The Saenger brothers of Shreveport, Louisiana, developed this brick and limestone theater (one of the first buildings in town with air-conditioning) for live performances and movies. It includes a proscenium and a stage with fly loft, one thousand raked seats, balconies, and an orchestra pit. Outside is a flat wraparound canopy and an exuberant lighted Saenger sign. Weil’s lavish interior decor combines Mayan motifs with Colonial Revival and Spanish Baroque. Ceiling stencilwork and the pipe organ built by the Robert Morton Company have been restored. A product of the Jim Crow era, the theater originally included separate access, seating, and toilets for black and white theatergoers. At the urging of black citizens, the separate entrance to the balcony on the west side has been bricked in. Weil designed Saenger theaters in Biloxi, Mobile, and many other southern cities.
Facing the theater at 200 Forrest is the Hattiesburg City Hall (1923, Robert E. Lee), a cubical Classical Revival building with a portico of paired Ionic columns. At 215 Forrest, the concrete frame, brick, cast stone, and terra-cotta former Forrest Hotel (1929, George D. Barnett) rises nine stories and displays Art Deco ornamentation. Beginning in 1926, more than 350 local investors bought stock to build the 150-room hotel, which, with its spacious lobby, coffee shop, banquet hall, and clubrooms, was designed to attract large conventions.