The Royal Theatre is a historic
theater
Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The performers may communi ...
in
Ashland, Wisconsin
Ashland is a city in Ashland County, Wisconsin, Ashland and Bayfield County, Wisconsin, Bayfield counties in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. It is the county seat of Ashland County. The city is a port on Lake Superior, near the head of Chequamegon ...
,
originally built as a
vaudeville
Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment which began in France in the middle of the 19th century. A ''vaudeville'' was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a drama ...
/movie theater in 1914. It was one of many theatres in Ashland to show
silent film
A silent film is a film without synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, w ...
s during that era.
The theater was built in 1914 and owned by Abe and Louis Latts, along with Leon Schwager. The building was designed by architect
Henry Wildhagen, who designed buildings in northern Wisconsin, some of which are now listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
.
The building is a
contributing resource
In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distr ...
within the
West Second Street Historic District, of downtown Ashland.
[ With ]
The two-story brick building has a three-part symmetrical
facade, which was designed in the
Neoclassical Revival Style. The finely detailed facade is united by the metal
entablature
An entablature (; nativization of Italian , from "in" and "table") is the superstructure of moldings and bands which lies horizontally above columns, resting on their capitals. Entablatures are major elements of classical architecture, and ...
that features a protruding metal
cornice
In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative Moulding (decorative), moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, ar ...
, which has a central elliptical arch, a paneled
frieze
In classical architecture, the frieze is the wide central section of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic order, Ionic or Corinthian order, Corinthian orders, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Patera (architecture), Paterae are also ...
, and metal globes that stand at the top of the central
pilasters
In architecture, a pilaster is both a load-bearing section of thickened wall or column integrated into a wall, and a purely decorative element in classical architecture which gives the appearance of a supporting column and articulates an ext ...
in the brickwork.
[ There are ]brownstone
Brownstone is a brown Triassic–Jurassic sandstone that was historically a popular building material. The term is also used in the United States and Canada to refer to a townhouse clad in this or any other aesthetically similar material.
Ty ...
quoin
Quoins ( or ) are masonry blocks at the corner of a wall. Some are structural, providing strength for a wall made with inferior stone or rubble, while others merely add aesthetic detail to a corner. According to one 19th-century encyclopedia, ...
s at the sides, as well as brownstone window sill
A windowsill (also written window sill or window-sill, and less frequently in British English, cill) is the horizontal structure or surface at the bottom of a window. Window sills serve to structurally support and hold the window in place.
The ...
s. Originally, there was a cast iron canopy
Canopy may refer to:
Plants
* Canopy (biology), aboveground portion of plant community or crop (including forests)
* Canopy (grape), aboveground portion of grapes
Religion and ceremonies
* Baldachin or canopy of state, typically placed over an a ...
over the central entrance,[ with ornate light fixtures on either side, and the name ''Royal Theatre'' embossed on the front.
A life-sized ]bronze sculpture
Bronze is the most popular metal for Casting (metalworking), cast metal sculptures; a cast bronze sculpture is often called simply "a bronze". It can be used for statues, singly or in groups, reliefs, and small statuettes and figurines, as w ...
of a lion on a marble pedestal in the lobby and lions were featured throughout the overall design and motif of the building.
An Art Deco
Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...
marquee
Marquee may refer to:
* Marquee (overhang), a secondary covering attached to the exterior wall of a building
* Marquee (structure), a structure placed over the entrance to a hotel, theater, casino, train station, or similar building.
* Pole marquee ...
with neon letters was later added, and was removed after the theatre closed in 1957.retail
Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is the sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholes ...
stores.
References
External links
Royal Theatre
a
Cinematreasures.org
Theatres in Wisconsin
Theatres completed in 1914
Event venues established in 1914
Theatres of the silent film era
1914 establishments in Wisconsin
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