Hotel first, theater later: the Colonial Theatre, also known as the Lochiel Hotel, is the five-story brick front you see here in Harrisburg, Dauphin County. The building presents a five-story brick-and-frame front section and, behind it, a rear brick-and-frame auditorium. Its story begins about 1836, when the original Colonial was built as a hotel in the Greek Revival style and featured a four-columned portico on the Market Street entrance.
Over time the structure was modified: in the 1870s a mansard roof was added, and in 1912 the rear auditorium was constructed when the building was converted from a hotel into a combined hotel and movie and vaudeville theater. Inside, the lobby was remodeled in the 1930s and 1940s in an Art Deco manner, while the auditorium preserves Italian Renaissance style detailing. The theater and hotel closed in 1976, after which the building was repurposed for offices and shops.
The site was recognized for its layered history and architecture when it was added to the National Register of Historic Places on November 9, 1982. Notice the layered facades: the mansard roof, the five-story brick front, the Market Street portico and the auditorium extending behind.