Orpheum Theater and Office Building
About this property
The Orpheum Theatre is a historic theater in downtown Wichita, Kansas, United States. It was designed by renowned theatre architect John Eberson with funding from a group of local investors and opened on September 4, 1922. The theater it was one of three early theatres designed with elements of what would become known as the atmospheric style. Wichita's Orpheum design was that of a Spanish garden and courtyard. The 42 feet (13 m) high by 40 feet (12 m) wide proscenium arch is the main feature of the auditorium. The sidewalls of the auditorium were accented by niches with mock tile roofs, grills, and wood lattice arches across the ceiling to create a courtyard effect. While the theatre was originally designed with 1,700 seats, it now seats 1,286. Originally built as a vaudeville venue, the theatre underwent conversion into a movie house in 1929 and for decades it presented both movies and live entertainment. Throughout the 1920s, the Chicago-based Orpheum circuit brought famous names like: Al Jolson, Fannie Brice, Jack Benny, George Burns, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Gracie Allen, Gypsy Rose Lee, Bing Crosby, Mickey Rooney, and Harry Houdini to Wichita's Orpheum Theatre. Admission to these shows would generally cost between $0.40 and $0.75. In addition to these live acts, the Orpheum was one of the first theatres to show D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation and hosted the Kansas premier of Gone with the Wind in 1940. With the economic boom brought on by 1940s defense spending, the Orpheum was kept open 24 hours a day to accommodate the many shifts of workers building airplanes for WWII effort. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the advent of multiplex movie theatres caused attendance at the Orpheum to drop significantly. Orpheum management tried to keep the venue open with martial arts films and even a brief foray into adult films. These efforts failed and the theatre closed its doors in November 1976. The final film shown was a martial arts film titled The Bodyguard. After stripping the building of its material value, including the seats, the theatre was abandoned and left to rot. After many nearby downtown theatres were closed and demolished in the 1950s to 1970s, there was a growing effort to save the historic Orpheum Theatre. In order to keep the city of Wichita from demolishing the Orpheum, two local businesswomen, Meredith "Millie" Hill and Marge Setter, created a group called "Save the Orpheum". Their efforts, along with local attorney Stan Wisdom, saved the building from the wrecking ball, virtually at the last minute. Advocacy from other concerned citizens continued and the City of Wichita designated the Orpheum Theatre as an historic landmark in 1978. In 1980, the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places. A nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization called the Orpheum Performing Arts Centre LTD was then formed to take ownership of the theatre. Various legal entanglements complicated ownership of the office complex adjacent to the theatre, until a US District Judge signed an order dismissing the nonprofit group from the lawsuits. In 1992 clear title and ownership of the theatre was formally handed to the nonprofit. However, much work needed to be done in order to restore it to an operational condition.
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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).
Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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Questions about this property
When was Orpheum Theater and Office Building listed on the National Register?
Orpheum Theater and Office Building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on November 28, 1980.
What type of historic resource is Orpheum Theater and Office Building?
Orpheum Theater and Office Building is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.
What is the period of significance for Orpheum Theater and Office Building?
The period of significance for Orpheum Theater and Office Building is recorded as the industrial era.
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