When was playhouse square built

The Allen theatre opened two months later in the Bulkley Building next door. The 8-story commercial and office building contained an innovative enclosed parking garage behind the theater.

Compared to other exotic movie palaces of the s, the relatively early Playhouse Square theaters were in a restrained classical style, with lavish use of marble, expensive woods, murals, tapestries, and gilded plaster relief.

The Palace Theatre, built to house the performances of the Keith vaudeville circuit, opened in November in front of Loew's State on East 17th Street. Above the lobby and foyer rose the story B. Keith Building. By the foundation obtained long-term leases for the Palace and also the State and Ohio in the Loew's Building, which was purchased by the Cuyahoga County Commissioners.

A combination of funding from government, local foundations, and private corporations was committed to the project. By the Ohio, State, and Palace had been reopened and were playing to , patrons a year. In November the Allen Theater reopened as well, although its restoration lasted another four years. The acquisition of the Hanna, Building and Theatre in completed the effort to rescue the district's original venues.

A car connected parking garage was built on Chester Avenue to serve the complex, and Playhouse became involved in the co-financing of nationally touring shows as The Secret Garden and The Color Purple. The Ohio Theatre's interior features a central dome and hexagonal coffered ceiling with Tuscan pilaster and an elliptical proscenium arch.

The Hanna Theater has a Pompeian influence with its travertine walls, frescoed paintings and Corinthian pilaster supporting incised architraves. The Allen Theatre's's interior also has a Pompeian influence, but is dominated by the lobby rotunda, said to be a replica of the Villa Madonna near Rome. It was one of the first theaters constructed with an attached garage, as well as one of the first theaters designed specifically for movies, without a stage.

The Palace Theater was the most lavish of the theaters. Designed by noted Chicago architects Rapp and Rapp, the Palace has a Neo-classical three-story lobby, various colors of marble finishes, a wood-paneled French Empire powder room, black and gold Turkish smoking room, extensive backstage facilities for the leading vaudeville entertainers, and excellent acoustics.

Allen Theatre marquee advertising the Budapest Symphony Orchestra in Before and after photo of the Ohio Theatre restoration in Playhouse Square Center Allen Theatre Lobby restoration, Movies are included between live acts at the Palace. Katherine Cornell debuts at the Hanna in the first of her 22 performances at that theater, more than any other performer.

This ends the era of "big time" vaudeville in Cleveland. Only the Hanna Theatre continues to feature live entertainment and Broadway shows. The Palace air conditioning breaks down during a showing of Krakatoa East of Java , causing the Palace to close.

Ray Shepardson, an employee of the Cleveland Board of Education, first sees the closed State Theater while looking for a location for a teachers conference.