2094 Church St 2096

This district is intended to permit a range of commercial, institutional, residential, and mixed-use development in a manner that preserves and promotes the architectural character and the compact, pedestrian friendly environment of the Village’s historic downtown. The CB district requirements are specifically intended to promote comparable renovation, infill, and redevelopment of property through a combination of urban development intensities and downtown design standards. All uses in this district shall be provided with public sanitary sewer and water services.

The Grand Theatre Opera House was built in 1890 by J.F. Jude and was originally called the ‘Jude Opera House’. The original stage is still standing with its twenty-foot tin ceilings and trim. Locals and visiting celebrities signed the concert wall backstage and you can still see those signatures today! The house seated 500 (in a town of only 600) and was the site of countless operettas, plays, dances, concerts, traveling troupes – including the Tia DeVass Troupe, high school basketball games and graduations. The building was used for these purposes until 1938 when the Churchill family bought it and added a basement, complete with bowling alley and pool tables.

It was renamed the ‘Grand Theater’ and used as a movie theater where 10 cent silent movies played with a popcorn cart out front. Movies were accompanied by a piano player who would shift from fast music for race scenes and tunes like the Blue Danube for love scenes. Over the years the building has changed in appearance and been used for many purposes: Lou’s Apparel, a machine shop run by Art & Roy Menne, Jean Spight’s beauty shop, and Dr Baker’s & later Dr Voskuil’s offices. D-X Radio Products Co also operated there until December 1963 when it moved its main plant to Chicago. The building was then vacant for a time, purchased in 1969 by John E Schneider, and received a ‘face lift’ in 1990. Current renovations began in 2015 and were completed in 2019.