Promised Valley Playhouse

The Orpheum Theater opened as a 900 seat vaudeville venue on Christmas day 1905. It was designed in renaissance revival by C.N. Neuhausen. In 1912, it was converted to a movie theater and was passed from owner to owner, eventually having no less than seven names: Casino Theater, Wilkes Theatre, Playhouse Theatre, Roxy Theatre, Lake Theatre and Lyric Theater. The LDS church purchased the building in 1972 renaming it Promised Valley Playhouse (the name most people know) and using it for stage shows.

In 1996 the building was closed due to structural problems that were too costly to repair. The city had hoped to buy the property, but restoration simply proved to be too costly, ($2 million for seismic upgrade and $30 million for full restoration), and plans were made to demolish the building.

This is a rare case where I believe the decision to gut the building and save the facade and lobby, an operation often called "facadomy", or fa-saudomy" was actually a good decision. While we lost the theater itself, some magnificent built-ins and casework, this solution at least preserved the presence of the building and was done in a fairly tasteful manner. In 2002, the structure began leasing and now houses Alphagraphics' corporate headquarters. The image shows the building gutted and undergoing construction. I still need to take a photo of the finished product.

Utah Theaters.info. & Cinema Treasures.org were primary sources.