Metropolitan Theatre
415 University Street,
Seattle,
WA
98101
415 University Street,
Seattle,
WA
98101
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Opened on October 2nd, 1911, the Metropolitan Theatre was designed by architect A.H. Albertson of the architectural firm Howells & Stokes. Originally a stage house, it began showing movies within two years of its opening, and alternated between presenting live theatre and movies throughout its history.
Between 1925 and 1928, the Olympic Hotel was built on three sides of the theatre. The Metropolitan Theatre was eventually demolished so that a new entrance to the hotel could be built. The final performance in the theatre was a stage production, on December 4, 1954.
Contributed by
Joe Vogel
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Here is a brief essay about the Metropolitan, on the occasion of its closing, from the Online Encyclopedia of Washington State History. There are three small photographs of the theatre.
Vintage photo of the Metropolitan at this link
1911 photo of the Metropolitan Theatre.
There is also an interesting bird’s eye view of the demolition of the Metropolitan in 1956.
In her memoir Memories of a Catholic Girlhood, Mary McCarthy wrote of her Aunt Rosie, who at one point had managed the musical events at the Metropolitan Theatre:
“Thanks to her theater connection, she had known Houdini and the Great Alexander and could explain the magicians' acts by the fact that there was a trap door on the Metropolitan Theatre’s stage.”
Address: 415 University Street
1911 photo.
1912 photo.
The entry for Abraham Albertson at the Pacific Coast Architectural Database says that he arrived in Seattle in 1907 and served as the supervising architect for the Seattle office of the New York City firm Howells & Stokes for the next ten years.
An ad for the Flour City Ornamental Iron Works in the 1913 edition of Sweet’s Catalog of Building and Construction attributes the design of the Metropolitan Theatre in Seattle to the firm of Howells & Stokes.