Ridge Theatre

Joe Vogel on June 17, 2012 at 4:00 am

Here is what the NRHP registration form for the Clifton Forge Commercial Historic District has to say about the Ridge Theatre:

“Perhaps the most unusual building built on the street during the period Was the 1929 Ridge Theatre (418 East Ridgeway Street). In 1928 Samuel Sachs sold the Family Theatre to Warner Brothers Theatre Corporation which either remodeled the preexisting building or, more likely, built anew. The Ridge Theatre is a lively rendition of the Spanish Eclectic style. The theater’s facade relies on economical allusions to various stylistic elements for its effect. The parapet is coped with several courses of ceramic or metal mission tiles, suggesting a foreshortened tile roof. The second and third story windows have round-arched heads; the top two windows are connected by a decorative metal grille that projects slightly from the facade and is meant to evoke a balcony. The stuccoed facade is banded with bas-relief decoration suggestive of arched corbeling.”

The Family Theatre, which the Ridge Theatre replaced in 1929, had been called the Palace Theatre until the end of 1908. The December 26 issue of The Billboard that year said that new owner A. M. Houff had closed the house, planning to reopen it with movies as the Family Theatre on January 1. This photo depicts the Family Theatre in the 1910s.