Built in 1924 by the Episcopal Church, what is now known as Center Stage is part of a National Historic District, the Evergreen Conference Complex. The district includes twenty-three structures and is surrounded by meadows, rocks, and heavily wooded mountains much as it appeared when it served as a music camp circa 1900. Originally known as “The Meeting House,” it is a single story, western shingle style building with a native stone foundation and chimneys, wood shuttered openings, massive wood trusses and an octagonal stage.

The Meeting House reflects the construction and appearance of Evergreen more than a century ago. For more than 50 years, the Meeting House hosted summer music camps led by Fr. Canon Winfred Douglas, an internationally renowned composer, music educator, and an expert on the plain-song mass. Music was a key emphasis of the Conference Center in the early twentieth century and a six-week summer school on liturgical music was a mainstay in the meeting house.

The Evergreen Chorale began renting the facility in the 1970s for choral and theatrical performances. The Chorale purchased the building in 1989, renamed it “Center Stage” and added a lobby, green room, and restrooms. The Evergreen Conference District was added to the National Historic Registry in 1979 and Center Stage was recognized as a Jefferson County Historic Landmark in 2021. 

Today, the unique community resource serves as the base of operations for Ovation West Performing Arts and is a cornerstone of Evergreen culture and performing arts, serving as a home for the Mountain Youth Musicals, Evergreen Players, the Evergreen Children’s Chorale, Evergreen Academy of Music, Evergreen Jazz Festival, Mountain Film Festival, and many others.

Check out the two mini-documentaries below by Jefferson County Historical Commission representative and Evergreen Chorale member Richard Scudder.