michigan. It opened on March 19, 1904 and featured a stage 25 feet deep and 40 feet wide and an auditorium with a seating capacity of nearly one thousand. The opera house was used for plays, lectures, musicals and high school graduations. On January 24, 1905, the largest audience ever assembled at the theater and witnessed Hubert Labadie’s presentation of Goethe’s great masterpiece, “Faust”. In January, 1908, Nickelodean moving pictures were first shown. The cost of admission was ten cents.
It was renovated into a theater in 1915-1916. In 1927 it received another renovation and reopened as the Boyne Theater on September 13, 1927. It was remodeled again in 1938. Unfortunately it has remained closed since the early 2000s.