Tower Theatre

835 NW Wall Street,
Bend, OR 97709

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Tower Theatre

Viewing: Photo | Street View

The 1940 Art Moderne style Tower Theatre, which closed as a movie house in 1994, underwent a renovation in 2002 and was reopened in January 2004. Today operating as a performing arts venue, the Tower Theatre is known as ‘Central Oregon’s Center Stage’.

Contributed by Ross Melnick

Recent comments (view all 22 comments)

ticktock11
ticktock11 on November 1, 2008 at 10:18 pm

Correction: I should have said two doors to the RIGHT in Lost Memory’s posts… .

millsbranch
millsbranch on February 25, 2009 at 7:25 am

Correct on the Liberty, I will try and get an old 1947 photo
posted, which shows both theaters in their heyday Billy h

DonLewis
DonLewis on February 25, 2009 at 8:40 pm

A fantastic view from 1947 of the Tower and Liberty Theaters in Bend, Oregon.

lostmemory
lostmemory on April 21, 2009 at 3:42 pm

1982 Photo

1984 Photo

lostmemory
lostmemory on July 9, 2009 at 8:45 am

This is a 2009 photo.

lostmemory
lostmemory on August 25, 2009 at 7:14 pm

Another 2009 photo is here.

Chuck1231
Chuck1231 on April 15, 2010 at 8:06 am

Another 2009 photo of the Tower Theatre.
View link

Mike Rogers
Mike Rogers on November 10, 2010 at 6:05 pm

You really gotta love theatre managers.On the ad for the sci-fi movie “MAROONED” it states “HAS THE DAZZLING OUTER SPACE EFFECTS OF 2001,BUT WITH A STORY”. WHAT! I hope Nick doesn’t read this. “MAROONED” was a decent flick,but the manager sure did not like 2001. Love these old ads. oh,the second feature was “TIME FOR A KILLING”.

RonP
RonP on June 18, 2011 at 3:06 am 
 When it opened on March 6, 1940 the Tower was covered quite extensively in the Bend Bulletin. B. Marcus Priteca of Seattle and Harry A. Herzog of Portland were the architects. Construction was started on December 1 and the theatre was completed in a little more than three months with workers on double shifts. The walls of a former building on the site were utilized in the new construction. In order to lower the front of the theater, the blasting of rock was required
                   Frank Blount and Ken Hodkinson, the builders and operators, had extensive experience in the movie business in production and distribution. Hodkinson was the son of W.W. Hodkinson, the founder of Paramount Pictures. The men, who looked extensively around the northwest before deciding on Bend, would be making their home in Bend.
                  The opening attraction was ‘Four Wives’ staring Claude Rains. It was noted that four studios including Warner Bros., RKO, Columbia, and Monogram would supply the movies. Some of the movies would play before Portland and others would play at the same time.
Dennis Noson
Dennis Noson on January 20, 2012 at 4:32 pm

Back in 1975 I worked as a young(ish) architect in Priteca’s office, here in Seattle. Benny Priteca was a specialist in theater architecture, and I saw many of his tracings for elaborate terracotta facing tiles and parapet caps. Years later, now an acoustical consultant, I was part of the design team for the 2004 renovation. Let me know— if you are a ‘local’— just how well the acoustics are working out. And thanks to all who have posted photos.

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