In Big Rapids, the Colonial Theater stood on this site from 1884 until 1937, and in a postcard mailed on October 15, 1908, Fred Roof praised the playhouse to his girlfriend and future wife, Frannie Fairbanks, in Elk Rapids, writing that it was said to have cost forty thousand dollars and had scenery raised above the stage instead of sliding back. A 1909 view looking north on Michigan Ave. from about this location shows wooden boardwalks and unpaved streets. The Opera House, built in 1873 on the southeast corner of Elm St. and Michigan Ave., once housed the County offices, the Circuit Court, a National Guard armory, and a grocery store on the lower level before it was razed in 1957.