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The 5th Avenue Theatre, built by Pacific Theatres, Inc., was one of the most lavishly appointed theaters on the West Coast when it opened in September 1926. The theater is located in downtown Seattle on 5th Avenue, and formed a part of the new Skinner Building. Designed by architect Robert C. Reamer (1873-1938), with interior design supervised by Gustav Liljestrom of San Francisco, the theater embraced Seattle’s growing connection to the Far East by employing a Chinese theme, debuting a full eight months before the now-famous Grauman’s (now Mann’s) Chinese Theatre in Hollywood first opened. After closing in 1978, the theater was rescued by a coalition of local companies and arts patrons, who funded a $2.6 million restoration of the classic venue. A national recession in the mid-1980s brought a temporary halt to the 5th Avenue's musical production, but the theater roared back in 1989, and ever since has provided theater-goers a broad selection musical productions. Broadway touring companies make regular appearances at the 5th Avenue, but many of the theater's presentations are produced locally in their entirety, including a handful of world premieres that have moved with great acclaim onto the Broadway stage.
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ACT: A Contemporary Theatre (Seattle)

ACT (A Contemporary Theatre) opened in the summer of 1965 in a former community hall at the base of Queen Anne Hill and has since become one of Seattle's most popular and artistically adventurous theaters. It was the brainchild of Gregory A. Falls (1922-1997), head of the University of Washington's theater department. Falls believed Seattle needed an alternative to the Seattle Repertory Theatre, which emphasized the classics. The opening 1965 season included provocative works by Arthur Kopit and Tennessee Williams and drew loyal audiences. The theater continued to thrive with plays that addressed racial, political, and cultural themes while also staging mainstream shows such as The Fantasticks. In 1976, the theater inaugurated an annual Seattle holiday tradition with Falls's own adaptation of A Christmas Carol, which has continued every holiday season since. Over the decades, ACT outgrew its Queen Anne space and in 1996 moved to a new $30 million, multi-venue space in downtown Seattle in the former Eagles Auditorium. ACT has survived several financial crises and remains one of Seattle's key cultural institutions.
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Downtown Historic Theatre District (Seattle) Cybertour

This is a cybertour of Seattle's Downtown Historic Theatre District as it existed at the time of its designation on December 6, 2011. The Downtown Historic Theatre District was created to support the preservation, promotion, and maintenance of Seattle's downtown historic theaters. Five venues are included in the district: Town Hall Seattle (formerly the Fourth Church of Christ, Scientist), the 5th Avenue Theatre, A Contemporary Theatre ACT/Eagles Auditorium, the Paramount Theatre, and the Moore Theatre. This tour was written and curated by Paula Becker. Map by Marie McCaffrey. Preparation of this feature was made possible by the Seattle Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs, and 4Culture King County lodging tax.
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Moore Theatre (Seattle)

The Moore Theatre, Seattle's oldest existing entertainment venue, stood as one of the finest houses on all the West Coast when it opened in December 1907. Located on 2nd Avenue and Virginia Street, the new venue (with its attached hotel) was built by local developer James A. Moore (1861-1929) after his plans to expand and add a theater to his Washington Hotel (the former Denny Hotel) were derailed by the Denny Regrade project. Instead, he built the Moore and turned its management over to John Cort (1861-1929), who later became a prominent New York impresario. Now more than 100 years old, the Moore Theatre's stage has seen everything from vaudeville to symphony to religious revivals to hard rock and, as the Moore Egyptian, was the original home of the Seattle International Film Festival. It today retains much of its historic ambience and hosts musical artists and touring stage productions from around the world.
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Paramount Theatre (Seattle)

Built in 1928 at 9th Avenue and Pine Street in downtown Seattle, the Paramount Theatre (originally called the Seattle Theatre) has over its long history brought to town some of the most diverse entertainments the city has seen. Despite several close brushes with oblivion, it stands today as one of the few and one of the finest remaining examples of the theater-building boom of the 1920s. Built as a silent-movie and vaudeville house by Seattle businessman L. N. Rosenbaum (1881-1956) and investors from the East Coast, the theater went through several changes of ownership during the twentieth century, and its stage and screen accommodated everything from first-run movies and Broadway musicals to rock bands and stand-up comics. Its most serious near-death experience came in 1992, when it was saved from destruction by the vision and generosity of Ida Cole (b. 1947), one of the region's legion of "Microsoft millionaires." Some three years and $37 million later, the Paramount reopened in March 1995 in all its former glory and with many modern updates. Since then, it has continued to bring to Seattle audiences a blend of top-drawer entertainment in musical theater, comedy, drama, and popular music of nearly every genre.
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Town Hall Seattle

