Rialto Theater
Three Rivers, Live Oak County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This theater traces its roots to the developmental years of Three Rivers. From 1913 to the mid-1920s, movies were shown in tents. By the 1930s, Beeville Theater owners W.S. and J.S. Hall Jr. built a one-story movie house near the railroad tracks. It served until 1948 when the halls built this theater designed by renowned Dallas Architect Jack Corgan. The streamline moderne theater featured air conditioning, restrooms and a balcony. The theater closed in 1981. In 2000, the economic development corporation of Three Rivers restored the building. Equipped with advanced digital projectors, it reopened in 2001. RECORDED TEXAS HISTORIC LANDMARK – 2016
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Movies came to Three Rivers first under canvas tents, from 1913 into the mid-1920s, before Beeville theater owners W.S. and J.S. Hall Jr. built a modest movie house by the railroad tracks. In 1948 they replaced it with this streamline moderne theater by noted Dallas architect Jack Corgan, complete with air conditioning and a balcony. Closed in 1981, the Rialto was restored by the city's economic development corporation and reopened in 2001.
Why it matters
The Rialto traces the small-town movie palace from tent shows to sleek moderne glamour to civic revival, mirroring the changing place of the cinema in American town life.
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Related people
- · Jack Corgan
- · W.S. Hall
- · J.S. Hall Jr.
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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