Delphi Opera House

City Hall & Delphi Opera House - Quick Facts

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City Hall Timeline

Completed in 1865 by Mr. Cook of Lafayette for merchants Joseph Assion and John Ruffing. “City Hall” referred to the Grand Hall on the third floor—a free span of 60’ x 60’. This City Hall did not have a government function. The first event in the hall was a ball held on June 16, 1865 for Company B, 86th Indiana Volunteers and other soldiers returning home from the Civil War. Another ball was held there a few weeks later to celebrate the 4th of July.

Balls were held frequently in the Hall, as were lectures, dinners, concerts, demonstrations, and other entertainments.

In March 1868 “The Grand Tableau: a view of Camp Kessler by Moonlight...” was held in the Hall.
A year later, a velocipede demonstration was held there. The velocipede was the precursor to the modern bicycle.
In August 1870, John Lathrope, Jr. opened a bakery, confectionery, and farmers’ lunch room in the No. 1 block of the City Hall Building—where the ticket lobby is now. The painting and papering of the rooms was noted in the Delphi Times for the quality of the workmanship.
A phrenology lecture was held by Alice Manville in the hall in 1873.

By 1881 the Delphi newspapers are reporting on work to transform City Hall into an opera house. Barnett and Mohr put a tin roof on City Hall in 1881. John Ennis was hard at work in December 1881 on the “scenery, curtains, etc. for Lathrope’s opera house.” February reports that remodeling is rapidly progressing. New steps are built in March 1882 to facilitate access all the way to the street.

Opera House Timeline

The Lathrope & Ruffing Opera House had its Grand Opening on April 7, 1882 with the Litta Opera Company starring soprano Marie Litta. The performance was magnificent as were the trappings of the Hall. 500 people were reported on opening night!!
Beginning in 1882, theater manager Lathrope rented rooms in the Greenup building (later Crosby hotel) to be used as dressing rooms.
Minstrel shows, comedy and dramatic performances, graduation ceremonies, operas, recitations, concerts were all part of the fare in the Opera House.
December 29th, 1882, James Whitcomb Riley gave the first of at least six performances in the Opera House, among them performances held in September and December of 1884.
The Lathrope & Ruffing Opera House soon became known simply as the Delphi Opera House. In addition to traveling troupes and other show groups, it was also home to local dramatic presentations and concerts.
In March 1898, the first cinematography exhibit was held in the Opera House with a veriscope projection of the moving pictures taken during the 1897 Corbett-Fitzsimmons fight.
In 1914, the Delphi Opera House was closed by the Fire Marshall following a fire at Lafayette’s Dreyfus Theater resulting in the requirement that all upper story auditoriums have multiple exits.
The Delphi Opera House became a storage room for store displays, shipping crates, and merchandise. Over the ensuing decades the roof and windows deteriorated allowing pigeons to come and go. The once grand balcony railing became their roost.

Restoration Timeline

1994—Delphi Preservation Society founded.
1996—DPS acquires 2/3 of the building; rst feasibility study on restoring the Opera House.
1998—Assion-Ruffing Building & Opera House listed in National Register of Historic Places.
2005—Tonsil Klackers perform in the Opera House during Old Settlers Celebration— first performance since 1914!
2005—Opera House Task Force formed to focus on restoration.
2006—Structural Analysis completed.
2006-2007—Schematic Designs for Restoration; remaining 1/3 of building purchased.
2007-2009—Major Facade Restoration utilizing Historic Preservation Fund (HPF) grant and matching funds.
2009-2010—Wallpaper and other decorative elements sampled and analyzed in a Decorative Arts Analysis.
2010-11—Plaster medallions and remaining ceiling removed and the roof was replaced with HPF grant.
2012—Delphi becomes a Stellar Community; the Delphi Opera House restoration is the centerpiece!
2014—Construction begins for Delphi Opera House restoration. $4.3 million dollar project with $2.6 million from Stellar funding and remaining $1.7 million pledged by DPS. The Society is now working to retire the debt.
2015—Delphi Opera House reopened as a community center and performing arts venue! The facility is owned by the Delphi Preservation Society and operated by Delphi Opera House, Inc.

