Warner Theater, also known as The High Street Theater, was a historic

movie theater A movie theater (American English), cinema (British English), or cinema hall ( Indian English), also known as a movie house, picture house, the movies, the pictures, picture theater, the silver screen, the big screen, or simply theater is a ...

located in West Chester,

Chester County, Pennsylvania Chester County (Pennsylvania Dutch language, Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Tscheschter Kaundi''), colloquially known as Chesco, is a County (United States), county in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is located in the De ...

. It was designed by the noted Chicago theater design firm of

Rapp and Rapp C. W. & George L. Rapp, commonly known as Rapp & Rapp, was an American architectural firm famed for the design of movie palaces and other theatres. Active from 1906 to 1965 and based in Chicago, the office designed over 400 theatres, includ ...

and built by

Warner Brothers Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American Film studio, film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios, Burbank, Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, Califo ...

. It opened on November 14, 1930. It is a composite of one-, two-, and three-story buildings in the

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 ...

style. It includes the theater, restaurant, and a series of seven small stores. The theater has a two-story foyer with a three-story tower that formerly supported the marquee. The

auditorium An auditorium is a room built to enable an audience to hear and watch performances. For movie theatres, the number of auditoria (or auditoriums) is expressed as the number of screens. Auditoria can be found in entertainment venues, community ...

measured 83 feet by 120 feet, and originally sat 1,650, 1,300 on the floor and 350 in the balcony. ''Note:'' This includes The auditorium was demolished in late 1986, and the remainder of the building has been renovated as the Hotel Warner. Hotel Warner today is a member of

Historic Hotels of America Historic Hotels of America is a program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation that was founded in 1989 with 32 charter members; the program accepts nominations and identifies hotels that have maintained their authenticity, sense of pla ...

, the official program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. It was 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 ...

in 1979. It is located in the West Chester Downtown Historic District.

References

External links

Hotel Warner website
* West Chester, Pennsylvania Theatres on the National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania Art Deco architecture in Pennsylvania Theatres completed in 1930 Buildings and structures in Chester County, Pennsylvania National Register of Historic Places in Chester County, Pennsylvania Individually listed contributing properties to historic districts on the National Register in Pennsylvania Historic Hotels of America {{ChesterCountyPA-NRHP-stub

See also

References

External links