Where High Street meets Congress in downtown Portland, Maine, the State Theatre fills the corner at 609 Congress Street. The building presents a striking mix of Moorish and Art Deco architecture, and inside it was conceived as a creative blend of Spanish, Italian, and Art Deco aesthetics. Designed by Portland architect Herbert W. Rhodes, the original house held 2,300 seats; lavish appointments included wrought iron stairs, bronze doors, tapestry rugs hung from vaulted ceilings decorated with intricate moldings and paintings, four Spanish balconies, and even a Wurlitzer organ.
It was technologically advanced for its time, using three projectors and a magniscope to give audiences an enormous, quality picture. The State’s doors first opened on November 8, 1929, to 2,200 invited patrons for Gloria... and the building itself replaced the Charles Libby Mansion on this corner.
After a life as a movie palace and more, it reopened in 2010 as a 1,870-seat performing arts venue, carrying forward that old ambition to lavish the senses. Notice the street outside, then the vaulted ceilings and the intricate moldings and paintings inside that still reward a close eye.