Famous people's places / Detroit – Downtown
Detroit Opera House (Campus Martius)
Closed – archive entry · 1966
A 19th-century theater on Campus Martius, not the same building as today's Detroit Opera House, that hosted touring stars until its 1966 demolition.
01 / The story of this place
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Detroit's original downtown Opera House opened on Campus Martius in 1869 and quickly became the city's premier stage for touring theater, concerts and opera. A fire destroyed it in 1897, but the owners rebuilt on the same spot the following year, and the reopened hall kept hosting major performances into the twentieth century. Tenor William Lavin sang with the Schumann Society here in December 1884, and conductor Weston Gales led the first concert of Detroit's revived symphony orchestra here on February 26, 1914. In 1912, theater man David T. Nederlander leased the building, a deal that launched the Nederlander family's theater business, later run by his grandson James M. Nederlander. The building later became Sam's department store, which closed in the mid-1960s, and the aging structure was torn down in 1966. The site sat empty for decades until Compuware built its headquarters there in 2003, known today as One Campus Martius. This building is unrelated to the present-day Detroit Opera House on Broadway.
- Opened 1869 on Campus Martius; rebuilt in 1898 after an 1897 fire
- William Lavin sang here with the Schumann Society in December 1884
- Weston Gales led the revived Detroit symphony's first concert here in 1914
- A 1912 lease here launched the Nederlander family's theater business
- Demolished in 1966; One Campus Martius now stands on the site
Famous Detroiters
Famous people tied to this place 9
Lexicon entries for the people who lived, worked, performed or liked to spend time here.
- Levi Stubbs 1936–2008 · singer, voice actor
Performed here
Scene of his final performance, the Four Tops' 50th-anniversary concert on July 28, 2004.
- C. Howard Crane 1885–1952 · architect
Worked here
Built as the Capitol Theatre; restored and reopened as the Detroit Opera House in 1996.
- David DiChiera 1935–2018 · opera impresario, composer, musicologist
Founded
The 1922 Capitol Theatre that DiChiera's company bought in 1988 and reopened in 1996 as the Detroit Opera House; his opera Cyrano premiered here in 2007.
- Yuval Sharon born 1979 · opera director
Worked here
Home of Detroit Opera during Sharon's tenure; his first Detroit production used the opera house's multi-level parking center next door.
- J. L. Hudson 1846–1912 · merchant, founder of the J. L. Hudson department store
Founded
Hudson opened his first store inside the old opera house on Campus Martius in 1881 (not today's Detroit Opera House on Broadway).
- John H. Kunsky 1874–1952 · movie theater magnate, broadcaster
Founded
Opened by Kunsky in 1922 as the Capitol, designed by C. Howard Crane; restored and reopened in 1996 as the home of Detroit Opera.
- James M. Nederlander 1922–2016 · theatrical producer, theater owner
Related place
His father's 1912 lease on this opera house founded the Nederlander theater business.
- William Lavin 1864–1933 · tenor, voice teacher
Performed here
Lavin sang as tenor soloist with the Schumann Society here in December 1884, in the original opera house that burned in 1897.
- Weston Gales 1877–1939 · conductor, organist
Performed here
The downtown opera house (rebuilt 1898 after a fire) where Gales led the revived orchestra's first concert on February 26, 1914; demolished in 1966, the site is now One Campus Martius.
Sources & fact check · Checked: 2026-09-25
An independently written bilingual guide. This collection is not an attendance-based ranking.
03 / Events
Events at this place
Published events automatically linked from our event guide. Times are local to the venue.
We have no published upcoming events linked to this place yet. That does not mean the venue has no events; check its official calendar too.
Source and former website ↗