After a fire destroyed several stores in 1877, leading citizens including Congressman William P. Frye decided to construct "the best opera house east of Boston." Its offerings featured travelling stock companies, minstrels, drama, and melodrama, with shows ranging from opera to less elevated fare such as Jeff the Boxing Kangaroo. During the vaudeville era, the manager's wife sat where she could signal someone to drop the curtain if she felt censorship was needed. Music Hall remained in business until the early 1930s and was still used occasionally for drama club shows and high school graduations. Its interior was gutted in the early 1960s to create storage space for a hardware store, and after conversion to house the Lewiston District Court, the building became the scene of other sorts of drama.