The Palace Theatre was a historic

movie palace A movie palace (or picture palace in the United Kingdom) is a large, elaborately decorated movie theater built from the 1910s to the 1940s. The late 1920s saw the peak of the movie palace, with hundreds opening every year between 1925 and 1930. Wi ...

downtown Cincinnati Downtown Cincinnati is one of the 52 List of Cincinnati neighborhoods, neighborhoods of Cincinnati, Ohio. It is the central business district of the city, as well as the economic and symbiotic center of the Cincinnati metropolitan area. Original ...

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. Constructed at the dawn of the

Roaring Twenties The Roaring Twenties, sometimes stylized as Roaring '20s, refers to the 1920s decade in music and fashion, as it happened in Western world, Western society and Western culture. It was a period of economic prosperity with a distinctive cultura ...

, it originally housed stage acts before conversion into a movie theater. Named a

historic site A historic site or heritage site is an official location where pieces of political, military, cultural, or social history have been preserved due to their cultural heritage value. Historic sites are usually protected by law, and many have been re ...

because of its architecture, it was demolished in the early 1980s following years of financial failures.

Architecture

Built in the

Italianate style The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style combined its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Ita ...

, the Palace was a five-

story Story or stories may refer to: Common uses * Narrative, an account of imaginary or real people and events ** Short story, a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting ** News story, an event or topic reported by a news orga ...

stone building topped with a

finial A finial () or hip-knob is an element marking the top or end of some object, often formed to be a decorative feature. In architecture, it is a small decorative device, employed to emphasize the Apex (geometry), apex of a dome, spire, tower, roo ...

at the center of a bracketed

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative Moulding (decorative), moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, ar ...

. The facade was divided into five

bays A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...

: on the first two stories, the middle bay comprised a wide arch around the main entrance and

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 the other bays included one large window each, while stories three through five comprised all smaller windows, with four in the middle and two in each of the others. Inside, the building was carefully constructed to minimize structural interference and to maximize visibility: although the theater was built to hold an audience of 2,600, none of the seats came near to being placed behind structural members. Instead, the ceiling was supported by a set of arches and vaults, covered with elaborate

plaster Plaster is a building material used for the protective or decorative coating of walls and ceilings and for moulding and casting decorative elements. In English, "plaster" usually means a material used for the interiors of buildings, while "re ...

details; the result was an exceptionally high-quality acoustic structure, important in the days of vaudeville. The red carpet was laid out permanently in the foyer, and space was provided in the main part of the theater for an orchestra that was available to play for ever performance. In 1930, the theater demonstrated its technological sophistication by installing air conditioning.

History

George Rapp John George Rapp (; November 1, 1757 – August 7, 1847) was the founder of the religious sect called the Harmony Society and a number of associated communes. Born in Iptingen, Germany, Rapp became inspired by the philosophies of Jakob Böhme, ...

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, the Palace was the last theater built in Cincinnati before movies gained the prominence that they now enjoy. Built by the Ohio Construction Company at a cost of half a million dollars, the theater originally showed primarily

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment which began in France in the middle of the 19th century. A ''vaudeville'' was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a drama ...

acts, but by the time

RKO Pictures RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, is an American film production and distribution company, historically one of the major film studios, "Big Five" film studios of Cinema of the United States, Hollywood's Clas ...

purchased it in 1930, it had been renovated to facilitate the showing of movies. Nevertheless, its stage remained useful; among the many performers who appeared live on its stage during the RKO era were

Doris Day Doris Day (born Doris Mary Kappelhoff; April 3, 1922 – May 13, 2019) was an American actress and singer. She began her career as a big band singer in 1937, achieving commercial success in 1945 with two No. 1 recordings, "Sentimental Journey ...

Bing Crosby Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby Jr. (May 3, 1903 – October 14, 1977) was an American singer, comedian, entertainer and actor. The first multimedia star, he was one of the most popular and influential musical artists of the 20th century worldwi ...

, and

Burns and Allen Burns and Allen were an American comedy duo consisting of George Burns and his wife, Gracie Allen. They worked together as a successful comedy team that entertained vaudeville, film, radio, and television audiences for over forty years. The ...

.Owen, Lorrie K., ed. ''Dictionary of Ohio Historic Places''. Vol. 1. St. Clair Shores: Somerset, 1999, 645. During its heyday, the theater would feature one act after another throughout the day, going from noon until almost midnight.Singer, Allen J. ''Stepping Out in Cincinnati: Queen City Entertainment 1900-1960''. Charleston: Arcadia, 2005. Into the 1970s, it was still featuring both movies and live performances;"Palace Theater Having Troubles In Cincinnati", '' The Blade'' 1978-12-21: 32. although a group of investors spent more than $1 million to renovate it in 1978 and 1979, attendance continued to drop, and the doors were permanently closed by 1980. The building was demolished in 1982, and a new skyscraper, the Cincinnati Commerce Center, was erected in its place in 1984. Since the destruction of the Palace Theater, Cincinnati has been without a downtown movie palace; comparable buildings survive in nearby cities such as

Columbus Columbus is a Latinized version of the Italian surname "''Colombo''". It most commonly refers to: * Christopher Columbus (1451–1506), the Italian explorer * Columbus, Ohio, the capital city of the U.S. state of Ohio * Columbus, Georgia, a city i ...

( Ohio Theatre) and

Indianapolis Indianapolis ( ), colloquially known as Indy, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Indiana, most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana, Marion ...

( Indiana Theatre), serving as the homes of their symphony orchestras,The Palace Theater (Cincinnati, Ohio)
Cornell University Libraries, n.d. Accessed 2013-12-15. unlike Cincinnati, whose orchestra plays at

Music Hall Music hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment that was most popular from the early Victorian era, beginning around 1850, through the World War I, Great War. It faded away after 1918 as the halls rebranded their entertainment as Varie ...

Over-the-Rhine Over-the-Rhine, often abbreviated as OTR, is a residential neighborhood located in the urban basin of Cincinnati, Ohio. Over-the-Rhine is among the largest, most intact urban historic districts in the United States. Originally settled by Ohi ...

.History of Over-the-Rhine
,

Northern Kentucky University Northern Kentucky University is a public university in Highland Heights, Kentucky, United States. Established in 1968, it is the youngest of Kentucky's eight public universities. The university has seven constituent colleges in arts and science ...

, 2006. Accessed 2013-12-16. In 1980, the Palace 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 ...

, qualifying because of its place in local history, but the designation was unable to prevent its replacement with a skyscraper. Even though the theater has been gone for more than thirty years, it officially remains on the Register.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places Theatres completed in 1918 Buildings and structures demolished in 1982 Cinemas and movie theaters in Ohio Demolished buildings and structures in Cincinnati Demolished theatres in the United States Former cinemas in the United States Italianate architecture in Ohio Movie palaces National Register of Historic Places in Cincinnati Theatres in Cincinnati Vaudeville theaters Theatres on the National Register of Historic Places in Ohio