Downtown Theatre
65 Main Street,
Warrenton,
VA
21086
65 Main Street,
Warrenton,
VA
21086
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Ah, I see what you are saying. The marquee looked wider than that to me, but you are probably correct.
The vintage photo shows the marquee over the bay on the right. The other two bays were probably always storefronts. Except for one suite with an entrance on Third Street, access to the offices in the former auditorium is from a parking lot north of the building.
The current street view shows the entrance area has been split into 3 separate storefronts. It appears they kept whatever original pitched entryway the theatre had, on two of the storefronts. The third had it’s interior space extended out to the sidewalk border.
This article from the Farquier Times, February 5, 2017, says that the Farquier Theatre opened on January 10, 1931. Pitts Theatres operated the house until 1969, when the chain was sold to R/C Theaters. The house was closed on May 12, 1974. The auditorium, which backed up to Third Street, was subsequently gutted and filled with three floors of offices.
Circa 1936 postcard added courtesy of Karen Draddy.
This house opened in 1932 as Pitts' Fauquier Theatre. An article in the May 21 issue of the Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star reported on a benefit performance for the Warrenton Fire Department Auxillary that had been held the previous night, and referred to Pitts' Farquier Theatre as “…a handsome new building in the chain controlled by the local man….” The article gave the seating capacity as 530, and said that “…last night every seat in the white section was taken, with some standing while a large number of the seats in the colored section were occupied.”
The house was still called Pitts' Fauquier Theatre when it was on a list of the twenty-five houses operated by the Pitts' Theatres chain in 1949.