HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena — as catalogued
A 1915 Prairie School opera house where staff and visitors report vaudeville-era apparitions on stage.
115 2nd Ave W, Cresco, IA 52136
Research updated August 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$
Movie tickets $5-$10 depending on age and format; live event pricing varies by show.
Access
Wheelchair OK
City-owned public theater with accessible parking; George Champlin Hall in the building is also handicap accessible.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1915 · Prairie School Architecture · National Register of Historic Places · Small-Town Vaudeville Circuit History
By 1913, Cresco's existing performance hall, Lyric Hall, had deteriorated to the point that the Cresco Commercial Club, led by Frank E. Long, decided to replace it outright. The Cresco Opera House Company formed to raise the money; construction began in the summer of 1914 to a design by local architect J.H. Howe, with final plans finished by the Monarch Company of Minneapolis, and local residents did the actual building work. The Prairie School building was finished by January 1915.
The opera house opened on February 18, 1915, with the touring New York production of the musical revue High Jinks, playing to 725 seats and taking in $6,084 -- enough to open the theater debt-free. The first movie screened the following night, accompanied by an eight-piece orchestra.
Ownership changed hands repeatedly over the following decades: the Opera House Company ran it until 1927, then Frank J. Wewerka, then Floyd R. Puffer starting in 1933, Central States Theatre Corporation in 1940, and Joseph Mlinar in 1954. A major renovation in the 1970s, led by George Champlin, preceded the building's donation to the City of Cresco in 1978. The theater was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in August 1981 and marked its hundredth year in 2014 with a season of live shows and period films. It is now overseen by the city-appointed Cresco Theatre Commission and continues to run first- and second-run movies alongside a regular slate of live performances.
Sources
Cresco Theatre and Opera House shows up regularly on regional "most haunted" lists, usually cited as one of the more active theaters in the Midwest. None of the accounts trace back to a specific death or accident on record at the building -- the reputation seems to have built up over a century of staff noticing things during quiet hours.
The most repeated account describes apparitions of early-20th-century performers on stage, sometimes read locally as vaudeville acts still working the room they once played. Staff and visitors also describe a solitary figure seen sitting in the dark auditorium when the theater is closed, one that disappears if anyone approaches. A local newspaper account tied to a 2017 community event adds a report from a former concession worker: footsteps behind the movie screen and doors opening and closing on their own over a three-month stretch, bad enough that staff stopped working alone during that period. Reports from the basement include unexplained electrical disruptions and disembodied voices when the building is otherwise empty.
The town leaned into the reputation that same year, when Cresco used "Pedal to the Paranormal" as its official theme for the 2017 RAGBRAI stop, folding the theater's ghost stories in with local Bigfoot lore for a week of costumes and signage built around the bike ride passing through downtown. The theater itself has since staged its own paranormal-themed event, "Echoes of Cresco Theatre: A Psychic Experience," leaning into the reputation rather than downplaying it.
The 1915 Prairie School auditorium screens movies four nights a week and hosts touring comedy, concerts, and tribute acts throughout the year -- the same room where the theater's reported ghosts are seen from the seats. Tickets are available online or at the door.
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