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COVINGTON — Covington native and attorney Annie Harrison never thought she'd move her family back home.

"We thought we'd stay in San Diego forever," Harrison said.

She and her husband, George Karayannis, had purchased her childhood home in 2002, but rented it to family and stayed there only occasionally.

So when Harrison learned the old Newberry Center had a theater and told her husband they should check it out, Karayannis quipped that he had all the Covington real estate he needed.

That was before the Beavercreek High School graduate saw for himself the Newberry Center and its old theater beneath an ornate stamped-tin ceiling.

"It just amazed me that such a wonderful structure would be here in the middle of Miami County," Karayannis said. "That was it — that was the end of my ocean view. ... We knew then it was our calling."

The couple purchased the Newberry Center for $85,000 in spring 2005, shortly after moving to Covington. While she practices law part-time, he is drawing on his background as a marketing executive to raise $2 million privately to finance the 96-year-old building's restoration. A nonprofit would be the master tenant of the building and pursue grants, donations and sponsorships for a $1 million renovation of the theater itself. Once civic and cultural hubs of even the smallest Ohio communities, old opera houses and theaters are at a crossroads in more ways than one.

The Dayton Daily News found at least 16 old "opera houses" in the Dayton region alone — excluding Dayton's Victoria Theatre, which opened as the Turner Opera House in 1866. Unused for decades save for storage, many have fallen into history or disrepair. In some towns, a choice between the costly options of renovation and demolition looms.

Some see the buildings not as part of the past, but as key to restoring a sense of community and cultural identity in villages whose downtowns have seen better days.

"They can really serve as an anchor for the small-town revival," Karayannis said.

Chiropractor, barber take charge

He's not alone in his thinking.

Germantown chiropractor Rudy Mejia last year purchased that town's opera house, which dates to 1872. A wedding already has been held there, and there's talk of holding ballroom dance competitions and dances for teenagers there. Mejia's brother-in-law and sister plan to open a restaurant inside the building this fall.

"It just happened to be there, nobody was willing to take on the project, and I did," Mejia said, adding that many in the community pitched in during a 10-month renovation of the building's upper level.

Such buildings "just take a lot of imagination and elbow grease ... but they're worthwhile," he said. "They're beautiful. They're part of the community. They're very significant buildings."

The opera house is his fifth renovation in Germantown. "It won't be my last," he said.

Efforts are under way in Camden to jump-start a renovation of that Preble County village's opera house. In the past 15 years, $175,000 has been spent to button up the building, where native Cyrena Van Gordon performed in the 1930s after establishing a career as an opera singer in Chicago and New York.

Jamestown barber Ted Sesslar is leading a $1 million-plus renovation of that town's opera house, which was built in 1889.

"Everybody who comes in the barbershop, that's what they want to talk about — the opera house," Sesslar said. "I tell them they ought to get involved."

For one fundraiser, supporters purchased packs of shingles for $15 each, raising the $33,000 needed for a new roof. So far, about $350,000 in state, federal and county funding has been lined up for the project. Mechanical and electrical work is planned for this year.

For many, the appeal of old theaters aren't just their acoustics and bold scale; it's in the details.

Jamestown's opera house has wire racks beneath seats where gentlemen could hang their hats, as well as early 1900s fliers pasted to the doors of dressing rooms tucked beneath the stage.

"It's got to be kept," said Sesslar's wife, Fay. "It's part of our history."

Shows go on, despite struggles

Opera houses in the Greene County communities of Cedarville and Clifton already have opened to the public. Cedarville's opera house, modeled after the Royal Albert Hall in London, was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1984 and has private, Victorian-furnished box seats in the balcony.

Joyce Reese, president of the Cedarville Opera House Society, admitted it's been a struggle to keep the theater going since it resumed performances in 1994. Some events draw as few as 50 people, though others sell out all 485 tickets. She estimates 75 percent to 80 percent of theater-goers come from out of town.

"I'd like to see a lot more support from the community," Reese said, "but if the doors ever shut, there'd be a lot of people up in arms."

Patrons of Clifton's tiny opera house come from as far away as Cincinnati and Columbus, said Sarah Reese, president of the Clifton Historical Society (no relation to Joyce Reese). The historical society leases the building from the village and holds weekly jazz, ragtime, bluegrass, big band and other musical performances from April through November.

Keeping up old buildings can be especially tough in small towns and townships with limited budgets, according to those who pay the bills.

"The challenge is the dollars and cents on everything we do," said Bob Ankeney, fiscal officer for Cedarville Twp., which leases the opera house to the Cedarville Opera House Society. "

Despite the cost, Ankeney said he's never heard Cedarville's opera house called a money pit.

"It's a huge landmark for the community."

Small-town halls as heritage tourism

Karayannis sees the growing popularity of "heritage tourism" as a way to make the Newberry Center's old vaudeville theater and former government offices viable. He called small-town theater risky business, "break-even at best," but said it can serve as an anchor for other retail and restaurants in the building.

Covington had a popular ice cream shop that closed in the 1980s, Karayannis said. So the first business in the Newberry Center will be an old-fashioned ice cream shop, to open as early as next summer. Upstairs will be an art gallery where theatergoers can mingle after shows, he said.

The theater itself will open by 2010, when the building turns 100, Karayannis said.