The Palace Theatre is an entertainment venue in downtown

Albany, New York Albany ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of New York, also the seat and largest city of Albany County. Albany is on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River, and about north of New York C ...

, located on the corner of Clinton Avenue ( US 9) and North Pearl Street (

NY 32 New York State Route 32 (NY 32) is a north–south state highway that extends for through the Hudson Valley and Capital District regions of the U.S. state of New York. It is a two-lane surface road for nearly its entire length, with ...

). The theatre is operated by the Palace Performing Arts Center, Inc - a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Established in 1984 and incorporated as a not-for-profit corporation in 1989, the Palace Performing Arts Center, Inc. was created to operate the theatre and utilize its full potential as a cultural and entertainment center in Albany. It continues its tradition of hosting the finest in live entertainment with over 150 events annually, from public performances such as concerts, world-class ballet and dance, Broadway, educational programs, live comedy and classic movies to private events such as weddings, dance competitions, corporate events, and graduations. Home to the Grammy Award-winning Albany Symphony Orchestra, artists as diverse as the Rolling Stones, Jerry Seinfeld, Bruce Springsteen, Roy Orbison, Tony Bennett, and Melissa Etheridge have graced the Palace stage over the years. Designed by

John Eberson John Adolph Emil Eberson (January 2, 1875 – March 5, 1954) was an Austrian-American architect best known for the development and promotion of movie palace designs in the atmospheric theatre style. He designed over 500 theatres in his lifetime, ea ...

, one of the world's foremost theatre architect of the time and well noted for his atmospheric theatre designs. The Radio Keith Orpheum (RKO) owned facility spared no expense in its design and boasted an ornate Austrian Baroque design with "atmospheric" elements in the auditorium. Though many changes have taken place since its opening, the Palace has retained most of its original design features, including an impressive brass chandelier in the main lobby, original murals painted by Hungarian artists Andrew Karoly and Louis Szanto and plaster beams in the fore-lobby painted to resemble carved wood. In 1979 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 ...

. Nine years later it was declared a contributing property to the Clinton Avenue Historic District.

History

The Palace Theatre was originally built as an

RKO RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, was an American film production and distribution company, one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orpheu ...

movie palace. Construction took place from June 1930 to October 1931, when it opened it was Albany's largest movie theatre.The Palace Theatre
In 1940, The Palace was sold to FAST Theatres, part of Fabian Enterprises, when RKO exited the theatre business due to antitrust concerns. The theatre underwent a $250,000 renovation in 1960, seating capacity was reduced to allow for more comfortable seating. The Palace closed in September 1969, as it had become unprofitable. Soon after its closure, the building was purchased by the City of Albany for $90,000 and reopened. During the first few years of the city's ownership, a new

boiler A boiler is a closed vessel in which fluid (generally water) is heated. The fluid does not necessarily boil. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications, including water heating, centr ...

and roof were installed, the limit of its renovations for decades. It was added to the

on October 4, 1979. In 2002, an extensive restoration project began at a cost of $3 million. Completed in January 2003 the project restored the look and feel of the interior of the theatre closer to its original historic design and included the addition of a new LED marquee, replicating the original 1931 design. Work was carried out by

Conrad Schmitt Studios Conrad Schmitt Studios is an architectural arts studio located in New Berlin, Wisconsin. It provides ecclesiastical art, stained glass artistry, art glass, decorative painting, mosaics, murals and sculptural arts. The studio specializes in rest ...

New Berlin, WI New Berlin () is a city located along the Milwaukee /Waukesha County Border in the U.S. State of Wisconsin. The population was 40,451 at the 2020 census, making it the third-largest community in Waukesha County after the cities of Waukesha an ...

. The local firm of Einhorn Yaffee Prescott were the architects for the project.

Building

The theatre is on a small lot at the northwest corner of the intersection, just north of downtown. It is a brick and stone

steel frame Steel frame is a building technique with a "skeleton frame" of vertical steel columns and horizontal I-beams, constructed in a rectangular grid to support the floors, roof and walls of a building which are all attached to the frame. The developm ...

building in two sections. The front two stories, facing the corner and including the marquee with a modern scrolling LED display, are faced in tan brick with some stone

ornamentation An ornament is something used for decoration. Ornament may also refer to: Decoration *Ornament (art), any purely decorative element in architecture and the decorative arts *Biological ornament, a characteristic of animals that appear to serve on ...

. The windows have carved

brackets A bracket is either of two tall fore- or back-facing punctuation marks commonly used to isolate a segment of text or data from its surroundings. Typically deployed in symmetric pairs, an individual bracket may be identified as a 'left' or ' ...

. There are open

pediment Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds. A pedim ...

s with

cartouche In Egyptian hieroglyphs, a cartouche is an oval with a line at one end tangent to it, indicating that the text enclosed is a royal name. The first examples of the cartouche are associated with pharaohs at the end of the Third Dynasty, but the f ...

s and brick

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/breast'). ...

s with molded stone

coping Coping refers to conscious strategies used to reduce unpleasant emotions. Coping strategies can be cognitions or behaviours and can be individual or social. Theories of coping Hundreds of coping strategies have been proposed in an attempt to ...

. The taller

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 ...

, to the northwest, features a banded chimney and decorative

brickwork Brickwork is masonry produced by a bricklayer, using bricks and mortar. Typically, rows of bricks called ''courses'' are laid on top of one another to build up a structure such as a brick wall. Bricks may be differentiated from blocks by si ...

facing the south. The east elevation, along Pearl, has circular arcading and banded

pilaster 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 wal ...

s. The interior is designed and decorated in the Austrian Baroque style. The

foyer A lobby is a room in a building used for entry from the outside. Sometimes referred to as a foyer, reception area or an entrance hall, it is often a large room or complex of rooms (in a theatre, opera house, concert hall, showroom, cinema, etc. ...

, between the lobby and main entrance, has red

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite. Marble is typically not foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the term ''marble'' refers to metamorphose ...

staircases decorated in scrollwork, cartouches, and garlands. The

wrought iron Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.08%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4%). It is a semi-fused mass of iron with fibrous slag inclusions (up to 2% by weight), which give it a wood-like "grain" ...

railing is foliated.

Mural A mural is any piece of graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' is a Spani ...

s by two Hungarian artists decorate the walls. The

balcony A balcony (from it, balcone, "scaffold") is a platform projecting from the wall of a building, supported by columns or console brackets, and enclosed with a balustrade, usually above the ground floor. Types The traditional Maltese balcony ...

level extends over two-thirds of the sloping main floor. The heavily decorated ceilings and walls include pilasters rising to complex entablatures, statuary, and arches framing the wall boxes. A

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places * Czech, ...

made crystal chandelier hangs from the ceiling. The

orchestra pit An orchestra pit is the area in a theater (usually located in a lowered area in front of the stage) in which musicians perform. Orchestral pits are utilized in forms of theatre that require music (such as opera and ballet) or in cases when incide ...

can be raised and lowered by an elevator.

External links

Palace Theatre at albany.org

References

{{Coord, 42, 39, 16, N, 73, 45, 02, W, display=title Buildings and structures in Albany, New York Theatres on the National Register of Historic Places in New York (state) Movie palaces Theatres completed in 1931 U.S. Route 9 Culture of Albany, New York Tourist attractions in Albany, New York National Register of Historic Places in Albany, New York Companies based in Albany, New York 1931 establishments in New York (state) Theatres in New York (state) Entertainment venues in New York (state) Music venues in New York (state)

History

Building

See also

External links

References