ABOUT
Welcome to the Celestia Theater: a New Chapter in a Storied Space.
For generations, the red-brick schoolhouse on Main Street has served as Wadsworth’s academic and cultural heart. Union School, originally erected here in 1870, gave way in 1907 to the sturdy building we know today, a structure that shifted gracefully from a K–12 school to a high school, junior high, and ultimately Central School as the city grew.
At its center sits the 900-seat O. J. Work Auditorium, a stage that has echoed with band concerts, class plays, and community meetings for more than a century. Now, after a comprehensive revitalization, this beloved hall begins its next act as the Celestia Theater—a name that honors one of Wadsworth’s own: Laura Celestia Spelman Rockefeller.
The Celestia Theater Story
In the 1830s, just a few steps from today’s theater doors, Harvey and Lucy Spelman kept a thriving grocery on Main Street, roughly where the Match Mural parking lot is today. Their daughter, Laura, arrived in 1839, her early childhood spent amid the bustle of downtown Wadsworth. Seeking to broaden the family business and give their children a stronger education, the Spelmans moved first to Akron and then north to Cleveland. There, at just fourteen, Laura graduated from Central High School as Valedictorian—an early sign of the quiet determination that would define her life.
While attending classes in Cleveland, Laura met a focused young bookkeeper named John D. Rockefeller. The pair married in 1864 and soon helped shape an industrial age, launching what would become Standard Oil while championing abolition and public education and the arts. Laura’s passion for learning and the arts never waned; her gifts established schools, social-service agencies, and cultural institutions nationwide. Atlanta’s Spelman College bears her family name, and philanthropic trusts founded by John and Laura continue to support the arts to this day.
Laura Celestia Spelman Rockefeller passed away in 1915, but her influence endures—in the causes she championed, in the generations of Rockefellers who remain civic leaders, and now in the venue that carries her middle name back home to Wadsworth.
A Historic Stage, Renewed
The Wadsworth Square Foundation has invested $1.5 million to restore and re-equip the auditorium while preserving its early-20th-century character. Fresh paint and rich carpeting honor the building’s heritage; a brighter atrium welcomes audiences with warmth; and more than $450,000 in state-of-the-art sound and lighting ensures that every note is clear and every performance shines. The result is a theater ready to host professional-grade productions yet still unmistakably rooted in the community it serves.
Looking Toward the Stars
By renaming the hall, the Foundation recognizes one of Wadsworth’s first ladies and her lasting devotion to education, equality, and the arts. The Celestia Theater stands as both tribute and promise: a place where history and possibility share the same stage, where local stories meet global legacies, and where tomorrow’s voices will discover their own bright light. We invite you to take your seat, lift your eyes to the proscenium, and be part of a new era in Wadsworth’s cultural story—just steps from the corner where it all began.
