Community Arts Center

Jack Theakston on February 12, 2013 at 2:42 pm

I will guarantee you that the architect of this theater was Leon Lempert, Jr. The auditorium is almost an exact clone to the Capitol in Rome, NY, also a Commerford Theater.

Tinseltoes on June 24, 2011 at 10:01 am

Link to their Photo Gallery: caclive

lostmemory on February 3, 2008 at 12:55 pm

The Singing Fool with Al Jolson and Betty Bronson was released in September of 1928.

spectrum on October 17, 2007 at 7:26 pm

Their web page has moved to http://www.pct.edu/commarts/

Their history page has a lot of info:

The theatre was built as the Capitol in 1928, and reopened after restoration in 1993 as the Community Arts Center. It was the largest theater in the area and the first to be equipped for sound movies. It was considered the most beautiful theater in the Comerford, amnd featured cast bronze chandeliers, and a proscenium with trompe l'oeil details. It originally featured stage shows with movies. In 1936 the main level and stage area were flooded, wrecking the organ.

It never really recovered from the flood damage, and limped along until it’s restoration from 1989-1993. Cost was $13,500,000 with the bulk of that coming from Penn College. By 2004, there had been over 500 performances and 1,500 movie screenings, with 911,000 patrons through the doors by Oct. 2006 (774K for live, 128K for movies)

Unfortunately their web page does not show any pictures except a night view of the front facade. The seating plan shows orchestra, loge and balcony but it is hard to tell if the “loge” is a separate level from the “balcony”