The Riley Center, also known as the Grand Opera House and formally as the Mississippi State University Riley Center for Education and Performing Arts, is a performing arts and conference center in Meridian, Mississippi. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.
- Venue
- Riley Center
- Address
- 2206 5th Street
- Town
- Meridian, US
The Riley Center, also known as the Grand Opera House and formally as the Mississippi State University Riley Center for Education and Performing Arts, is a performing arts and conference center in Meridian, Mississippi. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. The Grand Opera House and the adjacent Marks-Rothenberg Department store were built in 1889 by half-brothers Israel Marks and Levi Rothenberg. The opera house was a site for entertainment and theatre for decades. In addition to the extensive theater renovation, the Riley Center project redeveloped the department store as a conference facility. Together the theater and conference space make up the Mississippi State University Riley Center for Education and Performing Arts, owned and operated by Mississippi State University-Meridian Campus.[1] In the late 19th century, Israel Marks and his half-brothers Levi, Sam, and Marx Rothenberg, expanded their retail operations by opening a new wholesale and retail mercantile store and an adjoining hotel. The site chosen covered almost a half a block-five lots facing 5th Street and three lots consuming the entire length of 22nd Avenue between 5th and 6th Streets. Construction began in 1889, under the direction of C.M. Rubush, a builder from Meridian. The exterior of the building was designed by Gustavus Maurice Torgerson, architect of Meridian's original City Hall. The designs included a mansard roof, establishing the architectural style as late Victorian, Empire/Romanesque. For an unknown reason, construction of the hotel was interrupted in process, and the brothers decided to develop a Grand Opera House instead. Factors that may have influenced the decision may have been: The top price for a ticket to a first-run production by a traveling company with a star, set at $1.50 (about the same price as a room in a decent hotel) The profit margin would be much larger for an opera house than a hotel Torgerson was familiar with the highly successful Grand