The Waldo Theatre is a historic movie theater and performance venue at 916 Main Street in
Waldoboro,
Maine
Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...
. Built in 1936 as a movie theater to a design by
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
architect
Benjamin Schlanger
Benjamin Schlanger (died May 3, 1971) was a theater architect. Some of the theaters he designed include: the Jewel Theater at 711 Kings Highway, Brooklyn, City Cinemas I-II, the Vistavision Todd-AO Patriot Theaters at Colonial Williamsburg, Grade ...
, it was hailed at the time as one of the best-designed state-of-the-art small theaters in the country. It is now managed by a non-profit arts organization. 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 1986.
Description and history
The Waldo Theatre stands on the north side of Waldoboro's downtown Main Street, next door to the former
U.S. Customhouse and Post Office. It is a two-story masonry structure with brick walls, wooden trim, and a gabled roof. The front has a Classical temple appearance, with four Tuscan columns rising to an entablature and fully pedimented gable. The gable rake edge and cornice are studded with modillions. The interior has minimal decoration, with that present suggestive of 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 ...
period. The theater seats about 400 in the main floor and balcony.
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The theater was built in 1936 by the local Cooney family, to a design by New York architect Benjamin Schlanger, who was well known for his theater designs. Its design features included seats of varying width, as well as some seats fitted for the hearing impaired. The floor is sloped, and the seats set at a slant, for more comfortable viewing of an elevated screen. The ventilation system was state of the art, allowing for rapid exchanges of air for climate control. The theater showed movies through the 1950s, and was then adapted for use by the local Masonic lodge, also seeing some use as a live performance venue. In the 1980s, the theater was acquired by a non-profit and renovated for live theatrical use,.
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See also
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References
External links
Waldo Theatre website
{{National Register of Historic Places
Buildings and structures in Lincoln County, Maine
Theatres in Maine
Tourist attractions in Lincoln County, Maine
National Register of Historic Places in Lincoln County, Maine
Theatres on the National Register of Historic Places in Maine
Waldoboro, Maine