Town Hall Seattle, a venue for a wide variety of cultural events located at 1119 8th Avenue, started life as the city's Fourth Church of Christ, Scientist. The congregation was established in July 1909, during the city's Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, but it was not until 1916 that the congregants began to construct a church building. The structure was built in two stages and was completed and opened in September 1923. It was designed by architect George Foote Dunham (1876-1949), then of Portland, Oregon. The Roman Revival structure served as a church until 1997, when the congregation sold it to Historic Seattle. A feasibility study for its reuse was conducted, with funding from the King County Arts Commission and the Landmarks and Heritage Commission. David C. Brewster (b. 1939), founding editor of the Seattle Weekly, and others organized a group to purchase the building, and in 1998, Historic Seattle transferred title to the newly formed Town Hall L.L.C. The former church was opened to the public in 1999 as a community cultural center called Town Hall. The spacious building, located on First Hill just east of downtown Seattle, is now (2012) owned and operated by the nonprofit Town Hall Association. After its sale, members of the congregation who had worshiped there joined other Christian Science branch churches in the area.
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Cornerstone for new Seattle lodge of Fraternal Order of Eagles, Aerie No. 1 is placed on February 22, 1925.

On February 22, 1925, up to 12,000 members of the Fraternal Order of Eagles gather in Seattle for the ceremony marking the placing of the cornerstone for the grand new lodge of Seattle Aerie No. 1. The Eagles, a fraternal benevolent society, was founded in Seattle in 1898, and the local aerie is known as the Mother Chapter of the organization. The new lodge, located at 7th Avenue and Union Street, is a six-story, steel and concrete structure that is notable for its extensive use of architectural terra cotta. Among those on hand to officiate are Washington Governor Roland H. Hartley (1862-1954) and Otto P. Deluse (1878?- 1935), Grand Worthy President of the national fraternal order.
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ACT (A Contemporary Theatre) in Seattle, stages its first play, Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feeling So Sad, on June 29, 1965.

On June 29, 1965, ACT (A Contemporary Theatre) in Seattle, stages its first play, Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feeling So Sad. Workers have just finished turning Queen Anne Hall, at the foot of Queen Anne Hill, into a 420-seat theater. Director Gregory A. Falls (1922-1997) says he wants this new professional summer theater to show provocative modern plays that reflect the artistic and cultural ferment of the time. This first play, an absurdist comedy by Arthur Kopit, draws a large and appreciative audience on opening night. Seattle Times theater critic says that ACT "pulled all theatrical elements together for a triumphant bow" (Baker). He predicts that ACT will "develop into a hot item" and he is proven correct (Baker). ACT will go on to become one of Seattle's most popular and artistically influential theaters and will move in 1996 to a new $30 million space downtown.
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First Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) opens at Moore Egyptian Theatre on May 14, 1976.

On May 14, 1976, the first Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) opens at the historic Moore Egyptian Theatre at 2nd Avenue and Virginia Street. The festival's founders, Dan Ireland (b. 1958) and Darryl MacDonald, had taken over the Moore Theatre the previous year, cleaned it up, installed a new screen and sound system, and reopened it as the The Moore Egyptian in December 1975. They show a mix of classic Hollywood revivals and foreign films before launching the film festival, which will run from May 14 through May 31, 1976, and features films from several countries. SIFF stays at the Moore Egyptian for five seasons before relocating in 1981 to the Masonic Temple on Capitol Hill, which will be renovated by Ireland and MacDonald and renamed the Egyptian. The Seattle International Film Festival will grow to be one of the nation's largest and continues (2012) to bring a wide variety of foreign and domestic films, both well-known and obscure, to Northwest audiences.
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ACT (A Contemporary Theatre) stages Cheap, the first show in Kreielsheimer Place, in downtown Seattle, on September 6, 1996.

