Stanley Theater gets a facelift

posted by Michael Zoldessy on July 26, 2010 at 7:49 am

STANLEY, WI — New work is being done to bring the Stanley Theater back to its look during its heyday.

It is that look, with the Vitrolite glass, that Eslinger is bringing back with the current project. It’s not easy, since production of that kind of glass ceased around 1950, according to Dunn.

His business is to find the glass as old buildings are torn down around the country, retrieve the glass, and install it in restoration or other projects like the one at Stanley Theater. He is the tops in the field, worldwide, if you want Vitrolite glass.

Read more in the Chippewa Herald.

Theaters in this post

Comments (3)

TLSLOEWS
TLSLOEWS on July 26, 2010 at 6:09 pm

If they have some of this glass,why can,t they make new glass that looks like it even if they have to “AGE” it to look old.I bet thats what they do.

CSWalczak
CSWalczak on July 26, 2010 at 8:16 pm

It is not a question of aging the glass; Vitrolite is a pigmented glass and there are no known manufacturers of it anymore.

Tim Dunn, cited in the article above, has an interesting website: http://www.vitrolitespecialist.com/intro/intro.htm that discusses the history and use of Vitrolite and the pages have pictures of the work he has done in reusing Vitrolite, including a number of movie theater restorations.

DonSolosan
DonSolosan on July 26, 2010 at 9:31 pm

Thanks for the link; Vitrolite is fascinating stuff, and it’s nice to see so many restoration projects going on.

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