Extravagant 1920s Movie Theater Located in CT


Palace Theater, Waterbury Connecticut
Date added: October 08, 2024

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Waterbury's Palace Theater is an outstanding example of a unique architectural type, the extravagant 1920s movie theater. The Palace's large size, monumental facade, and incredibly ornate interior are all typical of the genre. The Palace was designed by one of America's foremost theater architects, Thomas W. Lamb of New York City. From the day it opened in January of 1922, the Palace was regarded as Waterbury's leading cultural facility, presenting high-class vaudeville and the latest in movies as well as plays by touring companies. As early advertisements proclaimed, the Palace was "not just a Theater Beautiful but a Waterbury Institution!"

The Palace was built for Silvester Z. Poli, southern New England's leading impresario. At the height of his career, Poli (1858-1937) controlled a chain of thirty theaters, the largest in the world at that time owned by a single individual. Poli was born in Italy, trained as a sculptor in Paris, and came to America in 1881. His specialty was waxwork sculpture, and he achieved his initial fame with models of the Haymarket "anarchists." In 1893 he came to New Haven, Connecticut, where in addition to exhibiting his waxworks, he promoted vaudeville shows and introduced the French cinematograph, an early form of motion picture. From New Haven he branched out to other Connecticut and New England cities, buying up theaters and offering a combination of movies and selected, family-oriented vaudeville. Poli owned three theaters in Waterbury alone.

Around 1920 Poli began replacing some of his theaters in major cities with large, sumptuous showplaces. Poli insisted upon large seating capacities, unobstructed views, and elaborate facade and interior elaboration, design requirements amply fulfilled in Waterbury's Palace. The Poli management was also conscious of providing for fire safety, so as to minimize what was referred to as "discomforting apprehensions of possible personal mishaps." In Waterbury, the Palace served as Poli's flagship theater. The most elaborate and largest theater in the city, it hosted pre-New York productions of important dramas and musicals as well as first-run movies and the best of nationally-known vaudeville acts. In 1934, when Poli finally retired, the Palace along with others in his chain was sold to Loew's Theaters, who operated under the name of Loew's-Poli.

The architect who turned Poli's idea of the perfect theater into reality was Thomas W. Lamb. Lamb (1871-1940) specialized in the design of theaters and made a lasting mark in that field of architecture. He designed several theaters for Poli, including the twin Palace and Majestic Theaters in Bridgeport, Connecticut. That complex was completed within a year of Waterbury's Palace and has a similar appearance. Lamb also designed theaters for the Loew and Fox chains. Perhaps his best-known works are Loew's Orpheum in Boston and the second Madison Square Garden in New York.

The Palace Theater is a good specimen of his work, it has the impressive facade and breathtaking interior expected by the patrons of the period, but underneath surface decoration are up-to-the-minute ideas, including reinforced concrete structure, fire-proof construction, and the complete absence of visual obstructions.

The Palace Theater is aptly named, for Lamb chose as his chief source of inspiration for the exterior the Italian Renaissance Palazzo, a form well-suited to commercial architecture since the upper floors are given the most elaborate ornamentation while the ground floor is free for commercial use. The Palace's richly detailed facade is the architectural focus of East Main Street, and in a city noted for its early 20th-century architecture, the Palace stands out as one of the most impressive examples of the Second Renaissance Revival style. The two-story arcade helps create a monumental effect, while the extensive carving, the engaged columns, and the depth of the windows within the arches result in a sculptural, three-dimensional appearance that is visually powerful.

By modern standards, the interior ornament of the Palace is overwhelming, though it was hardly atypical for major theaters in the 1920s to have such overwrought, almost gaudy interior decoration. Classical, Moorish, and Egyptian models were followed as well as the Renaissance Source used by Lamb for the Palace. The theaters were clearly considered part of the entertainment being offered. They helped sustain the patron's sense of entering another, special world, one in which the adventure and romance of early Hollywood films could believably take place. That some of the Palace's opulence was illusory did not seem to bother anyone; indeed, the quality of the illusion was appreciated, as well it should be. It is unlikely that anywhere else in the state could one find such an extensive and varied exhibit of artificial marble, gilding, and plaster ornament. Moreover, the idea of imitating architectural and sculptural forms in cast stone, scagliola, and plaster is entirely appropriate in the context of Hollywood entertainment.

Theaters like the Palace can be considered in part a result of the development of the American film industry, in which studios were growing larger, distribution was becoming more concentrated, and individual actors were rising to "Star" status. At the same time, these trends were themselves accelerated by the existence of large first-run houses like the Palace, in which newly released films could reach an audience of 3500 people at a single showing. With suburbanization and more home entertainment options, the age of large urban movie palaces has come to a close. Today, relatively few of these showplaces remain, and only two of S.Z. Poli's chain survives intact, of which Waterbury's Palace is the older and better preserved. The citizens of Waterbury and Connecticut have a rare opportunity to enjoy a theater that preserves the ambiance of the movies' Golden Age.

