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Tower Theatre (Fresno, California)

USA / California / Fresno / Fresno, California / East Olive Avenue, 815
 theatre, NRHP - National Register of Historic Places
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809 East Olive Avenue
Fresno, CA 93728
(559) 485-9050
www.towertheatrefresno.com/

(Note: The original and historic boundaries of the old theater include the retail wings attached to this building. However, as it currently stands, the theater only includes the central building and not the retail portion)

Opened in 1939 as a 20th Century Fox Movie House the Tower Theater is completely restored as a center for performing arts. Considered to be the finest facility of its kind in California, the Tower Theater boasts an authentic art deco theme throughout its interior and exterior.

As built in 1939, the theater was a mixed use building with a theater in front flanked with retail stores. The grand opening was December 15th, 1939 with a double feature of "Dancing Coed" and "Henry goes to Arizona". However, the "official" opening wasn't technically until January 29th 1940 when the final certificate of completion was delivered.

Through the years, the Tower survived virtually intact. It wasn't until 1987 that the owners began an ambitious Certified Historic Rehabilitation.While preserving the building's principal extant features (massing, materials, fenestration, exterior and interior ornamentation, neon marquee and Illumination spiked tower), these ongoing major tenant Improvements and the adaptive reuse of the theater auditorium for performing arts use earned a 1991 California Preservation Foundation Restoration Award. Special care was taken to restore dazzling interior murals, and to repair bas-relief glass panel carved after a 1927 design by acclaimed New York sculptor Gaetano Cecere.

National Register of Historic Places # 92001276
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Coordinates:   36°45'28"N   119°48'5"W
This article was last modified 4 years ago