Elvira's Seat in McHenry County
121 W Van Buren Street, Woodstock, IL 60098
Research updated May 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
Ticket prices vary by performance; the building also operates as a municipal hall with free public access to the lobby during business hours.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Historic municipal building with elevator access added during 2024-2025 renovation
Equipment
No Photos
Est. 1889 · 19th Century Opera House · Orson Welles Heritage Site · Continuously Operating Theater
The Woodstock Opera House occupies the northwest corner of the historic Woodstock Square. The building was designed by Elgin-based architect Smith Hoag and completed in 1889 at a cost of approximately $25,000. The structure originally housed Woodstock's library, city council chambers, justice court, fire department, and a 432-seat second-floor auditorium with a balcony.
The building's most prominent cultural association is with Orson Welles. Welles enrolled at the local Todd School for Boys in 1926 at age eleven and remained through age sixteen. He learned theatrical staging on the Opera House boards before departing for Ireland in 1931. He returned in the summer of 1934 to direct and star in productions of Hamlet and Trilby, bringing the actors Micheál Mac Liammóir and Louise Prussing with him from Dublin's Gate Theatre. The Opera House stage was formally dedicated as the Orson Welles Stage on February 10, 2013.
The Opera House has remained in continuous operation as a performance venue, and the building is owned by the City of Woodstock and operated as a municipal theater. A multi-phase renovation announced in 2024 modernized backstage facilities and accessibility while preserving the historic auditorium and exterior.
Sources
The Woodstock Opera House's central piece of theater lore concerns Elvira, said to be a young actress who climbed the inside spiral staircase to the belfry portal and fell to her death after failing to secure a role in a production. The story has been retold in local newspaper coverage and tour brochures for decades.
McHenry County historians and the Shaw Local press have reported that no documentary evidence supports the suicide. No coroner's record, newspaper obituary, or contemporary account has been produced. The Opera House staff and local historical sources treat the tale as building folklore.
The more enduring detail attached to Elvira is seat DD113 in the balcony. The auditorium seats are spring-loaded and rest in the upright position when unoccupied; cast members, stagehands, and ushers have for decades reported finding DD113 folded down during rehearsals and quiet hours, including, reportedly, in the presence of comedian Shelley Berman during scenery work in the 1940s. Recent staff have attributed the seat's behavior to age and worn hinges rather than to a presence. Other elements of the folklore include movement of small props between rehearsals and reports of a feminine figure observed in the upper-floor windows from the square below.
Notable Entities
Attend a play, concert, or community theater production in the 1889 auditorium where Orson Welles learned his stagecraft as a student at the Todd School for Boys. Seat DD113 in the balcony is famously kept open for the resident folklore figure known as Elvira; check house policy on the day of your performance.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
Joliet, IL
The Rialto Square Theatre opened May 24, 1926, designed by Chicago firm Rapp & Rapp for the six Rubens brothers. Its Neo-Baroque interior — modeled in part on the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles — earned it a place on the American Institute of Architects's '150 Great Places in Illinois' and a listing on the National Register of Historic Places.
Cripple Creek, CO
The Butte Theater on Bennett Avenue is a historic Cripple Creek opera house rebuilt after the April 1896 fires that devastated the city. Associated with the Imperial Casino, it has operated as a performance venue for more than a century and is reportedly haunted by a ghost named Jack, linked to the nearby fire department.
Rochester, MN
The Rochester Civic Theatre was founded in 1951 by a group of local performers calling themselves the Log Cabin Players. A capital campaign in the early 1960s funded the current 300-seat downtown building along Civic Center Drive SE. The organization has run continuously for over 70 seasons.