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Texas: Central, South, and Gulf Coast » Gulf Coast » Tomball to Montgomery » Conroe (Montgomery County) » Crighton Theater

Crighton Theater

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1935, Blum E. Hester. 220 N. Main St.
  • (Photograph by Gerald Moorhead )

The Crighton Theater, which today is Conroe's performing arts center, is, along with the courthouse, Conroe's architectural monument to the oil boom era of the 1930s. Hester, who practiced briefly in Conroe before moving to Houston, used fossilized limestone to face the upper walls, contrasting its pitted texture with the smoothness of cream limestone pilasters, window frames, and a foliated frieze. The flattened window frames and the steel-sash casement windows are redolent of the 1930s, although Hester's Italian Renaissance architectural theme was more characteristic of the 1920s. Harry M. Crighton, a Conroe druggist who invested in oil exploration, built the Crighton to present films and live performances. In 1979, after being closed for more than a decade, the theater reopened following a restoration by Harry Devlin.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Gerald Moorhead et al.
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Data

What's Nearby

Montgomery County Courthouse
First National Bank Building
Conroe City Hall (First National Bank Building)
Sam Houston Elementary School
Conroe Funeral Home (St. James Episcopal Church)

Citation

Gerald Moorhead et al., "Crighton Theater", [Conroe, Texas], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/TX-01-TM16.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of Texas

Buildings of Texas: Central, South, and Gulf Coast, Gerald Moorhead and contributors. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2013, 376-376.

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