Bovill Opera House
Bovill, Latah County
- Grant: 2013, 2023 Historic Theatre Revitalization Subgrant Recipient (Restore damage and decay of the exterior siding, shoring up entryways)
Location: 412 2nd Avenue, Bovill, ID 83806
Once the 3rd largest town in Latah County, Bovill was a center of logging operations for the Potlatch sawmill. Due to the colorful nature of a logging community, the need for entertainment prompted the construction of the Opera House in 1911. For nearly five decades it provided a community gathering place for dancing, music, masquerade balls, traveling comedy troupes, and moving pictures. Originally the moving pictures were shown using power provided by a generator until electricity was eventually retrofitted.
After fires in 1914 destroyed much of Bovill’s downtown commercial district, the wood structure of the Opera House became a distinctive architectural reflection of the town’s identity and is the only example of an all-wood theatre with its false front intact in Idaho. Today the Bovill Improvement Group is planning the restoration of the Opera House to once again be the epicenter for arts and entertainment. They have already made significant repairs to the roof in 2022 and will be focusing on exterior repairs in the near future, as well as the creation of an outdoor summer film series that will provide funding for ongoing repairs and upkeep. For now, the building remains closed to the public except for the occasional tour, however BIG hopes that will not be the case for much longer.
Bovill Opera House is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
*IHT’s Historic Theatre Revitalization Subgrant is made possible by the Paul Bruhn Historic Revitalization Grant Program funded by the Historic Preservation Fund as administered by the National Park Service (NPS), Department of Interior.
