The Story
The Matthews Opera House opened December 3, 1906, built for Thomas N. Matthews, a Wyoming rancher who had moved to Spearfish seeking medical care for his wife and stayed. Designed by the Deadwood firm Bartlett & Phillips, it's a contributing building in the NRHP-listed Spearfish Historic Commercial District. Renamed the Princess Theatre in 1913 to show films, it closed as a theater in 1930, then served as an indoor shooting gallery, a dance hall, and even a place to roll parachutes during WWII. A restoration begun in 1986 culminated in 2006 — the building's exact centennial.
Surprising Facts
→ It spent a stretch of its life as an indoor shooting gallery.
→ During World War II it was used to roll parachutes.
→ It ran for 17 years as a movie theater (the Princess) before losing out to a competing cinema.