222 South Main Street
Pine Island, MN, USA

National Register of Historic Places - Bank of Pine Island, Opera House Block

Statement of Significance:

Pine Island's Opera House Block is significant as an outstanding example of the type of commercial and recreational facilities that appeared in the booming towns of southeastern Minnesota by the end of the 19th century.

The Opera House Block was built in 1895 by one of Pine Island's leading entrepreneurs, Loomis F. Irish. From the start, it served two purposes: the first floor provided spacious, elegant quarters for the private bank (later the State Bank of Pine Island) that Loomis had founded in 1882, while the upper floors housed the opera house that gave the building its name. All segments of the community farmers, merchants, and manufacturers - had a great need for credit, with the result that banks sprang up at an early date throughout the region. It was only later, once all the essential commercial and manufacturing facilities needed to service the agricultural hinterland were provided for, that communities such as Pine Island could indulge in structures of a cultural or recreational nature. Thus, Irish's erection of such a magnificent building as the Opera House Block to house both a bank and an opera house signified Pine Island's emergence as a mature community, offering a full range of services to both its own inhabitants and the surrounding countryside.

Irish's erection of such a magnificent building as the Opera House Block to house both a bank and an opera house signified Pine Island's emergence as a mature community, offering a full range of services to both its own inhabitants and the surrounding countryside.