Empire Theatre

750 Huron Road,
Cleveland, OH 44115

Unfavorite No one has favorited this theater yet

Showing 3 comments

gwengordon
gwengordon on September 18, 2015 at 11:55 am

Hello, I’ve found a scrapbook in my garage containing memorabilia from this theatre. I would like to send to someone interested in the history of theatre in Cleveland early 1900’s … is there an association I should contact. I’m in California.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on February 10, 2015 at 2:24 pm

Cleveland Architects Database (PDF here attributes the design of the Empire Theatre to architect Morris Gleichman.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on January 18, 2013 at 6:25 pm

The Empire Theatre opened in 1900 as the first house in Cleveland built specifically for vaudeville. Within a few years it had been converted into a burlesque theater. I’ve found references to the Empire operating as a burlesque house as late as 1923, but the building was most likely demolished in 1925, the year construction began on the Ohio Bell Building (now the AT&T Huron Road Building) which now occupies the theater’s site.

I’ve been unable to discover if the Empire Theatre ever showed movies, but IMDb says that it was in one.