Barrett's Hall

One Main Street, Champaign, Illinois

Opened 1865
Closed 1896

One Main Street after 1900 when Brown's Business School had taken over the third-floor opera hall space. 

W. C. Barrett built a three-story brick block at the North-East corner of Main and Hickory Streets.  It was given the address of One Main Street. 

Barrett also built, on speculation, two fine brick houses on State Street just North of Green.  The surviving house is known as the Solon House.

The opera house was on the third floor of the building.

The building was sold to Henry Swannell, proprietor of the drug store on the ground floor, and C.S. Morehouse in March, 1873. They made some renovations to the opera house space.

Barrett's Hall was remodeled in August, 1882.  It was renamed the Champaign Opera House.

Three speakers of note:  Susan B. Anthony, Mark Twain (1871), and Frederick Douglass (1872).

In June, 1896, the Champaign Business College moved into the opera house space.

Champaign Business College later moved out, and in August 1900, Brown's Business School moved into the space.

The building was razed in 1950 to make way for a new building to house the W.T. Grant store.