{"nrhp_refnum":"03000770","name":"Rig Theater","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"213-215 E. Hendricks Blvd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Wink","county":"Winkler County","state":"TX","lat":31.75577223600004,"lon":-103.14644844499998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2003-08-14","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Entertainment/Recreation","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-story, two-part commercial block movie theater at 213-215 E. Hendricks Blvd in downtown Wink, Winkler County, Texas, built in 1928 by the Griffith Amusement Company and faced in polychromatic brick.","why_significant":"It is a good local example of a Commercial Style movie theater with distinctive geometric brickwork and a crowned parapet, and the most elaborate commercial building in Wink. It was also an important local entertainment venue, and a place where Roy Orbison attended shows and performed as a young musician.","narrative":"Built in 1928 during the west Texas oil boom, this two-story brick building on Hendricks Boulevard in Wink housed an 850-seat theater, ground-floor shops and upstairs offices. Griffith Amusement Company of Oklahoma City built it, and the name refers to the oil rigs common in the region; the marquee once carried a miniature rig. The front wall uses polychromatic brick in diamonds, checkerboards and zigzags, topped by a parapet with two masonry crowns. It was the first permanent masonry structure among Wink's hastily built wooden commercial buildings. The theater showed films, staged live acts and ran prize drawings that led to a 1936 lawsuit. Roy Orbison attended and performed there, and graffiti he and friends left in 1951 was later preserved. Converted to a variety store in the late 1950s, the building is now empty and its interior is deteriorated, though the brick facade and parapet remain largely intact.","period_of_significance":"1928-1953","architect_builder":"Griffith Amusement Co.","architectural_style":"Late 19th and Early 20th Century American Movements: Commercial Style","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Currently unoccupied and deteriorated; a rehabilitation is planned to restore the marquee and exterior features and to house the Roy Orbison Museum.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:23.044752-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/19/9740/40974019/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_TX/03000770.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/03000770/36d68e832c-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/03000770/36d68e832c-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Whole is One","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rig_Theater,_Wink_Texas.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Whole is One</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rig_Theater,_Wink_Texas.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/40974019","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q42304457"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/texas/winkler-county/rig-theater-03000770/"}