Portland's last movie palace became its symphony hall - sign, Wurlitzer legend and all. The Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall at 1037 SW Broadway opened on 8 March 1928 as the Portland Publix Theatre, a 1.5-million-dollar Italian Rococo Revival palace by Rapp and Rapp, the nation's premier theatre architects; opening night queued for hours to see the Greenwich Village Follies, hear a 46,500-dollar Wurlitzer and watch a silent comedy beneath crystal chandeliers and French-museum furnishings. Renamed the Paramount in 1930, it ran films until 1972, then rock concerts through the lean years. Nearly demolished in the early 1980s, the building was saved by a ten-million-dollar restoration led by arts patrons Arlene and Harold Schnitzer and rededicated on 8 September 1984 as the anchor of Portland's new performing arts complex: seating re-spaced for 2,776, dressing rooms for ninety artists, a new Main Street entrance, and the great 65-foot Portland sign - 6,000 bulbs - relit over Broadway. The National Register had listed the theatre in 1976; the restoration ensured the listing described a living hall rather than a memory. Today the Schnitz, operated by Portland'5 Centers for the Arts, is home to the Oregon Symphony, Portland Youth Philharmonic, Metropolitan Youth Symphony, White Bird Dance and the Portland Arts and Lectures series, folding touring comedians, songwriters and film-with-orchestra nights into one of the West Coast's busiest calendars. It is the last survivor of Broadway's Great White Way of theatres - and, on show nights under the blazing sign, still the reason the street earned the name. The 1984 restoration's great debate - repaint the auditorium in its original reds and golds, or the subdued teal and salmon the modernists wanted - went to the modernists, a choice still argued in Portland preservation circles, but the Italian Rococo plasterwork, the grand lobby marble and the celebrated chandelier survived intact either way. The hall anchors the Portland'5 complex alongside the Keller Auditorium and the three theatres of Antoinette Hatfield Hall across Main Street.

Type: Theater / Concert Hall

Address: 1037 SW Broadway, Portland, OR, United States, 97205

Website: https://www.portland5.com

Capacity: 2776

Opening Date: 08/03/1928

Accessible