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| Sterling Opera House |
Derby, Connecticut is home to one of New England's
best-known haunted sites–the Sterling Opera House. This beautiful Italianate
structure is familiar to the townspeople, having been part of the landscape
since 1889. The gifted architect H. Edwards Ficken was responsible for much of
the design, which might have something to do with it being placed on the
National Register of Historic Places.
When the Sterling Opera House was in its prime, it was one
of those fanciful venues of a bygone era. It is a gem of a classic, and you can
still sense its vaudeville spirit, though it closed its doors for shows in 1945
and was abandoned half a century ago. Long ago, people like Amelia Earhart,
John Barrymore and Charlie Chaplin graced its stage, with the indomitable Ms.
Earhart giving a talk to a women's group about her adventures in the aviation.
The Sterling Opera House has an auspicious past, but that doesn't stop ghost
hunters and paranormal lovers from believing there may just be a few spirits
lurking around the place.
One of my favorite stories about a ghost in the Sterling
Opera House involves a child spirit named Andy. I'm not sure where the story
originated, but it says that little Andy likes to play with soccer balls and
other toys strewn about the decaying interior. That seems harmless enough. In
fact, none of the ghost stories I came across involved anything malicious.
Everything comes up rosy at this place.
There's a rumor that the Charles Sterling, for whom the opera
house was named, also haunts the place. That's not really in keeping with the
idea that you haunt a place if you died there or something tragic happened
there. Nonetheless, it's what people say. They also say dancing orbs sometimes
flicker about and that shadow people sometimes appear. I'm not a big fan of
shadow people stories. Still, they seem to be relatively innocuous things if
the stories are true.
During my research, I was happy to learn that Derby is in
the process of renovating the Sterling Opera House. I tend to be disappointed
when towns let their history fall to ruins (ahem, Hanson, MA), so this is good
news. However, the project isn't fully funded, and, as of 2016, there is a
Department of the Interior investigation into a grant given the town of Derby
for this restoration. From what I can find, it doesn't look too serious. It
appears that something wasn't approved and money exchanged hands anyway, but
the money is going into the project as far as I can tell.
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