Harrington, Washington — Wheat Town With an Opera House

Harrington has an opera house.

In the prosperous wheat country of the early twentieth century, that was less improbable than it sounds.

The Harrington Opera House opened in 1904 with a stage, auditorium and community spaces for performances, dances and meetings.

Agriculture generated enough local wealth to support institutions modern visitors might expect only in larger cities.

As rural populations declined, many buildings of that era disappeared.

Harrington's opera house survived through local preservation work and returned to community use.

The surrounding economy still depends heavily on wheat, even though the population is much smaller than the town's historic buildings suggest.

The wheat paid for a stage.

Residents kept it from becoming a ruin.