It was financed by the Adrian Union Hall Company, whose stockholders included future Michigan governor Charles Croswell.

It hosted concerts, lectures, festivals, and theatrical performances by both traveling troupes and amateur local groups.

Famous speakers who visited the opera house included Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Frederick Douglass, Thomas Nast, Henry Ward Beecher, and Ralph Waldo Emerson.

The management would bring in a popular new film, and tickets were not for sale; only a newly purchased war bond would entitle a person to admission.

In March 1967, the Butterfield chain announced it would not renew its lease, and owner Harry Angell put the building up for sale.

But Charlie Hickman, the owner of local manufacturing company Brazeway, stepped forward to buy the building, and a new nonprofit organization was chartered to take over its operation.

The newly revived Croswell staged its first summer season of live theater in 1968, beginning with a production of Neil Simon's Barefoot in the Park.

Speakers in the theater's Town Hall series, which ran from 1970 to 1996, included Gloria Steinem, Helen Thomas, Arianna Huffington, Ralph Nader, Julian Bond, Art Linkletter, Jeane Dixon, Bella Abzug, Kitty Carlisle, Charlton Heston, and "Dear Abby" author Pauline Phillips.

[3] A capital campaign to renovate the theater was announced in May 2015, with changes to include new public spaces, more restrooms, Americans with Disabilities Act improvements, and electrical and other infrastructure upgrades.

The first one particularly attracting attention on entering the city from the depot is “Union Hall,” a large brick structure erected and owned by a joint-stock company at a cost of $35,000.

The principal audience room is at some little distance from the street, and is reached through an arched passage-way, on each side of which is an elegant and commodious store.

In the erection of the gallery a new feature is introduced, which, by means of trusses, braces and iron ties, makes it self-supporting, and entirely does away with the necessity of columns or ungainly brackets to support it.

There is a large stage, 30x32 feet, which is fitted up for theatrical exhibitions, with scenery, dressing-rooms, &c. In the arrangement of the scenery, some new ideas are carried out, several of the side scenes folding up, while the principal fines, five in number, are suspended from large cylinders overhead, being hoisted and lowered by means of machinery, completely doing away with the squeaking, rattling and confusion generally attendant upon the shifting and sliding of the different pieces, and as a whole scene is raised or lowered at once, the ridiculous gap often seen in the center of an elegant painting is obviated.

Some of the theater's distinctive features include ornate plaster detailing around the entire auditorium, two tall organ towers on either side of the stage with decorate urns built into them, and large panels on the walls reminiscent of the ones that can be seen in Brompton's RIviera Theatre.

Two buildings on either side of the Croswell's front lobby were purchased in 1978 and 1979 and added to the theater, becoming space for rehearsals, offices and an art gallery.

[3] In addition to established works, the Croswell has premiered several new plays and musicals, including: The Croswell offers a number of educational programs, including summer performance and technical theater camps, an all-area high school musical, paid summer internships for college students, and a variety of children's performances.