Warner Theatre

From a March 6, 2008 post: “The auditorium, itself, is decently sized and one can see where the split down the middle halved what was once a grand theater.” Yes, once a grand theater, indeed!

As a kid growing-up in a three-theatre Morgantown, the Warner was the biggest thing in town. Legend had it that it sported the second largest indoor screen in the state (number one was the Capitol in Wheeling) and while your information lists its capacity as 1,300 seats, to these young eyes, it seemed much larger.

Eberson buffs would have had a difficult time believing that the Warner represented his work: opened during the Depression, the decoration of the auditorium was never completed. The walls were bare except for colored-glass Deco lighting fixtures along the sides; the ceiling had no decoration at all and had but a single large recessed lighting fixture. The lobby, however, was a different story. It was huge for a small city theatre, richly decorated and had a large lounge between the restrooms.

One interesting feature: just behind the top of the proscenium was a pleated curtain which hung further upstage and capped the top of the screen. I don’t know its purpose or if it was part of the design but I have not seen this “effect” elsewhere.

Several years ago I was back in Morgantown and I stopped by the Warner and walked through the lobby. The theatre is in terrible condition and I’m sure that, in line with the comments above, watching a film in its converted three auditoriums must be a horror. But it’s interesting that Morgantown’s three theatres are still standing. Further up High Street is the Metropolitan, under painfully slow renovation and between the two, the second run Morgan is still there, though it was long ago converted to other uses. Only the burned-out Strand is gone.

View link Here are the pictures that I took… :(

Nice photos Mint.

And who is responsible for “twinning” this theatre and then making the balcony a third auditorium??