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Address | 111 West First Street Kannapolis, North Carolina 89043 |
---|---|
Owner | City of Kannapolis |
Type | Movie theater |
Capacity | 708 |
Construction | |
Opened | 1936 |
Renovated | 2024 |
Website | |
gem-theatre | |
Gem Theatre | |
Coordinates | 35°29′54″N80°37′29″W / 35.49833°N 80.62472°W 35°29′54″N 80°37′29″W |
Built | 1936 |
Architectural style | Art Deco |
NRHP reference No. | 100004322 [1] |
Added to NRHP | August 26, 2019 |
The Gem Theatre in Kannapolis, North Carolina is a theater first opened December 31, 1936, built by Cannon Mills for its workers. The Gem is one of the oldest movie theaters with one screen in the United States.
After a 1942 fire, only the façade, offices, projection booth and part of the lobby remained. The theater was rebuilt and reopened in 1948 with 916 seats and a new balcony to replace the old one. Steve Morris bought a share of the theater in 1995 and became general manager and later the owner. With competition from newer theaters, the Gem showed movies that had already been shown elsewhere. First-run movies returned in 2000. [2]
The city of Kannapolis bought the theater in 2015 as part of a downtown revitalization project. Renovations done in 2021 include the exterior, roof, and HVAC. The theater reopened May 16, 2024 after five months of interior renovations costing $1.2 million. [3] [4]
The theater building uses Art Deco designs including the prominent blue marquee, which includes about 50 neon lights. [5] In the interior, the trough lighting was restored along the ceiling. In the theater itself, the screen is flanked by two original metalwork panels with stylized birds-of-paradise. [6]
Kannapolis is a city in Cabarrus and Rowan counties, in the U.S. state of North Carolina, northwest of Concord and northeast of Charlotte and is a suburb in the Charlotte metropolitan area. The city of Kannapolis was incorporated in 1984. The population was 53,114 at the 2020 census, which makes Kannapolis the 19th-most populous city in North Carolina. It is the home of the Kannapolis Cannon Ballers, the Low-A baseball affiliate of the Chicago White Sox, and it is the hometown of the Earnhardt racing family. It is also the headquarters for the Haas F1 racing team. The center of the city is home to the North Carolina Research Campus, a public-private venture that focuses on food, nutrition, and biotech research.
Grauman's Egyptian Theatre, also known as Egyptian Hollywood and the Egyptian, is a historic movie theater located on Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. Opened in 1922, it is an early example of a lavish movie palace and is noted as having been the site of the world's first film premiere.
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The Bama Theatre is a historic theatre in Tuscaloosa, Alabama that currently serves as the city's performing arts center. Its modern redevelopment is the result of cooperation between the Arts Council of Tuscaloosa and the Tuscaloosa County Parks and Recreation Authority. The three-story brick and limestone building is located at the corner of Gary Fitts Street and Greensboro Avenue in downtown Tuscaloosa. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) on August 30, 1984. It is also a contributing building in the Downtown Tuscaloosa Historic District, NRHP-listed in 1985.
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The Kiggins Theatre is a single-screen movie theater in Vancouver, Washington. Named for former Vancouver mayor and businessman John P. Kiggins, it opened in 1936. It is located at 1011 Main Street in downtown Vancouver.
The Hollywood Theater is a historic theater building in Minneapolis which is listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. It is located in the Audubon Park neighborhood of Minneapolis.
The Carolina Theatre in Charlotte, North Carolina, is a historic movie house currently undergoing restoration to become a performing arts center and civic convening space. The theatre is owned by the nonprofit Foundation For The Carolinas.
The Metro Theater is a defunct movie theater at 2626 Broadway on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. It was designed by architecture firm Boak and Paris and built between 1932 and 1933. The theater is designed in the Art Deco style and originally contained 550 seats. Although the theater's interior was demolished after it was closed in 2005, the original facade remains intact and is a New York City designated landmark.
The Chehalis Theater, also as the Chehalis Theatre, is a single-screen, Art Deco movie theater in Chehalis, Washington. The theater is situated at the north end of the Chehalis Downtown Historic District near the Hotel Washington. Known locally for the hand-painted illustrations of popular children's fantasy characters that once populated the ceiling, it is the only surviving movie house in the city.
The Gem Theater is a movie theater in Pioche, Nevada, originally constructed in 1937, that closed in 2002. The National Register of Historic Places listed the building in 2019 as part of an effort at reopening.