Community Arts Center
220 W. 4th Street,
Williamsport,
PA
17701
220 W. 4th Street,
Williamsport,
PA
17701
5 people
favorited this theater
Showing 6 comments
The Capitol opened on October 22, 1928 with Al Jolson’s “The Singing Fool” (unclear if any short subjects were added).
The conversion of the Capitol Theatre into the Community Arts Center was designed by the Altoona architectural firm Hayes Large Architects. There are five photos of the house on this page of the firm’s web site. The 28,000 square foot expansion is almost as large as the 32,000 square feet of existing building that was restored.
I will guarantee you that the architect of this theater was Leon Lempert, Jr. The auditorium is almost an exact clone to the Capitol in Rome, NY, also a Commerford Theater.
I’m a volunteer with this theater. They do have popcorn, soda and candy for sale with movies now.
Here is a 1928 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/2rbn75
Their web page has moved to http://www.pct.edu/commarts/
Their history page has a lot of info:
The theatre was built as the Capitol in 1928, and reopened after restoration in 1993 as the Community Arts Center. It was the largest theater in the area and the first to be equipped for sound movies. It was considered the most beautiful theater in the Comerford, amnd featured cast bronze chandeliers, and a proscenium with trompe l'oeil details. It originally featured stage shows with movies. In 1936 the main level and stage area were flooded, wrecking the organ.
It never really recovered from the flood damage, and limped along until it’s restoration from 1989-1993. Cost was $13,500,000 with the bulk of that coming from Penn College. By 2004, there had been over 500 performances and 1,500 movie screenings, with 911,000 patrons through the doors by Oct. 2006 (774K for live, 128K for movies)
Unfortunately their web page does not show any pictures except a night view of the front facade. The seating plan shows orchestra, loge and balcony but it is hard to tell if the “loge” is a separate level from the “balcony”