Rialto Theatre

DavidZornig on May 4, 2020 at 1:50 pm

Court Theatre grand opening photo added courtesy Diane Smiling Wolf Beaty.

Joe Vogel on August 12, 2012 at 2:08 pm

This page from the Lane Libraries says that the Rialto Theatre returned to its original name during its last years. It closed as the Court Theatre in 1988, reopening as the Rialto once again in May, 1989. The page says: “It closed for several periods in its final years, when it was operated as a two-screen theater with 500 seats. It finally closed in October 1993, and sold to the City of Hamilton for $140,000 in 1996. It was razed by the city in October 1996.”

The page also notes that the St. Charles Hotel was partly demolished when the Rialto was built. The theater entrance was in the part of the hotel that was preserved, but the auditorium was apparently entirely new construction. The page attributes the design of the Rialto to Cincinnati architect L. W. Fahnestock. At the time the Rialto was built, he was a partner in the firm of Dittoe, Fahnestock & Ferber, architects of the Murphy Theatre at Wilmington, Ohio.