Plaza Theater (Tucson)

The Plaza Theater was the crowning jewel of 1920s development on West Congress Street in Tucson and the only indoor Spanish language theater in Southern Arizona. The theater was designed by renowned local Tucson architect Roy Place in 1930 for A. Kaufman a local commercial developer and pioneer merchant and leased to Los Angeles theater operator Joe Gross. Kaufman declared the night before opening that he; "regarded the Plaza as Tucson's own theater, since all local employes [sic] had been hired for the construction of the building with equipment and contracting coming from Tucson sources whenever possible." Built on the corner of West Congress and Plaza Streets (later Court Avenue) the exterior was constructed in a Spanish Revival style with cast ornamental details framing the upper windows and red clay barrel roof tiles. The ground floor included two commercial storefronts. By the 1940s the original marquee had been enlarged and the lower level window and door configuration changed. The decorative cast terracotta Spanish revival details and original neon sign remained intact. The interior decorations were described at the time of opening as "being typical of the old southwest motif. The auditorium will have seating capacity of 650 and will be modern in every respect with ample heating, ventilating and cooling systems. Acoustic plastering will be used throughout and is de

Venue data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).