Niagara District Court House, better known as the Court House Theatre, is a former court house and venue for the Shaw Festival (until 1973) in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada.
The neo-classical three-storey building was constructed between 1846 and 1847 to designs by the Toronto architect William Thomas (and built by Garvie and Co.)[1] for the then Niagara District.[2] The building replaced an earlier court house removed for fear of it being in-range of cannon fire from Fort Niagara. Inside it had a courtroom, town hall chambers, offices and jail cells.
The building was used as one of a few venues for the 1850 Provincial Agricultural Fair of Canada West.[3] The court-house function remained until judicial courts moved to St. Catharines in 1863; the building then served as town hall[1] and jail until 1866.[4] It became an orphanage for girls from England from 1869 to the early 20th century.[5]
In 1962 the court house became home to the Shaw Festival. It received designation as a National Historic Site in 1981.[2] As of the 2018 season, it was retired as an active performance venue and re-purposed for rehearsals, training, education, and expanded audience programs.[6]