Waldo Theatre

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Waldo Theatre
Waldo Theatre.jpg
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Location916 Main St., Waldoboro, Maine
Coordinates 44°5′45″N69°22′30″W / 44.09583°N 69.37500°W / 44.09583; -69.37500
Area1 acre (0.40 ha)
Built1936 (1936)
Architect Benjamin Schlanger
NRHP reference No. 86002434 [1]
Added to NRHPSeptember 11, 1986

The Waldo Theatre is a historic movie theater and performance venue at 916 Main Street in Waldoboro, Maine. Built in 1936 as a movie theater to a design by New York City architect Benjamin Schlanger, it was hailed at the time as one of the best-designed state-of-the-art small theaters in the country. It is now managed by a non-profit arts organization. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986. [1]

Contents

Description and history

The Waldo Theatre stands on the north side of Waldoboro's downtown Main Street, next door to the former U.S. Customhouse and Post Office. It is a two-story masonry structure with brick walls, wooden trim, and a gabled roof. The front has a Classical temple appearance, with four Tuscan columns rising to an entablature and fully pedimented gable. The gable rake edge and cornice are studded with modillions. The interior has minimal decoration, with that present suggestive of the Art Deco period. The theater seats about 400 in the main floor and balcony. [2]

The theater was built in 1936 by the local Cooney family, to a design by New York architect Benjamin Schlanger, who was well known for his theater designs. Its design features included seats of varying width, as well as some seats fitted for the hearing impaired.The floor is sloped, and the seats set at a slant, for more comfortable viewing of an elevated screen. The ventilation system was state of the art, allowing for rapid exchanges of air for climate control. The theater showed movies through the 1950s, and was then adapted for use by the local Masonic lodge, also seeing some use as a live performance venue.

See also

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Benjamin Schlanger was a theater architect. Some of the theaters he designed include: the Jewel Theater at 711 Kings Highway, Brooklyn, City Cinemas I-II, the Vistavision Todd-AO Patriot Theaters at Colonial Williamsburg, Grade Arts Center, the Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theater, at Symphony Space and the Waldo Theatre. He received a Certificate of Merit from the Municipal Art Society with co-designer Abraham W. Geller for Cinema I-II. He also played a key design role in: the United Nations General Assembly Building and the Metropolitan Opera House in the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts as well as the Place des Arts, the Sydney Opera House and the John F. Kennedy Center. He chaired the Committee on Auditorium and Theater Architecture of the American Institute of Architects and was a trustee of the National Institute of Architectural Education. In addition, he was a contributor to The Architectural Forum and The Architectural Record and in 1964 was the recipient of the Albert S. Bard architectural award.

References

  1. 1 2 "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. Frank Beard; Roger Reed (1986). "NRHP nomination for Waldo Theatre". National Park Service . Retrieved 2016-07-09.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) with photos from 1986