05/25/2026
Happy Memorial Day ~ The Romeo Gray's Opera House
Obituary and Remembrance of Richard Beringer, Romeo, Michigan Historian ~ Memorial Day 2026
I was sad to hear last month that Richard S. Beringer had passed away at the age of 80.
I had heard of and have been on a short tour he gave a few years ago. He was one of the few remaining citizens of Romeo that remembered and painstakingly have kept its history alive.
I called Richard two and a half years ago. He was driving with his wife. I told him that I would call him back, but he pulled his car to the shoulder, and we talked for 45 minutes.
I had a sensitive question about the sad history of the town and about its Black population, a small percentage in the1940s-1970s.
Romeo was not alone in how it treated our minorities and today, though better, it’s far from perfect.
Richard told me that one restaurant owner on Main Street would not allow Blacks to eat in his restaurant. Instead, a ‘colored’ person in those days would have to come to the back door and order his or her dinner(s). Then they would take it out, so the restaurant was only a carry-out establishment for them.
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Happy Memorial Day – 2026
Gray’s Opera House opened 156 years in Romeo, Michigan, on 8 March 1870. It cost $20,000 and started construction in 1869. Built of dried bricks and wood form the area Hugh, Noah and James Gray financed. Oscar S. Buel was the architect.
It had gas lighting and glass imported from France. The design was of the popular late 1800s Italianate style.
The building is three stories high with a staircase that originally was entered from the outside. That later changed as you now enter the first floor and the stairway to the 2nd floor is on the left side.
The Opera House hosted prominent speakers, including Zachariah Chandler-Senator and leading Radical Reconstructionist, Elizabeth Stanton-tireless promoter of women’s rights, the First Jubilee Singers-a popular Negro university choir from Tennessee and Uncle Tom’s Cabin, including a full pack of Cuban and Spanish hounds.
There have been five fires at the building between 1876 and 1940. It must be an act of Providence that the building stands today.
It is the tireless work of Romeo, Michigan residents that these buildings and other historical homes and buildings remain today. Romeo, Michigan is very worthy of being remembered this Memorial Day along with the soldiers that fought and gave their lives for American freedom and democracy. We should never forget!
Special thanks to local historians and preservationists including Richard Beringer, Steven Lees, Tom Bleich, the Romeo Community Archives, and others who have helped preserve Romeo’s history for future generations.
