Mr. Lautner is correct, the P&A was built as a movie house (there was once an opera house in Northville as well, but was torn down in the late 50s). I worked in this theater in the early 70s as an usher, when the theater, tho' in only fair shape, still had some of it’s original interior details. To say that the P&A was restored is, in my opinion, incorrect. What the restorers did was to try to make a 20s Renaissance Revival theater Victorian (which, being built in 1925, it never was), and in the process obliterated many of the original 20s details, the gilt stenciled proscenium in particular (it had survived by being covered by a wide screen installed in the 50s or 60s), which they painted over. Also lost were the asbestos curtain and silent movie screen. They added stained stained glass windows where none had existed, and destroyed half of the first and second lobbies to increase the adjoining retail space. Though I’m sure intentions were good and well meant, the interior work you see today is incorrect for the P&A’s original period.
Mr. Lautner is correct, the P&A was built as a movie house (there was once an opera house in Northville as well, but was torn down in the late 50s). I worked in this theater in the early 70s as an usher, when the theater, tho' in only fair shape, still had some of it’s original interior details. To say that the P&A was restored is, in my opinion, incorrect. What the restorers did was to try to make a 20s Renaissance Revival theater Victorian (which, being built in 1925, it never was), and in the process obliterated many of the original 20s details, the gilt stenciled proscenium in particular (it had survived by being covered by a wide screen installed in the 50s or 60s), which they painted over. Also lost were the asbestos curtain and silent movie screen. They added stained stained glass windows where none had existed, and destroyed half of the first and second lobbies to increase the adjoining retail space. Though I’m sure intentions were good and well meant, the interior work you see today is incorrect for the P&A’s original period.