On September 6, 1996, ACT (A Contemporary Theatre) stages Cheap, the first show in its new $30.4 million complex, Kreielsheimer Place, in downtown Seattle. Seattle Times theater critic Misha Berson writes that the show "looks grand in its new surroundings" (Berson, "Star"). The extensively renovated former Eagles Auditorium includes three new performing spaces. This comedy farce is staged in the Gregory A. Falls Theatre, named after ACT's ailing founder. Berson calls the configuration of the new stage "strikingly similar" to ACT's former Queen Anne home, with the same kind of thrust stage (with seating on three sides), yet with better sightlines and décor (Berson, "Star"). The play itself is a loose adaptation by Tom Topor of Moliere's The Miser, and is dismissed by Berson as "amiable but unremarkable" (Berson, "Star") and by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer's Joe Adcock as "frothy" and "mildly stimulating" (Adcock). Yet ACT soon hits its stride and the new venue helps to revitalize downtown Seattle's arts scene.
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Seattle's Town Hall debuts on March 17, 1999.

On March 17, 1999, Seattle's new Town Hall is launched with a free celebration of "Seattle's Favorite Poems," hosted by Robert Pinsky (b. 1940), poet laureate of the United States. As a warm-up for the event, The Seattle Times prints several favorite poems in its March 15, 1999, editions. At the Town Hall debut, local luminaries, including Tom Skerritt, Speight Jenkins, Rick Rapport, Hazel Wolf (1898-2000), Mike Lowry (b. 1939), Charles Royer (b. 1939), and third-graders Sophie Posnock and Madeline Boardman, read their favorite poems.
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Seattle's historic Paramount Theatre installs new marquee on October 7, 2009.

On October 7, 2009, workers install a sparkling new vertical marquee on the historic Paramount Theatre at 9th Avenue and Pine Street in Seattle. The marquee, fabricated by The Sign Factory of Kirkland, Washington, is a detailed reproduction of the one that has been in place since 1930, when the two-year-old Seattle Theatre was renamed the "Paramount" and the marquee relettered to reflect the change. After that, the six-story-high sign remained in place for another 79 years. Over that time, Seattle's weather took a slow but relentless toll on the marquee, the exterior of which was made of sheet metal. Paint chips and blisters, metal rusts, stopgap repairs did little but buy time, and by 2009 the accumulated damage proved too great to remedy. The Seattle Theatre Group, which owns the Paramount, raised money from government, foundations, and the public to finance a new marquee. The Sign Factory of Kirkland, which maintained the old sign for several years, was selected to fabricate the replica, which has an outer skin made almost entirely of aluminum, and electrical and lighting upgrades to provide increased brilliance with a significant reduction in cost and energy consumption. Upon completion, the 65-foot-long sign is trucked to the Paramount site where, over just two days, the old marquee is removed and the new one is installed.
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Seattle's 5th Avenue Theatre lights up a new marquee on December 3, 2009.

On December 3, 2009, crowds gather at the 5th Avenue Theatre in downtown Seattle to celebrate "first light" for the theater's new marquee, which replaces one removed during theater renovations three decades earlier. The marquee, which is just over 57 feet in height, is not an exact replica of the original, but is quite similar, and restores the theater's exterior glamour and éclat. The prime mover behind the project is Christabel Gough, daughter of Roger L. Stevens, a businessman, famed Broadway producer, and patron of the arts. Gough donated $300,000 for the project in memory of her father and his longtime friend and business associate, James M. Ryan, both of whom had supported the drive to restore and renovate the historic theater in 1979. The new marquee is designed by Eric Levine and Yusuke Ito of NBBJ and built by CREO Industrial Arts in Everett.
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Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn signs resolution designating a Downtown Historic Theatre District on December 6, 2011.

On December 6, 2011, Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn (b. 1959) signs a resolution designating a Downtown Historic Theatre District to support the preservation, promotion, and maintenance of Seattle's historic downtown theaters. Five venues are included in the new district: Town Hall, the 5th Avenue Theatre, A Contemporary Theatre ACT/Eagles Auditorium, the Paramount Theatre, and the Moore Theatre.
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Seattle Theatre Group's Historic Theatres Library is dedicated on March 1, 2012.

On March 1, 2012, the Seattle Theatre Group's (STG) Historic Theatres Library, located in the Paramount Building at 901 Pine Street, opens to the public. It is 84 years to the day after the Seattle (later "Paramount") Theatre had opened in the northwest corner of the same building. On hand to dedicate the new library is Judith Rosenthal, the granddaughter of L. N. Rosenbaum, the financier who inspired and organized the construction of what would become one of the city's most luxurious movie houses. The creation and maintenance of the Historic Theatres Library is an all-volunteer effort, headed by Lynn and Marian Thrasher. The library's early efforts will concentrate on documenting and preserving the history of the STG-owned Paramount. Future plans include giving similar attention to the historic Moore and Neptune theaters, which are operated (although not owned) by the theater group.
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