Members of the community will have an opportunity to learn about local opera houses, giving them insight into a colorful period of history.

Author and oil historian Margo Mong of Oil City will give a presentation entitled, "The House Built for Laughter, Tears and Dancing Girls: Opera Houses of the Oil Region" at 6 p.m. Thursday in the main courtroom of the Warren County Courthouse as part of the sesquicentennial of Edwin L. Drake's oil well.

Despite the name, Mong said the houses seldom hosted operas.

"It sounded like culture," she said. "Oil men were making so much money they wanted to appear smooth. Newspapers were carrying stories about how rough oil regions were."

The oil money allowed the opera houses to attract major stars, Mong said.

"Mark Twain was in Titusville," she said. "Sarah Bernhardt performed in French. I wish I could have been there."

Later on, Mong said the houses became more accessible.

"With the coming of railroads in the 1860s, traveling troupes could visit," she said. "It was no longer just about money."

The Warren County Historical Society, which will sponsor the free event, has an amazing collection from the Grandin Opera House in Tidioute, Mong said.

"They have a chair, a potbelly stove and theater curtain," she said.

Every little town in the oil region had an opera house, Mong said.

"There was one in Edinburg," she said. "Pithole had several."

The wooden structures were crudely built, Mong said.

"The only one left I know of is in Emlenton," she said.

Mong said the topic appeals to her because she is interested in the social history of the oil industry.

"I've also been accused of being a drama queen," she said.

The opera houses were not unique to the oil region, Mong said.

"I'd imagine gold rush towns had them, too," she said. "They would appear wherever there was an influx of money and people moving in."

Opera houses were one of the few forms of entertainment at the time, Mong said.

"There were no televisions or computers," she said. "They had literary societies, cornhusking, buttermaking and church socials."