Mighty Richland Players Dinner Theater Links

History

Contact Us:

Mighty Richland Players
203 W. High Street
Orangeville, IL 61060
(815) 819-1310
e-mail

Lodge Hall:

Built in the Italianate style in 1876 at a cost of $2,500, Lodge Hall is a two-story, frame structure expressly designed for meetings and social/cultural gatherings of fraternal orders and other community groups. Constructed by the A.F. & A.M. Lodge 687, the building contained a basement banquet room, first floor with a stage for public events, and second floor meeting room.

With membership on the decline, the Masons sold the building in 1893 to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, J.R. Scroggs Lodge 372 for $1,800. Around 1911, indoor plumbing, electricity, and central heat were added, making community events more enjoyable.

The first floor was restored in 2001 and continued to see use for school class reunions, dinner theater, local and regional meetings, and other activities. A year later, the exterior front was restored by the Masons, IOOF, and A Community Together (ACT), a nonprofit community development organization, at a cost of $10,000 each.

The dinner theater draws patrons from Chicago, Madison, Dubuque, and the Quad cities. The Orangeville Lyceum Series, held six times a year in the Hall, also draws from the region when it hosts nationally-known lecturers funded by the National Endowment of the Arts and the Illinois Humanities Council through the Road Scholar program.

The Masonic Hall is considered a visual delight, a historic treasure, a cash generator, a visitor attraction, a community asset, a source of tremendous pride, and a model of what can be done in a small town with civic-minded volunteers. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Village:

Founded in 1851 and incorporated in 1867, Orangeville, Illinois is located in Stephenson County, roughly two miles from the Wisconsin border, 35 miles west of Rockford, Illinois and 60 miles east of Dubuque, Iowa.

The town founder, John Bower, plotted the village and owned the original lot where Lodge Hall is built. The town got its start in the 1830s and early 1840s, when farmers from New York and Pennsylvania -- many of German descent -- settled here.

By 1877, the village had a population of more than 300 people. The first village newspaper appeared on the scene in 1883.

The coming of the Illinois Central Railroad in 1888 initiated a commercial building boom of 14 new brick buildings in the downtown area. Just before the Great Depression, Illinois State Highway 74 (later state route 26) replaced Church Alley on the east of the village; bypassing the central business district resulted in negative growth and threatened to turn the village into a bedroom community. Thanks to servicemen and their families relocating here after World War II and the Korean Conflict, the village again experienced growth.