Click the image above to learn more about the history of the Batcher Block Opera House - Photo by Taylor Hall O’Brien
Become a destination with access for all.
Our mission
Our capital campaign centers on an elevator to ensure all guests are able to experience the joy of our space. Once in a generation an opportunity comes along to be a part of living history. Will you join us?
Accessibility Capital Campaign Progress
Our History
Built in 1907 by Charles Batcher and originally situated on the historic Jefferson Highway, a north-south counterpart of the well-known Lincoln Memorial Highway that connected Winnipeg to New Orleans. Along this route, Staples was known as a “Traveler’s Rest” lauding 25,000 train passengers and 1,000 automobiles per day in the early 1900’s. And like many other rural towns, opera houses offered space for artistic performance and public assembly. Read more here.
Be part of history. Show your support.
Every dollar preserves the Opera House. Every dollar builds its future.
Our Future
Legacy is not just what we create, but what we safeguard. The Batcher Block Opera House is more than a building; it is a living history of the voices, artistry, and dreams that have shaped its halls. To invest here is to participate in the future, to ensure its echoes never fade, and to cement its significance for the generations to come. This is not merely preservation, it is an assertion that some places are too vital, too sacred, to be lost to time. Read more here.