Building Description

Waterbury's Palace Theater is a large movie and vaudeville theater in the Second Renaissance Revival style. Built in the years 1921 to 1922, from a design by Thomas Lamb, the Palace is constructed of steel and reinforced concrete. It presents an elaborate cast-stone facade to East Main Street, with plain brick rear and side walls. One of the most visually arresting buildings in the city, it is the centerpiece of a row of distinguished buildings on the south side of the street. Its neighbors include the Frederick, a 1906 Colonial Revival apartment building, and the 1889 St. Patrick's Hall, a Richardsonian Romanesque commercial building formerly used by Catholic organizations as a meeting place.

The facade features several modernized storefronts on the ground level, as well as the entrance to the theater and to the Palace Hotel, which occupies the upper floors of the theater's north end. The present marquee dates from the theater's acquisition by the Loew's chain in 1934 and is shown in a 1941 photograph. Over the storefronts, which extend for about 125' of frontage on East Main Street, is a cornice embellished with an egg-and-dart molding. The remaining three stories of the four-story facade are organized as eight bays. Over the second story's tier of three-part windows is a frieze with alternating rosettes and acanthus leaf clusters, with more acanthus carving below the second-story cornice. On the third and fourth stories is a series of six tall round-arched openings separated by Corinthian pilasters. The arches have carved keystones and rest on unfluted engaged Corinthian columns; the spandrels of the arches are filled with carved foliage. The two-story windows within the arches have wooden panels marking the division of stories and filling the heads of the openings.

The building's main cornice consists of a frieze with an inverted fleur-de-lis over each pilaster, an enriched talon below the dentil course, an egg-and-dart molding, finely shaped modillions, and rosettes applied to the soffit or plancer. A plain brick parapet is the only significant alteration to the facade: it is a replacement for the original balustrade shown in early photographs.

The interior of the Palace is embellished almost beyond description, with plaster-relief figures and other decoration applied to every wall and ceiling surface. Urns, festoons, cartouches, gods, goddesses, and cherubs abound. The lobby of the theater has a magnificent scagliola or artificial marble stairway leading to the mezzanine level, deep red carpeting, cut-glass chandeliers, and other original lighting fixtures. Pilasters and engaged columns support the vaulted ceiling, painted with intricate designs, and archways along the walls are filled with mirrors, creating a sense of Spacious extravagance.

The mezzanine level contains a second lobby behind the balcony seats. Its ceiling is taken up by a large elliptical dome lighted by a chandelier. The dome is visible from the main floor through a large opening in the ceiling of the inner lobby, an extensive space behind the seats of the auditorium. The opening is surrounded by a marble railing with balusters similar to those of the monumental entrance stairway.

The auditorium itself is dominated by the elaborate proscenium arch, which is surrounded by a wide band of plaster ornament in an interwoven foliate pattern and has a huge cartouche centered over the stage. The asbestos fire curtain has a convincing trompe l'oiel painting showing a curtain opening upon a scene from classical times, a public square with a triumphal arch. The entire ceiling of the hall is paneled and crowded with plaster ornament depicting vines, flowers, and urns. On the sides of the hall are a series of boxes and at the rear is a balcony, all cantilevered out over the auditorium so as to create an unobstructed line of sight from each of the approximately 3500 seats. The theater's real organ pipes are concealed behind a baroque arrangement of decorative pipes located to either side of the stage. Urns, a lyre, a large cartouche, and cherubs performing a duet for horn and harp are but part of the pipes' sculptural enrichment.

High above the seats in the ceiling of the auditorium is a huge circular dome lighted by a large central chandelier and nine smaller lights along the circumference. The dome is richly embellished with concentric bands of stylized vines and flowers, medallions resembling colossal Roman coins, paterae, and large panels with scenes in low relief of dancers and musicians. The classical motifs found in the dome are repeated throughout the interior of the theater, and they form the dominant decorative theme. However, they are freely combined with motifs from other Sources. One of the most interesting examples of this eclecticism is the frieze of American eagles below the mezzanine balustrade, visible from the inner lobby. In many cases, the plaster ornament has iconographical significance, as in the case of the musician-cherubs on the organ pipes, or the scene above the water fountain in the inner lobby, in which the central figure is attended by a Servant pouring water from an urn.

The theater is still in use for concerts and other events. The interior is in remarkably good condition, though some of the paint and gilding need attention. Most of the interior decoration was found intact after a layer of whitewash was removed. A comparison of the present appearance of the theater with views from the 1940s shows that very little has been added to or lost from the Palace's historic appearance.

Palace Theater, Waterbury Connecticut

Palace Theater, Waterbury Connecticut

Palace Theater, Waterbury Connecticut

Palace Theater, Waterbury Connecticut

Palace Theater, Waterbury Connecticut

Palace Theater, Waterbury Connecticut

Palace Theater, Waterbury Connecticut

Palace Theater, Waterbury Connecticut

Palace Theater, Waterbury Connecticut

Palace Theater, Waterbury Connecticut

Palace Theater, Waterbury Connecticut

Palace Theater, Waterbury Connecticut