Who Are We?

Who are these crazy people behind this big project? Take a moment to learn a little bit about the dreamers and doers of The Opera House Event Hall...

Friends for many years now, our friendship took a new path when we decided to become business partners and become "married" in this project. While signing papers and putting our names together on checking accounts, insurance, and bank papers, we looked at each other and said, "Well, this is it...we are in it for the long haul now!" Since Williams and Bundy Properties was created almost a year ago, we have tackled many decisions and handled it well, in our opinion anyway.

Signing papers!

Here is a little bio of each and what roles we play:

Jocelyn

As a banker for the Bank of Humboldt, Jocelyn is well-versed in all things financial which leads her to be our money guru for our business. She stays on top of our spending and lets us know what needs to be done and when things need to be paid, etc. Her books are immaculate, but be forewarned, if you don't turn in a receipt, you are on the hot seat! Jocelyn is a graduate of Humboldt City Schools and supports her hometown tirelessly. You can find her involved with many Chamber activities, Strawberry Festival, school functions, the HHS Alumni Association, her church, and too many more to name. Perhaps her greatest and most rewarding activity as of late is taking care of her 3 beautiful children, one of which was just born in December. As a go-getter Jocelyn makes things happen for us and we wouldn't be where we are today without her.

Eric

Having grown up in the D.C. area, Eric is a recent (and I mean, in the last 10 years) newcomer to our little town, but supports it like it is his own. Loving his wife Jocelyn and her support for Humboldt may have something to do with it, but he has definitely made his place here and the community is better for it. As an Information Systems guy for West Tennessee Healthcare, Eric knows a little about everything. He is very knowledgeable on just about anything and if he doesn't know about something, then his Google app is not far away from being used. Eric is our sounding board for everything practical.  If an opinion meets his approval, then it will probably get done. And did I mention Eric is a work horse? This guy is fearless (as is evident in his acrobatics on a scaffold) and he doesn't mind getting his hands dirty. Since we have a ton of demolition work, restructuring work, lots of clean up, new construction, painting, refinishing, and heavy lifting, among many other things that have to be done on the building, we are very lucky to have Eric Bundy on our side!

Jessica

As a Humboldt native as well, Jessica is thrilled to be a part of something new and exciting for her hometown. Currently a recruiter for Personnel Placements in Jackson, she has held many marketing and creative roles, so she felt comfortable handling the marketing and the face of the business. In her spare time (what spare time, right?), she is active in the Jackson Exchange Club and serves on the Board of Directors for the West Tennessee Regional Art Center in Humboldt.  Although not professional, she dabbles in creative design and photography and helped create the logo for the Opera House. As a lover of planning all types of events, she would love to take this new found opportunity to help clients plan special occasions in the building. The focus now though is to just get it open. So when she isn't caring for her two precious daughters, she might can be seen busting up some plaster on an occasional Saturday or at least stopping by to give her opinion on the way something looks.

Lee

Project manager may be Lee's current title at TDOT, but he might as well take that title for this venture as well. Having restored 3 older homes and doing most of the work himself on those homes, he knows a thing or two about hard work, old structures, and what it takes to get things done. As an engineer, Lee is our structural guy and along with Eric has designed and laid out the store front of our building, which has been completely rebuilt in the past 2 months. He can give the rest of us a yes or no answer on whether the things we dream up in our head that we want for the building can be done or not. His plate is pretty full now with being the Humboldt Chamber Board President, the Vice-Chairman for the Humboldt City School Board, and the President of the HHS Alumni Association, but after he dedicates time to being "Daddy", he is constantly thinking about this building. Being from Humboldt as well, Lee is one of the best promoters and supporters of Humboldt (maybe 2nd to Jocelyn). This business venture only expands on that!


So this is us in a nutshell! We not only want to start a business and succeed, but make a difference in our hometown. If all we get out of this is adding something of worth to the already beautiful downtown Humboldt, then we will be proud!

Thanks for checking us out! And thanks for the support that we are receiving from our community!

What is The Opera House Event Hall?

This is the most important question, right? Let's jump right in...

The Opera House Event Hall is going to be a premier venue for any and all events that are special in your life. It is located in a historic building at 1313 Main Street right in the middle of downtown Humboldt, Tennessee. Previously positioned as many different retail stores and an actual opera house in the past (hence the name), its wide open spaces are perfect for holding events for 10 - 300 people. This best part is that you can actually keep them all in the same room!

As a two-story building, the bottom floor will be the main event hall with a beautiful entrance and large windows that can allow a lot of natural light for daytime events. Large chandeliers will hang down the center of the exposed ceiling to enhance the lighting for any time of day or night. Original hardwood floors will be refinished and brick walls will be exposed to create a perfect canvas for decorating in any style for any event.

A mezzanine level that overlooks the bottom floor is being opened up and a beautiful stairway will be installed to access that level from the main floor.This area can serve as extra space for guests, a place to set-up a bar or DJ, or whatever our hosts have in mind.

Our second floor is most famous for the large, and I do mean large, windows that overlook Main Street. This area needed a little maintenance work structurally to secure the support of the roof. With this added support came additional columns down the center of the space. While it is not as open as the bottom floor, it is still a large space and can hold plenty of people. Our thoughts were that this space could serve as an overflow area to a party downstairs and offer more of a lounging space. This area will come with sofas, chairs, its own small kitchen, and multiple ways to arrange the room. We see this area as a space for smaller, more quaint parties such as baby showers, bridal showers, birthday parties, or even book club meetings. This could also serve as a bridal loft for the preparation of the bride and her party if the wedding were to take place in the building.

A catering prep area and mens and women's bathrooms will also be downstairs.

Taken after we bought the building

There will be so many options for how things can be set up and that is what makes us most excited about our adventure. We can see weddings, receptions, birthday/anniversary parties, reunions, fundraisers, business meetings, wedding/baby showers...basically anything you can dream up, we see it happening here. There will be no need to seek out venues in other cities anymore!

Since our building had been in disrepair for many, many years, we have a lot of work to do to get it to the vision we see in our heads. It is a big job, but we are dedicated and driven to make this happen. So, follow us, keep in touch and watch our dream become a reality...this year!

Sketch of what the exterior will look like when finished. Those are transom windows above the door and across the front!