Fox Theater;
Address: 1001 W. Sprague Avenue
Year Built: 1930
Located on the corner of Sprague and Monroe in downtown Spokane, the Fox Theater has been an icon for entertainment in Spokane. Built in 1930, by Fox West Coast Studios, the stark concrete modernistic architecture of the theater,designed by Robert C. Reamer, stuck out like a sore thumb. The Spokesman Review in an article dated September 3, 1931 referred to the building as "so unusual, so bizarre and so futuristic... certainly Spokane has seen nothing like it before". Fortunately for Spokane, the interior proved to be much richer, filled with art-deco detailing from top to bottom designed by Anthony Heinsbergen, most famous for his work in the Paramount Theater in Oakland, California. The Fox was the first motion picture theater built by a major motion picture company in Spokane. The theater featured many of Fox's studio films as wells as guest appearances by directors themselves, such as George Arliss in 1933. During WWII, the iconic Fox sign towering above the building went dark from 1942-1957. As more movie theaters began to pop up in the city, the Fox Theater began to decline in popularity, and it's old age began to show such as in 1978 when the theater full of school boys had to be evacuated due to smoke caused by faulty wiring. In 2001 the theater was added to the Spokane Historic Register, and underwent a huge restoration. In 2007, the Fox Theater reopened its doors as the Martin Woldson Theater at the Fox, and is now the home of the Spokane Symphony.
For more information on the Martin Woldson Theater at the Fox and for information on events held there, please visit their website: http://www.foxtheaterspokane.org/
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