Royal Theatre (Ashland, Wisconsin)
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Royal Theatre is a historic
theater Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actor, actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The p ...
in
Ashland, Wisconsin Ashland is a city in Ashland and 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 Bay. The population was 7,908 at the 2020 census, al ...
, originally built as a
vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...
/movie theater in 1914. It was one of many theatres in Ashland to show
silent film A silent film is a film with no 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, when ...
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 Henry Wildhagen (September 1, 1856 – March 23, 1920) was one of northern Wisconsin's best-known architects at the turn of the 20th century. He was born in Hannover, Germany in 1856 and studied at the Technical University of Hannover. He immigra ...
, 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 United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
. 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 distric ...
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 that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...
, which has a central elliptical arch, a paneled frieze, and metal globes that stand at the top of the central
pilasters In classical architecture, a pilaster is an architectural element used to give the appearance of a supporting column and to articulate an extent of wall, with only an ornamental function. It consists of a flat surface raised from the main wall ...
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. Type ...
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, t ...
s at the sides, as well as brownstone window sills. Originally, there was a cast iron canopy 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 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 ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...
marquee with neon letters was later added, and was removed after the theatre closed in 1957. In the 1960s the building was converted into space for
retail Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholesaler, and t ...
stores. The building survived a fire in the 1960s.


References


External links


Royal Theatre
a
Cinematreasures.org
Theatres in Wisconsin Theatres completed in 1914 Event venues established in 1914 Silent film 1914 establishments in Wisconsin {{US-theat-struct-stub