The Palace Theater at 210 N. Main St. in

Crossville, Tennessee Crossville is a city in and the county seat of Cumberland County, Tennessee, United States. It is part of the Crossville Micropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 12,071 at the 2020 census. History Crossville developed at the intersection ...

is a historic

movie theater A movie theater (American English) or cinema (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English), also known as a movie house, cinema hall, picture house, picture theater, the movies, the pictures, or simply theater, is a business ...

built in the 1930s.

Architecture

The building design embodies the

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 ...

and Moderne styles. The exterior is faced with Crab Orchard stone laid in patterns characteristic of Art Deco. The neon-illuminated

marquee Marquee may refer to: * Marquee (overhang), a secondary covering attached to the exterior wall of a building * Marquee (structure), a structure placed over the entrance to a hotel, theater, casino, train station, or similar building. * Pole marquee ...

and bulls-eye wall sconces in the interior are other characteristic elements of these styles. The auditorium seated about 600 people.

History

The Palace Theater opened in November 1938 with a screening of ''

If I Were King ''If I Were King'' is a 1938 American biographical and historical film starring Ronald Colman as medieval poet François Villon, and featuring Basil Rathbone and Frances Dee. It is based on the 1901 play and novel, both of the same name, by ...

'', featuring

Ronald Colman Ronald Charles Colman (9 February 1891 – 19 May 1958) was an English-born actor who started his career in theatre and silent film in his native country, then emigrated to the United States where he had a highly successful Cinema of the United ...

. It operated as a first-run theater until the 1970s, but closed in 1978 when a new two-screen theater opened in Crossville. The building was vacant for many years, while its physical condition deteriorated. The Palace was among the movie theaters featured in the 1987 book ''Great American Movie Theaters'' by architectural historian

David Naylor Christopher David Naylor (born October 26, 1954) is a Canadian physician, medical researcher and former president of the University of Toronto. He is ICES scientist emeritus and founding CEO. In 2016, he was inducted into the Canadian Medical Ha ...

. A subsequent citizen campaign for its preservation led to the city of Crossville purchasing the building in 1993. The theater building was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1994 and was later restored with public financial support. It now serves as a multipurpose community auditorium.

References

External links

*
Palace Theatre
Tennessee Department of Tourist Development * * {{National Register of Historic Places National Register of Historic Places in Cumberland County, Tennessee Streamline Moderne architecture in the United States Art Deco architecture in Tennessee Art Deco cinemas and movie theaters Theatres completed in 1938 Buildings and structures in Cumberland County, Tennessee Theatres on the National Register of Historic Places in Tennessee