At 220 Weybosset Street in downtown Providence, your Providence Performing Arts Center once opened as Loew's State Theatre. Known to generations as Loew's State Theatre and later the Palace Concert Theater, this multi-use not-for-profit theater was built in 1928 as a movie palace for the Loews Theatres chain to designs by Rapp & Rapp — George and C. W. Rapp, the era's leading designers of music palaces. Inside are 3,100 seats; today it hosts touring Broadway shows, concerts, plays and films.
The first film shown here was Excess Baggage, starring William Haines. For the opening more than 14,000 people jammed the building, not just to see the picture but to marvel at the opulent chandeliers, the marble columns, and the detailed moldings on the walls. The theater also played host to notable premieres, including the first 3-D feature film, Bwana Devil.
In 1977 the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places under the name Loew's State Theatre, a formal recognition of the architecture you see around you. Listen to the hush of the lobby, then notice the chandeliers, marble columns, and ornate moldings that framed those first crowds.