The Grand Opera House on Market Street is Wilmington's most striking nineteenth-century building — a cast-iron facade from 1871, painted white, with elaborate Second Empire detailing. Originally a Masonic temple with a 1,200-seat theatre on the upper floors, it has been the home of the Delaware Symphony Orchestra and OperaDelaware since restoration in the 1970s.
The interior is a serious theatre with active programming year-round — symphony concerts, opera, touring shows, jazz, dance. Even if you are not coming for a performance, the facade alone justifies a stop on a downtown walk. The Market Street corridor here has been progressively restored over the past two decades.