Pioneer Center for the Arts

Pioneer Center for the Arts. . , St. George Social Hall c.1865 , The St. George Social Hall was the first community center designed for social and religious events Located on Main Street just south of St. George Boulevard, it was the center of community life. When the Opera House was completed, the Social Hall was sold to a private enterprise and eventually became know as "The Hub." The facade of this building is a replica of the first Social Hall and continues the legacy of serving the community's social needs., St. George Opera House 1875-80 , The original structure or the cellar of this building was used as the wine storehouse (1865) for the LDS Church's sacramental offering. By 1880 a large addition was built to the west, creating the traditional T-shaped theatrical design. First to be known as the Social Hall due to the variety of programs presented, this community-centered building hosted dances, theatrical performances and musicals, as well as public meetings and classes. However, by the turn of the twentieth century operettas became quite popular, thus, the evolution of its name to the St. George Opera House., For over fifty years, until its purchase by the Utah Idaho Sugar Company in c.1934, the Opera House was known as the social center for all of Southern Utah and the Arizona Strip., The Washington County Historic Adobe House c.1880 , Originally owned by the Clarence Amos and Madeline Empey Jones family of St. George, this structure was once a home for a family of six members. Donated to the Washington County Historical Society, the Society had it dismantled from its original location a few blocks from here and reconstructed (1997) at its present site. The house was presented to the City of St. George as a representation of a traditional pioneer home from the turn of the century and a monument to pioneer living in Southern Utah’, St. George Art Museum c.1934 , Warehouse No. 3, as it was referred to at that time, was where the beet seed was stored. There were 15 bins which each held 80,000 to 130,000 pounds of seed. From the bins, the seed was put into three sizes of bags, 20, 25 and 50 pounds, and then stored until it was shipped. Shipping was done by hauling the bags to Cedar City where it was sent by train to sugar beet plants in West Jordan, Utah Idaho Falls, Idaho; Montana; and Washington. After 1955 the seed was all shipped with trucking firms until the sugar company closed. This structure, retaining the original interior wood-beam framing, was reconstructed as a museum as part of the redevelopment of the Pioneer Center for the Arts in the St. George Historic District in 1997.