Gothic Theatre

From the front facade description I'd love to see a photo(s)!

Patsy
Here are two pics of the facade

http://www.agilitynut.com/p/gothic904.jpg

http://www.agilitynut.com/p/gothic2904.jpg

Photo of the Gothic Theatre.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y147/Chuck1231/Colorado%20Theatres/GothicTheatreEnglewoodCo.jpg

Cute little single screen art deco theatre that is open as it was saved from that wrecking ball in 1998. Congratulations to the folks of Englewood Colorado! Thanks for the great photos!

Here is another photo of the Gothic Theater.

This website has some additional information about the Gothic Theater.

Can't bring up the Dec. 9th photo.

The Dec. 9th link was terminal. We had to pull the plug on it. It didn't suffer. :)

Here is a recent photo of the Gothic Theater. Don't adjust your monitor, the photo is tilted.

This is a recent night view of the Gothic Theater.

A Robert-Morton theater organ was installed in the Gothic Theater in 1928.

Another recent photo of the Gothic Theater can be seen here.

This is the Gothic Theater website.

Here is a recent photo.

Here are some 1984 photos:

Photo1

Photo2

Photo3

Photo4

Here are some 2009 photos:

Photo1

Photo2

Photo3

Another night photo is here.

2009 marquee photo

The introduction to this page mentions a remodeling in 1940, but the April 30, 1949, issue of Boxoffice Magazine describes a major remodeling then underway at the house. This involved rebuilding the front, reconfiguring the entrance, moving the boxoffice, enlarging the rest rooms, expanding the balcony to accommodate an additional 150 seats, building new stairways, shifting the manager's office to the main floor, enlarging the stage, reseating and completely redecorating the auditorium, and installing new heating and ventilation systems.

A later issue of Boxoffice refers to the theater as "...the New Gothic Theatre, now under construction at Englewood." A third item says the estimated cost of the project was $100,000.

Given the scope of this rebuilding, it's likely that just about everything about the Gothic that doesn't date from the 1990s renovation dates from 1949.

The Gothic website isn't much help. "In the 1940’s the front facade was radically altered to keep pace with more modern tastes. Luckily the interior art deco finishes were left untouched (the rounded walls and wonderful recessed coves remain to this day)".

Undulating walls with lighting coves were not a common feature of theaters built in 1920, but they were popular in the 1940s. In the small photo of the auditorium on the Gothic web site it looks to me more late art moderne than anything else.

The City of Englewood has this photo collection which includes three older pictures of the Gothic- only of the outside, unfortunately. In the photo dated ca.1930 the 1935 release "Oil For the Lamps of China" is on the marquee. In the one dated ca.1940 the 1940 release "Boom Town" is on the marquee.

Some alterations took place between those years. There's a wider marquee in 1940, and the shops either side of the entrance have been closed up. That probably dates from the 1940 remodeling mentioned in the intro, but note that the entrance doorway still has the Gothic pointed arch top. The current facade is clearly a later alteration.

The facade in both of those photos has some really nice brick work, and the current facade covers that up, as in the photo dated ca.1950 (actually later since the 1957 "An Affair to Remember" is on the marquee.) The 1957 facade must be the result of the 1949 remodeling. I wonder how much of the brick remains underneath?

I'm not sure that the brick facade dates from 1920, though it might. I'd say the style was actually a modernized Gothic, with some Prairie Style influence. The style could be considered a precursor of Art Deco, but it wasn't full-on Art Deco. If it did date from 1920, though, it was very advanced for its time.

That site also has pictures of the Englewood Theatre (ca.1929, as "On With the Show" was released that year) and the Pioneer Theatre (probably 1936, with "The Mysterious Avenger" on the marquee.)