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State Theater

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1896, Hazelhurst and Huckel; 1925, William H. Lee. 453 Northampton St.

Easton once had many theaters and vaudeville houses, but only the State Theater remains. Its oldest section, on Northampton Street, is a fragment of an 1896 bank building that, except for the facade, was demolished in 1910 to make way for the 500-seat Neumeyer Theater, a vaudeville house that also featured a movie screen. The Neumeyer was demolished in turn in 1925 and replaced with the $400,000, 1,950-seat State Theater; once again the bank facade was retained. Like other buildings from the movie theater's golden age, the interior of the State was an exotic architectural fantasy, an attempt to re-create “an atmosphere of Old Spain after the Davanzanti [ sic] Palace in Florence,” as Philadelphia architect Lee explained. After years of neglect, a 1990 renovation returned the State to its original glory.

Writing Credits

Author: 
George E. Thomas
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Data

What's Nearby

Rock Church (Zion Lutheran Church)
Northampton National Bank
Center Square
First United Church of Christ (First Reformed Church)
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Citation

George E. Thomas, "State Theater", [Easton, Pennsylvania], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/PA-02-NO7.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of PA vol 2

Buildings of Pennsylvania: Philadelphia and Eastern Pennsylvania, George E. Thomas, with Patricia Likos Ricci, Richard J. Webster, Lawrence M. Newman, Robert Janosov, and Bruce Thomas. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2012, 266-266.

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