Arlington Theater - Santa Barbara, CA
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Metro2
N 34° 25.482 W 119° 42.380
11S E 251293 N 3812569
The Arlington Theater, located at 1317 State Street, was built in 1931.
Waymark Code: WMJXM4
Location: California, United States
Date Posted: 01/12/2014
Views: 5
Wikipedia (
visit link) informs us:
"The Arlington Theater is the largest movie theater and principal performing arts venue in Santa Barbara, California, USA. In addition to regular screenings and artists, it is home to many events associated with the annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival.
History
Located at 1317 State Street, the Arlington was built in 1931 on the former site of the Arlington Hotel, which was destroyed following the 1925 earthquake. The current structure was erected in 1930 as a showcase movie house for Fox West Coast Theaters. It was restored and expanded in the mid-1970s by Metropolitan Theaters Corporation. It opened in its current incarnation in 1976.
Architecture
The Arlington was designed in the Mission Revival and Spanish Colonial Revival styles in a period when Santa Barbara was being rebuilt in that style following a powerful earthquake in 1925. The exterior has a Mission Revival steeple that ends in an art deco finial.
The red tiled building features a covered courtyard with fountain and a free-standing ticket booth.
The interior is elaborately decorated. The ceilings of the lobbies are heavily beamed and painted. The auditorium itself seats 2,000 on the main floor and balcony. It is built to give the theatergoer the impression that he is sitting outside in the plaza of a colonial Spanish town, each wall features houses, staircases, and balconies, not painted on but built out from the walls. The proscenium, in the original theater, was formed by what appeared to be a large stone arc, through which could be seen a river and hills (these were painted on the curtain.) Today, this effect is gone, and the proscenium is topped by the equipment necessary for lighting stage shows. The original ceiling remains to give patrons the impression that they are sitting outdoors under the stars.
One of the Arlington's signature features is a Robert Morton pipe organ hidden from view, that rises on a platform into view when played before a performance.
The Arlington Theatre was designed by the Santa Barbara architectural firm of Edwards and Plunkett."