Morris Performing Arts Center

Morris Performing Arts Center

Front of the center
Former names	Palace Theatre Morris Civic Auditorium
Address	211 N. Michigan St. South Bend, Indiana United States
Owner	City of South Bend
Operator	Morris Entertainment, Inc.
Type	Vaudeville house
Capacity	2,564
Current use	Performing arts center
Construction
Opened	1922
Reopened	March 3, 2000
Website
www.morriscenter.org
Palace Theatre
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Show map of Indiana Show map of the United States
Coordinates	41°40′42″N 86°15′2″W / 41.67833°N 86.25056°W / 41.67833; -86.25056
Area	Less than 1 acre (0.40 ha)
Architect	J.S. Aroner; Ralph Sollitt Co.
Architectural style	Spanish Renaissance Revival
MPS	Downtown South Bend Historic MRA
NRHP reference No.	85001226[1]
Added to NRHP	June 5, 1985

Morris Performing Arts Center (originally Palace Theatre and formerly Morris Civic Auditorium) is a 2,564-seat concert hall located in South Bend, Indiana. It opened in 1922 as a vaudeville house and later became a movie palace. It was developed along with the neighboring Palais Royale Building by the Palace Theater Corporation. It is a four- to five-story, rectangular, Spanish Renaissance Revival style brick building with finely crafted terra cotta ornamentation. It was planned for demolition in 1959 but was saved from demolition, and between 1998 and 2000, it was restored and remodeled.^[2]: 51

Morris Performing Arts Center's interior has a rose, blue and cream color scheme, as when it opened. The theater stage measures 56 feet by 57 feet and contains a red and gold main curtain dating from the 2000 restoration. The theater is home to the South Bend Symphony Orchestra and hosts Broadway shows, concerts, and other special events, including Marian High School's annual commencement ceremony. The theater's interior borrowed from European architectural styles.^[3] More than half of the seats at the center, 1,282, are in the balcony, with the remainder in the lower level.

In 1985, the center was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It qualified for historic designation because of its place in the region's history and because of its historically significant architecture.^[1]

In 2022, the theater celebrated its 100th year, and on November 2 of that year, a documentary commemorating the anneversary aired on the local PBS affiliate, WNIT-TV.^[4]

References

This page was last edited on 27 November 2023, at 21:29