Weir Theatre

There is a parking lot now where the Weir Theater used to stand.

The photo’s for the Weir & Rex listed on the PSTOS site clearly show 2 different buildings. I was in the Weir and it was definatly the brick building with the crown on the roof line. It was next to the Masonic building (Later Browers dress shop). The Rex was next to the Weir more at mid block. At least that is what the photo’s show.

There are a few photo’s of this theater at www.jonesphotocollection.com be shur to search using different spellings for “theater” and “theatre” as they may not all pull up at once.

Hmm…. my 1953 theater guide shows the D&R and the Seventh Street theaters being operated by Evergreen, but not the Weir.

As I mentioned in the above post, the Daily World newspaper (Aberdeen, Wash.) had some interior photos in a story they did when the theater was torn down.

The Wurlitzer organ mentioned in the description above was an Opus 341 Style 185 and it was installed in the Weir Theater on 4/19/1920.

I was in the Weir Theater in the late 1970’s or very early 80"s when the theater was owned by Pat Pearson, at that time the auditorium was intact. She had tried to open the Weir for live performances only to be closed by the city who stated the building was not up to safety codes. I remember that there was a large steep balcony with box seats. There were also private boxes on the orchestra floor as well. The stage floor was also raked, (sloped tword the audience).
According to Mrs. Pearson the University of Washington had told her that this was the only theater still standing in Washington that they knew of with that kind of a stage floor. The walls were painted to resemble stone and their were floral decorations also painted on the walls. Above the procienium arch on the cieling was a large mural. I think it was of a woman or angel. The main cieling had 5 light fixtures, 1 large central fixture and 4 smaller ones. At the time I was in the Weir the seats were still in place but the stage equipment and drapery was long gone. All projection equipment was also gone. The place was in pretty run down condition as the theater was closed by D&R Theaters Inc around 1945. The lobby and entrance was remodeled into retail space, and the auditorium was sealed up and left to sit. One interesting find, when Mrs. Pearson pulled up the old moth eaton isle carpet on the orchestra floor, the pad were stacks of paper. Most of the paper went to the dump until one of the people helping her unfolded one of the pieces only to discover that these paper sheets were full color silent film posters. She saved the ramaining posters. With some good financing this could have been a real historic masterpiece.

Sadly, the Weir Theater was torn down around the middle of 2003. The city condemned it when the roof leaked and started falling in. The Daily World (Aberdeed, Wash.) newspaper had pictures of the interior of this little gem.