Orpheum Theatre

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Uploaded on: April 6, 2025

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The ORPHEUM’s owners since 2013 Gus and Mary Paras did this $200,000 historic replication of its original six-story 63-foot 1926 vertical sign designed by Rapp and Rapp. The steel face was replaced with an aluminum replica using energy-efficient lights in the original configuration. At some point in mid-century, the word “NEW” was removed from the top, and then it was “dumbed down” to a basic rectangle. The Paras family had already done restoration on the facade, marquee, ticket booth, roof, plaster, downstairs lavatories and dressing rooms, and said the community excitement was encouraging. The ORPHEUM was awarded a $20, city facade restoration matching grant. New front doors, resembling those that first swung open in 1927, are in place, as are veiny black granite panels, replacing blond brick on the facade when it was “remuddled” in the 1960s. Architect Arlan Kay oversaw the changes undoing the alterations at midcentury in the name of “modernization” including the destruction to the vertical sign which became scarred with rust and which stayed in place because a city ordinance banned hanging a replacement over the sidewalk. City leaders modified it.