{"nrhp_refnum":"79000348","name":"Sanderson, Julia, Theater","other_names":["Paramount Theater"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"1676-1708 Main St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Springfield","county":"Hampden County","state":"MA","lat":42.10402551200008,"lon":-72.59505869899994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1979-05-10","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Commerce","Architecture","Performing Arts"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A four-story tan brick and limestone Classical Revival commercial and theater building at the southwest corner of Main and Gridiron Streets in downtown Springfield, Massachusetts. The office and hotel sections date from 1912, and the 3,200-seat theater was built in 1926-29.","why_significant":"The nomination argues it was home to two local landmark institutions, the Massasoit Hotel and the Paramount Theater, both prominent in the city's social and cultural life. It is also a fine example of an early twentieth century Classical Revival commercial building. The theater was noted for its lavish decoration and for innovative systems used for the first time in the city and region.","narrative":"Julia Sanderson Theater, originally the Paramount, is a four-story tan brick building with limestone trim in the Classical Revival style, standing at Main and Gridiron Streets in downtown Springfield. Its office and hotel sections went up in 1912 on the site of the Massasoit House, after a record-setting real estate sale. The Massasoit Hotel occupied the upper floors until 1926. A 3,200-seat theater was then built behind the commercial block between 1926 and 1929 for a chain of deluxe movie houses, at a cost of $1,118,000. It was the first theater in the region designed for sound pictures and introduced an air cooling system, a rising organ platform, remote lighting controls and a balcony carried by a 100-foot steel beam. Hollywood films, vaudeville and big band concerts played there. It was renamed in 1975 for Springfield-born performer Julia Sanderson. The building was listed for its role in the city's cultural life and its architecture.","period_of_significance":"1900- (specific dates 1912, 1926-1929)","architect_builder":"Ernest F. Carlson (builder, 1926); theater designed by A. W. Johnson of New York","architectural_style":"Classical Revival","criteria":[],"status_note":"Marked occupied on the form; the theater entrance is boarded, the interior has been renovated several times but retains much decoration, and reopening for community use was under discussion.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:53.744848-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/39/7953/63795339/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/79000348.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/79000348/ad484741d2-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/79000348/ad484741d2-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"John Phelan","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Hippodrome,_Springfield_MA.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">John Phelan</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:The_Hippodrome,_Springfield_MA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63795339","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paramount_Theater_(Springfield,_Massachusetts)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6306712"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/hampden-county/sanderson-julia-theater-79000348/"}