{"nrhp_refnum":"82001532","name":"Colonial Theatre","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"3rd and Market Sts.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Harrisburg","county":"Dauphin County","state":"PA","lat":40.26061159600005,"lon":-76.88071012599994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1982-11-09","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Commerce","Entertainment/Recreation","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A five-story brick and wood frame former hotel and theatre building with a rear auditorium addition, located at the southwest corner of Third and Market Streets in downtown Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The original building dates to about 1836 and was converted to a hotel/movie and vaudeville theatre in 1912.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the building is significant for its role in the entertainment and social history of Harrisburg and as a prominent political gathering place as the Lochiel Hotel in the nineteenth century. Its 1912 auditorium interior, with its stage-set Italian Renaissance decorative plaster, is presented as characteristic of early twentieth-century American theatres and as the last grand theatre of its kind in the city.","narrative":"Built about 1836 as the Wilson Hotel on the southwest corner of Third and Market Streets in Harrisburg, the building was later renamed the Herr Hotel and then the Lochiel Hotel, when it became a political gathering place in the latter half of the nineteenth century. In 1912 its rear section was demolished and replaced with a theatre auditorium, and the building opened as the Colonial Theatre on November 4, 1912, under the Wilmer & Vincent Theatre Co. The auditorium retains much of its 1912 interior, with decorative plaster in a stage-set Italian Renaissance style, boxes flanking the walls, and plaster nymphs above a central arch. The seating once held about 1,000 people across the orchestra and balcony. The theatre is regarded as the last legitimate theatre of its kind in Harrisburg, and its interior is seen as an example of early twentieth-century efforts to apply European opera house design to vaudeville and motion picture venues. The theatre closed in December 1976.","period_of_significance":"1836-1912","architect_builder":"Cla Flin, of Detroit (1912 theatre work); Matthew Wilson (original construction about 1836)","architectural_style":"Greek Revival (original design); Italian Renaissance-style interior decoration in the auditorium","criteria":[],"status_note":"The structure has been vacant for five years, the exterior is in poor condition, and the interior is in poor condition from water and fire damage.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:32.201196-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/82001532.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82001532/72acdee647-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82001532/72acdee647-1600.webp","licence":"CC0","author":"Penndyl","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Colonial_Theatre_Harrisburg_PA_April_2024.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Penndyl</a>, <a href=\"http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Colonial_Theatre_Harrisburg_PA_April_2024.jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"76001632","name":"Harrisburg Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/pennsylvania/harrisburg-historic-district-76001632/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71995801","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_Theatre_(Harrisburg,_Pennsylvania)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5148392"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/dauphin-county/colonial-theatre-82001532/"}