This New Hampshire Theater Has a Floor That Actually Moves

The historic Rochester Opera House in Rochester, New Hampshire, has a one-of-a-kind feature that has been fascinating visitors for more than a century.

Credit: Rochester Opera House via Facebook 1 - 1

There's a historic theater in Rochester where the floor actually moves.

And no, I'm not talking about the floor shaking because somebody is jumping around at a concert.

I mean the entire orchestra floor can physically rise and lower.

It sounds like something you'd expect to see at a Disney theme park, but this New Hampshire theater was pulling it off long before Mickey Mouse was even around.

This is crazy to think but, according to the Rochester Opera House, it's the only remaining theater in the world with this particular system.

The Rochester Opera House Has a Floor Unlike Any Other

Located inside Rochester City Hall at 31 Wakefield Street, the Rochester Opera House opened on Memorial Day in 1908.

The building was designed by Rochester native George Gilman Adams, who apparently decided that a beautiful theater with a stage, balcony, and fancy decorations wasn't quite impressive enough.

He also designed a floor that could move.

The mechanism allows the orchestra floor to be raised into an incline for traditional theater seating or lowered until it's completely flat.

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Think about that.

One night, you're sitting in a theater watching a play.

Another night, the same room could be transformed into a dance floor.

No construction crew required.

Just some pretty impressive engineering from more than a century ago.

I have trouble getting my chair in the studio to go up and down without a fight. Meanwhile, somebody in Rochester figured out how to move an entire theater floor back in 1908.

Credit: Rochester Opera House via Facebook 2 - 1

Just How Much Does the Floor Move?

Here's where the story gets even more interesting.

According to the Rochester Opera House's historical information, the back of the auditorium floor can be raised approximately 36 inches.

That's three feet!

The floor slopes downward toward the stage, giving the audience a better view of the performance.

When it's lowered, the space becomes flat and can accommodate events such as dances and gatherings.

And somehow, all of this was engineered more than 100 years ago.

The Historic Theater Almost Disappeared

What makes this even more remarkable is that the Rochester Opera House nearly became a forgotten piece of New Hampshire history.

The theater hosted plays, concerts, dances, civic events, and other entertainment for decades.

But as the years went by, its popularity declined.

By 1974, the theater had closed, and the building fell into serious disrepair.

The historic floor mechanism had deteriorated, too.

Restoring it wasn't easy.

During restoration efforts in the 1980s, University of New Hampshire engineering students helped investigate how the unusual system worked.

Can you imagine being assigned a college engineering project and discovering that part of your homework involved figuring out how to operate an enormous moving theater floor?

That's a little more exciting than a group presentation with PowerPoint.

Community volunteers and preservation supporters eventually helped bring the Opera House back to life.

The theater reopened in 1997, and the floor mechanism was restored to working order for the building's 100th anniversary in 2008.

Credit: Rochester Opera House via Facebook 4 - 1

One of New Hampshire's Most Unusual Historic Attractions

Today, the Rochester Opera House continues to host live entertainment, including concerts, theater productions, comedy, and other performances.

And that remarkable moving floor remains one of its most fascinating features.

For a state filled with covered bridges, historic buildings, and quirky roadside attractions, I think this one deserves a little more attention.

It's pretty amazing that something invented more than a century ago is still part of the entertainment experience in Rochester.

And the next time somebody tells you the floor was moving during a concert, you might want to ask whether they were at the Rochester Opera House.

You can learn more about the building's fascinating history and upcoming performances at HERE