A New Era Gallery

We are developing content for this area of our web site to showcase the many possible uses for the Delphi Opera House facility. In the meantime, enjoy these photographs by Alan McConnell of the nearly completed theater and theater lobby and imagine your special event in this elegant space!

Photo Set Copyright 2009, 2015 by Alan McConnell

Our History

Assion-Ruffing City Hall

The Assion-Ruffing City Hall was built in 1864 by Mr. Cook of Lafayette for merchants Joseph Assion and John Ruffing. The red brick Italianate building was constructed with three retail bays on the ground floor, office and/or residential rooms on the second level, and a spacious meeting room on the third floor. An engraved limestone arch over the center double windows of the third floor proclaims "City Hall." Never a government building, this City Hall was intended for public gatherings. The first event held there was a dance on June 27, 1865, in honor of Company B, 86th Indiana Volunteers, and other soldiers returning from the Civil War. Theater performances, lectures, dinners, concerts, dances, and other community events were common fare in the third-floor hall.

Lathrope & Ruffing Opera House

In 1881, John Lathrope, partnered with John Ruffing to remodel the third floor of the Assion-Ruffing City Hall into a grand opera house. Lathrope was a renowned cornetist, and his Silver Cornet Band was a musical institution in Delphi and the surrounding area. He also operated a bakery and restaurant in the City Hall building. With a reputation for never doing anything halfway, Lathrope outfitted the opera house with fine wall and ceiling papers. Captain John Lathrope

Capt. LathropeDemorest folding opera seats were installed on the newly-laid tiered floor and in the gallery. The stairs were reconfigured to the street to accommodate large audiences--important with a seating capacity of 500!

On April 7, 1882, the Lathrope & Ruffing Opera House had its grand opening, featuring the Litta Grand Opera Company from Chicago with the famous soprano Marie Litta performing to a packed house. It was quite a coup to

Marie Littabook Marie Litta for the grand opening. Dignitaries from throughout the region were in attendance and rave reviews in area newspapers followed the opening event.

With Lathrope as theater manager, the opera house was in constant use—often with two or three performances per week. Travelling theater troupes, minstrel companies, lecturers, and concerts were among the types of entertainment offered. Among the notables performing in the Lathrope & Ruffing Opera House was famed Hoosier poet James Whitcomb Riley who graced the stage at least six times.

Poet Riley
Soon the theater became known simply as the Delphi Opera House used not only for traveling acts but also for community gatherings such as gradualtion ceremonies and club meetings. The Delphi Opera House was home to the Delphi Dramatic Club—numbering nearly 150—which put on a new production every month.

By the 1910s, the Delphi Opera House was showing its age. Motion picture theaters were coming into vogue and third-floor performance spaces were losing appeal. The final blow for the Delphi Opera House came in 1914 when it was condemned by the Fire Marshal as unsafe. The Dryfus Theater in Lafayette burned that year calling attention to similar upper-story performance halls having only one means of exit.

Eighty-two years later, the Delphi Preservation Society purchased two-thirds of the Assion-Ruffing City Hall with the remaining third acquired in 2007. Early on, the Society developed restoration plans for the historic theater. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998 paving the way for two National Park Service Historic Preservation Fund grants to restored the building's facade in 2007 and replace the roof in 2010. A decorative arts analysis was completed in 2009-10 funded by the Jeffris Family Foundation and a generous grant from the North Central Health Services administered by Tippecanoe Arts Federation. More than thirty wall and ceiling papers were sampled and cataloged during the analysis along with decorative paint elements in the theater and entryway. As plans evolved for the restoration of the Delphi Opera House, several of the key wallpapers would be faithfully reproduced for reinstallation in the grand hall. Faux bois paneling, window frames, and trim would be redone as well. The result--stunning!