SPENCER, IA (Northwestiowanow.com) — The Clay County Heritage Center will host a special program this Friday titled “The Grand Opera House: Stories from Spencer’s First Theatre.”

Evan Hilsabeck, a Spencer native and Managing Director of the Coralville Center for the Performing Arts, will lead the presentation.

Built in 1900 by benefactor John Copper, the Grand Opera House was Spencer’s largest building and cultural hub until its destruction in the 1931 Spencer Fire.

The program will feature historic photos, video, and stories from Hilsabeck’s decade-long research, including colorful anecdotes like a traveling scientist who once staged an indoor thunderstorm inside the Opera House.

Unfortunately, despite detailed descriptions, no surviving images of the interior of the Opera House have surfaced.

The event runs Friday, January 9, from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. at the Clay County Heritage Center and is open to the public.