United Artists Theatre

The mighty Wurlitzer after being removed in 1955 and going to PLU Gymnasium and again in 1973 moved to Spokane First Church of the Nazarene where is today.

The Liberty also had one of the early Wurlitzer organs – built in their first year of pipe organ production. It was a 3 manual, 20 rank instrument – including a 4 rank echo division. The organ was only the 42nd instrument Wurlitzer built (out of some 2200 total). The cost was a whopping $16,500.

Engineer Henry Bittman, who collaborated with Henderson Ryan on the Liberty Theatre project in 1914, was licensed as an architect in 1923 and went on to design at least three Seattle theatres himself; The Embassy Theatre of 1926, the Music Box Theatre of 1928, and the Town Theatre (aka Roosevelt) of 1933. The Embassy is the only one of these three still standing.

The Liberty Theatre was designed by architect Henderson Ryan, with engineer Henry W. Bittman. Scans of plans, drawings, and cross sections of the Liberty can be seen at the University of Washington Library’s Digital Collections. Use the search term Liberty Theatre.

The size and elaborate decoration of the Liberty, with the fact that it was designed specifically for the exhibition of movies, having neither a fly loft nor an orchestra pit, made it one of the very first theaters that could truly be called a movie palace.

Architect Henderson Ryan also designed the Neptune Theatre in Seattle and the Whiteside Theatre in Corvallis, Oregon.

The Liberty Theatre was built in 1914 by C.S. Jensen and John G. von Herberg; it had a capacity of 1,700.

For more info and to see pictures go to: View link