The Paramount was demolished in 1979, following a failed eleventh-hour attempt by private citizens to save it. The longtime owners felt the theater was too expensive to maintain, and had it flattened to street-level before it was turned into a parking lot.
Fortunately, parts of the old theater—the pipe organ, the marquee and neon sign, and the concrete statues—still exist, scattered about town in the hands of various individuals. A multi-level parking garage is about to be built at the corner of Third at Convention Streets, in place of where the Paramount once stood.
The Paramount was demolished in 1979, following a failed eleventh-hour attempt by private citizens to save it. The longtime owners felt the theater was too expensive to maintain, and had it flattened to street-level before it was turned into a parking lot.
Fortunately, parts of the old theater—the pipe organ, the marquee and neon sign, and the concrete statues—still exist, scattered about town in the hands of various individuals. A multi-level parking garage is about to be built at the corner of Third at Convention Streets, in place of where the Paramount once stood.