The Majestic Theatre is a theatre located at 4126-4140

Woodward Avenue A woodward is a Game warden, warden of a wood. Woodward may also refer to: Places ;United States * Woodward, Iowa * Woodward, Oklahoma * Woodward, Pennsylvania, a census-designated place * Woodward Avenue, a street in Tallahassee, Florida, which b ...

Midtown Detroit Midtown Detroit is a mixed-use area consisting of a business district, cultural center, a major research university, and several residential neighborhoods; it is located along the east and west side of M-1 (Michigan highway), Woodward Avenue, nor ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

. 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 2008. Today, the theatre is mainly a music venue. It hosts a variety of musical concerts in three separate areas of the building: The Majestic, The Majestic Cafe, and The Magic Stick.

History

The Majestic Theatre, designed by C. Howard Crane, opened on April 1, 1915."Seven Michigan Properties Added to the National Register of Historic Places,"
press release, Michigan Department of History, Arts and Libraries (HAL), Aug. 7, 2008 The theatre originally seated 1,651 people (at the time the largest theatre in the world built for the purpose of showing moviesLeyland DeVito
"Joe Zainea: A Conversation," ''The Detroiter,'' May 31, 2007), and the facade was designed in an arcaded Italian style. In 1934, the front 35 feet of the theatre were removed when

was widened to its present size. The entire facade was redesigned into its current striking

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 ...

motif by the firm of Bennett & Straight. The theater now boasts the largest enameled metal panel Art Deco facade in the Detroit metropolitan region. The theatre eventually closed, and the building was used as a church for a time, and later as a photographic studio. It lay vacant for ten years. The present owner purchased the building in 1984. There is a myth that legendary magician

Harry Houdini Harry Houdini (, born Erik Weisz; March 24, 1874 – October 31, 1926) was a Hungarian-American escape artist, magic man, and stunt performer, noted for his escape acts. His pseudonym is a reference to his spiritual master, French magician ...

gave his last performance on stage here, on Halloween night 1926. In fact, Houdini last performed at the Garrick Theatre in Detroit and died a few days later of peritonitis at Detroit's Grace Hospital on October 31, 1926. On October 25, 2019, The Majestic Theatre unveiled its new Marquee facing Woodward Avenue. This new facade is part of a greater renovation plan made public by the venue's owners in Spring 2018. The owner's pledged to put $1,000,000 of renovations into the building.

Current use

The Majestic Theatre operates as part of the Majestic Theatre Center, which includes the nearby

Garden Bowl The Garden Bowl is a bowling alley located at 4104–4120 Woodward Avenue in Midtown Detroit, Michigan. It is the oldest continuously operating bowling alley in the country.

bowling alley, The Majestic Cafe, The Magic Stick, and Sgt. Pepperoni's.The Majestic Theater Center
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References

External links

Majestic Theatre
{{Authority control Music venues in Michigan Theatres in Detroit Theatres on the National Register of Historic Places in Michigan Theatres completed in 1915 Art Deco architecture in Michigan Event venues established in 1915 1915 establishments in Michigan National Register of Historic Places in Detroit