Venetian Theatre
Encyclopedia
The Venetian Theatre is a movie theater, performing arts venue, and restaurant in downtown Hillsboro, Oregon
Hillsboro, Oregon
Hillsboro is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon and is the county seat of Washington County. Lying in the Tualatin Valley on the west side of the Portland metropolitan area, the city is home to many high-technology companies, such as Intel, that compose what has become known as the...

, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. Formerly the Town Theater, the building re-opened in 2008 after more than a decade of inactivity and revitalization plans. Built in 1888 as a bank, later mayor Orange Phelps
Orange Phelps
Orange Phelps was an American businessman and politician in the state of Oregon. A native of California, he attended colleges in the Midwest where he played baseball before moving to Oregon. Phelps settled near Portland in Hillsboro where he opened the first movie theater and later served as a...

 converted the property into a theater in 1911 and in 1925 converted it into a two-story Italianate
Italianate architecture
The Italianate style of architecture was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. In the Italianate style, the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian Renaissance architecture, which had served as inspiration for both Palladianism and...

 building with a larger auditorium. Prior to renovation the theater was owned by the city of Hillsboro who purchased it from Act III Theaters
Regal Entertainment Group
Regal Entertainment Group also known as REG is a movie theater chain headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee. Regal operates the largest and most geographically diverse theater circuit in the United States, consisting of 6,775 screens in 548 locations in 39 states and the District of Columbia as of...

.

History

In 1888, banker John W. Shute
John W. Shute
John Wright Shute was an American banker in the state of Oregon. He was the founder of the first bank in Washington County, Oregon, and both Shute Park and Shute Road in Hillsboro, Oregon, are his namesakes.-Early life:...

 built a two-story building on East Main Street as the new home for the First National Bank of Hillsboro. The structure featured a façade in the Italianate style of architecture, external cast iron ornamentation, and a roof line with a bracketed cornice. In 1911, the bank moved across Main Street and later mayor Orange Phelps purchased the building. Although Phelps did not have the money to buy the building, the bank loaned him the funds and he opened The Grand Theater, a 200-seat theater. The 19 feet (5.8 m) wide by 120 feet (36.6 m) long theater was expanded in 1915 to 500 seats and named the Liberty Theater.

In 1925, a fire destroyed the theater and Phelps rebuilt the structure and named the new theater The Venetian. The first motion picture with sound shown in Hillsboro was The Broadway Melody
The Broadway Melody
The Broadway Melody is a 1929 American musical film and the first sound film to win an Academy Award for Best Picture. It was one of the first musicals to feature a Technicolor sequence, which sparked the trend of color being used in a flurry of musicals that would hit the screens in 1929-1930...

in 1929 at the theater. Beginning in 1935 Phelps held an annual free show for children at Christmas which continued into the 1990s. In 1956, a fire gutted the building, with Phelps rebuilding and opening the following year as the 800-plus seat Town Theater. After the fire Phelps had held double features at his Town Theater. The theater hosted the premier of the film Ring of Fire in 1961 after the film was shot in Vernonia, Oregon
Vernonia, Oregon
Vernonia is a city in Columbia County, Oregon, United States. The city is located on the Nehalem River, in a valley on the eastern side of the Northern Oregon Coast Range. It is located the heart of the most important timber-producing areas of the state, and logging has played an important role in...

. Phelps owned the theater along with several other theaters in Washington County
Washington County, Oregon
- Major highways :* Interstate 5* Interstate 205* U.S. Route 26* Oregon Route 6* Oregon Route 8* Oregon Route 10* Oregon Route 47* Oregon Route 99W* Oregon Route 210* Oregon Route 217* Oregon Route 219-Demographics:...

 into the 1970s. Tom Moyer Theaters purchased Phelps’ theaters in 1978 and in turn sold all of that theater chain’s screens to Act III Theaters (later merged into Regal Entertainment Group
Regal Entertainment Group
Regal Entertainment Group also known as REG is a movie theater chain headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee. Regal operates the largest and most geographically diverse theater circuit in the United States, consisting of 6,775 screens in 548 locations in 39 states and the District of Columbia as of...

) in 1989. In 1996, Act III closed the theater and sold the building to the city for $1,500.

After purchasing the property the city proposed several redevelopment ideas for the building, including selling it to the McMenamins
McMenamins
McMenamins is a chain of nearly sixty brewpubs, microbreweries, music venues, historic hotels, and theater pubs. The chain is located mostly in the Portland metropolitan area, but has many other locations in Oregon and Washington...

 brewpub chain for a theater and pub. In 2001, Hillsboro purchased the adjoining 5000 square feet (464.5 m²) building (home to Music Village at the time) for $160,000 to add to the property to be used for any redevelopment of the theater. The city solicited ideas for the redevelopment of the building in early 2007. While under city ownership the space was briefly used as storage for the Hillsboro Farmers’ Market and faced possible demolition as estimates for the cost to renovate the structure continually increased.

In August 2007, the city sold the building to developer Denzil Scheller for $10 and gave him $750,000 to assist in the renovation of the deteriorating building. Scheller spent $2.5 million to renovate the space and bring the building up to modern fire, earthquake, and disability access codes. Of this $2.5 million, around $1.5 million came from his own funds, and the remainder came from city funds along with $250,000 from Metro in the conversion of the space into a theater, meeting space, restaurant, and live event venue. Work included gutting the building to rebuild the support structure, removing asbestos, and opening a wall into the adjacent Music Village building. Local architectural firm Partin and Hill Architects designed the renovations.

Scheller renamed the theater as The Venetian, returning to the former name, with the distinct yellow marquee of the Town Theater removed in September 2007. The re-opening of the theater is part of the city’s plan to create a regional arts center in the downtown core and attract more people after 5:00 p.m. when county and city offices close. On July 9, 2008, the new The Venetian Theatre and Bistro opened with the theater portion opening on July 11. In September 2008, Bag & Baggage Productions
Bag & Baggage Productions
Bag & Baggage Productions is a professional theatre company based in Hillsboro, in the U.S. state of Oregon. Founded in 2005, the non-profit group presents about four productions per year...

 became the resident theater company at the theater and opened their new season with Steel Magnolias
Steel Magnolias
Steel Magnolias is a 1989 American comedy-drama film directed by Herbert Ross that stars Sally Field, Shirley MacLaine, Olympia Dukakis, Dolly Parton, Daryl Hannah and Julia Roberts....

. In October 2010, the renovation of the theater was awarded the Outstanding Achievement in Design award from the Oregon Main Street organization.

Details

Located in downtown Hillsboro on Main Street between Second and Third avenues, the theater is one block north of the Hillsboro Central MAX light rail station. The 16000 square feet (1,486.4 m²) space includes a 370-seat theater, and a restaurant with an upstairs balcony. The balcony sits above Main Street and has roll-up windows. On the exterior are decorative terra cotta
Terra cotta
Terracotta, Terra cotta or Terra-cotta is a clay-based unglazed ceramic, although the term can also be applied to glazed ceramics where the fired body is porous and red in color...

urns and red colored roof tiles on Main Street. Designed to encourage late night patronage of the downtown area, the theater is a centerpiece of revitalization efforts of that part of Hillsboro.

The current building is a multi-use facility that includes a theater and restaurant. The theater exhibits movies, presents live performances, is a live music venue, and can be used as meeting space. The casual dining restaurant features a European menu with items including pizza, soup, sandwiches, and hamburgers, all of which can be eaten in the theater.

External links

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