The Gem Theatre in

Kannapolis, North Carolina Kannapolis () is a city in Cabarrus County, North Carolina, Cabarrus and Rowan County, North Carolina, Rowan Counties in the U.S. state of North Carolina, northwest of Concord, North Carolina, Concord and northeast of Charlotte, North Carolina, ...

is a

theater Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The performers may communi ...

first opened December 31, 1936, built by Cannon Mills for its workers. The Gem is one of the oldest movie theaters with one screen in the United States.

History

After a 1942 fire, only the façade, offices, projection booth and part of the lobby remained. The theater was rebuilt and reopened in 1948 with 916 seats and a new balcony to replace the old one. Steve Morris bought a share of the theater in 1995 and became general manager and later the owner. With competition from newer theaters, the Gem showed movies that had already been shown elsewhere. First-run movies returned in 2000. The city of Kannapolis bought the theater in 2015 as part of a downtown revitalization project. Renovations done in 2021 include the exterior, roof, and

HVAC Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC ) is the use of various technologies to control the temperature, humidity, and purity of the air in an enclosed space. Its goal is to provide thermal comfort and acceptable indoor air quality. ...

. The theater reopened May 16, 2024 after five months of interior renovations costing $1.2 million.

Architecture

The theater building uses

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

designs including the prominent blue marquee, which includes about 50 neon lights. In the interior, the trough lighting was restored along the ceiling. In the theater itself, the screen is flanked by two original metalwork panels with stylized

birds-of-paradise The birds-of-paradise are members of the family Paradisaeidae of the order Passeriformes. The majority of species are found in eastern Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and eastern Australia. The family has 45 species in 17 genera. The members of this ...

References

National Register of Historic Places in Cabarrus County, North Carolina Individually listed contributing properties to historic districts on the National Register in North Carolina Kannapolis, North Carolina 1936 establishments in North Carolina Theatres completed in 1936 Theatres on the National Register of Historic Places in North Carolina Art Deco architecture in North Carolina {{CabarrusCountyNC-NRHP-stub

History

Architecture

See also

References