A Condo in Manchester, VT - $775,000
4928 Main Street UNIT 1, Manchester, VT 05255
2 bed/3 bath - 2,174 sqft - HOA: $703/mo
The first structure that stood in the same place as the Factory Point Bank Building was originally constructed in 1815. In its earliest years, the building housed a lively tavern. In the late 19th century, Emerson Estabrook converted the third floor into an opera house. He then opened Estabrook’s Opera House in 1884. After a tragic fire burnt the entire structure down to the ground in 1893, it was rebuilt and reopened to the public in 1896. The Union Opera House then opened on the second floor of the building, which was used by the local community as a public performance space and gathering hall for nearly half a century. The Union Opera House hosted both local musical productions and high-profile artistic events, such as a performance of Southern Vermont-based author and educator Dorothy Canfield Fisher’s comedic play Tourists Accommodated in August 1932. The Union Opera House also served as a meeting place for esteemed social clubs, such as the Ondawa Club (whose members included Orvis Fly Fishing & Tackle Company founder Charles Orvis and acclaimed Vermont poet and author Walter R. Hard), the Masonic Hall for Adoniram Lodge #42, and the Order of Eastern Star. In 1896, the Factory Point Bank opened in the basement and first floor of the same building as the Union Opera House. Over the next several decades, the Factory Point Bank continued to grow. In 1972, the bank purchased the entire building in order to expand its operations.
