State Theatre
305 S. Main Street,
Culpeper,
VA
22701
305 S. Main Street,
Culpeper,
VA
22701
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In August 2017, the State Theatre went up for auction until it was sold the following year to Marcus Silva, the president of Villagio Hospitality Group and the high bidder at the sale hosted by the Tranzon Amazon Company.
The State Theatre reopened in 2018 as a resturant with a mix of live performances and a “destination brewery campus”. It was originally planned to become a dining and entertainment attraction, but was scrapped.
The State Theatre now operates as both a restaurant and a venue house with a mix of live performances, performing arts, and concerts.
The actual opening date is May 23, 1938 with Alice Faye in “Sally, Irene, and Mary” along with a newsreel, novelty, and a cartoon.
All operations at the renovated State Theatre ceased in September, 2016.
Address is 305 S Main from their website:
http://www.culpepertheatre.org/
An article about the State Theatre in the May 10, 2004, issue of the Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star said that the house opened on May 23, 1938, and closed on September 3, 1993.
(Google News scan begins here and continues here.)
The seat count given for the State is inaccurate. It once sat 770, as restored it seats 550. Americans are a lot fatter now. The seats in the restored theater were donated from the Kennedy Center and rebuilt to match the originals. Fully restored to its 1930’s art deco style it is a beautiful house. During the restoration the theater facility nearly tripled in size to add additional facilities including a second “black box theater” which holds 75. The State now has a full schedule of movies and live performance. It is in partnership with the Library of Congress National Center for Media and will be showing films from their collection on a regular basis. The State has digital and 35 mm capability.
The NRHP nomination form for this theater (PDF here) attributes its design to a little-known Richmond architect named Nicholas Roney. The form provides very little information about Roney, and attributes only one other building to him as an architect, that being the Bijou Theater in Richmond, designed in 1904 with his then-partner James W. Atkinson.
An article about Benjamin Pitts on this page of Boxoffice for August 14, 1937, lists this theater as one of four hew houses then planned, underway, or recently completed for the Pitts Chain. The others were the East End Theatre in Richmond, the Victoria Theatre in Fredericksburg, and the Pitts Theatre (now the South Theatre) in Emporia.
The State Theatre differs from the other three Pitts projects in lacking a full-width, two-story front, while the other three differ significantly from one another only in their size. I suspect that the other three theaters were all designed by Henry Carl Messerschmidt, to whom we already attribute the East End Theatre. The selection of Roney to design this house is a bit of a puzzle.
correction to above a nine and a half million dollar renovation
The State is reborn after a nine year nine and a half million dollar renovation. It is a working movie theater and a world class performance center. Partnering with the Library of Congress, the stare has both 35 mm capability and state of the are digital. Grand opening is May 11 with Lyle Lovett. Starting in 2014 the State and the Library of Congress will be hosting the National celebration of film.m, an annual festival
The only thing that appears to be happening is that the sign saying great things are coming has been “freshened”.
As the owner’s name was Benjamin Pitts, there should not be an apostrophe in the aka above.
The Culpeper house was one of several mentioned in an article about expansion of Benjamin Pitts Enterprises which appeared in Boxoffice of August 14, 1937. The Pitts Theatre in Emporia had recently opened, the Victoria at Fredericksburg was due to open by Labor Day, and the East End Theatre in Richmond was under construction. The as-yet-unnamed house at Culpeper was in the planning stage. I’ve been unable to find anything about the opening in Boxoffice, but it most likely happened in 1938.
R/C Theatres renovated the Pitts and changed the name to State Theatre in 1970, according to Boxoffice of September 21 that year.
One thing for sure,NOTHING is going on,as of last week,with the building.Looks worse than ever.
The new 4 plex is across the street and “sort of” in the next block.Address should be close,but an odd number.I was actually in Culpepper again today,on business.The State is really quite a large theater for such a small town.
Good article Mr.K,but the “progress” just doesn’t show.Doesn’t even look like the doors have been opened for weeks,atleast.
This theater continues UNcared for and gets more depressing by the month.There is a none-too active effort to save the place.They are a 501c group.Have a tiny window display in an office two blocks away.Culpepper(downtown)is SO charming,so full of girlie crap stores(sorry)that it cries out for a playhouse and venue,as proposed.The size is right,the growth of the area makes for a good future.I hope they get moving before major failures in the bldg.occur.By the way,the diner on the corner a block down is a real time warp-even have a juke box.