New Theater Plans

Comfort and safety were the main design criteria. The building will have a frontage of 60 feet with a depth of 120 feet with walkways on either side of the building leading to side exits. These exits as well as the two front entrances in the 30 feet wide lobby will allow the theater to be emptied rapidly in an emergency. The exterior will be fireproof, consisting of reinforced concrete walls with integral columns supporting riveted steel roof trusses. The projection booth will be surrounded by concrete with a steel door which would confine a fire if one should start because of equipment malfunction. This will be desirable because the main floor will be wooden. The floor will slope upward from the orchestra pit at a rate of about six inches per row of seats. The newspaper description rationalized the wooden floor as being more sanitary and acoustically better than concrete. The most likely reason for using wood was probably the engineering difficulty at that time of building a sloping concrete floor.

The lobby entrances will lead to ramps up to about the mid-level of the theater. Between the ramps in the center of the building will be office and storage space. Restrooms will be located on the sides between the ramps and the outer walls.

For ventilation, a large ceiling fan will draw air from the theater which will force fresh air in from inlets on the sides. A $11,000 automatic Orthophonic victrola in the orchestra pit will provide recorded music.

The stage will be 20 feet deep with stairs on either side leading to a corridor and four dressing rooms beneath the stage level. It will be equipped with an asbestos curtain.

The 702 seat theater building will cost about $40,000. Allowing for inflation, the cost of the building plus sound system in 2016 would be about $534,000.

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