Site of Majestic Theatre

Fort Worth had two Majestics. Cinema Treasures says the Commerce Street house, designed by John Eberson, opened on November 28, 1911, and a commenter adds that the 1905 Majestic was then renamed the Savoy. RKO took over the theater in May 1930, and Paramount, through Hoblitzelle and O'Donnell, refurbished and reopened it on May 24, 1940. The theater closed in 1953. The site's text says it was demolished in 1970, while one commenter says 1966, either way for the convention center blocks that replaced it.

What the plaque says

Site of Majestic Theatre At the turn of the century Ft. Worth's live entertainment consisted chiefly of saloon, dance hall, church, and school presentations. Matters changed in 1905 when Karl Hoblitzelle founded the Interstate Amusement Company and chose Ft. Worth for its Southwest Vaudeville Theater Circuit. One of Interstate's famous "Atmospheric" Majestic Theaters was built at Tenth and Commerce streets (one block south) in 1910-11. The Majestic's lavish interior included Turkish rugs, French doors and mirrors, plush Spanish leather upholstery and a lobby with marble floors, hand-painted walls, and 18 karat gold leaf ceilings. The 1,356-seat theater reportedly contained the country's first indirect stage lighting system and the country's largest concrete arch, an 80-foot balcony support beam. Performers on Ft. Worth's Majestic stage included Will Rogers, Walter Huston, Tallulah Bankhead, and Fred Allen. The Theater added feature movies to its vaudeville program in 1922 and in 1932 discontinued its vaudeville presentations. Thereafter strictly a motion picture theater the Majestic fell on hard times and closed in 1953. Despite efforts to restore it, the Majestic was razed in 1970 to make room for the new Tarrant County Convention Center. (1993)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Tarrant County Courthouse — 0.5 mi
  A pink-granite courthouse of 1895 on the bluff where the Army set up Fort Worth in 1849, in a county named for the man who led the 1841 attack on the Native villages of Village Creek.
• Kimbell Art Museum — 2.1 mi
  Louis Kahn's cycloid-vaulted museum of 1972, built from Kay Kimbell's bequest and joined in 2013 by Renzo Piano's pavilion for the exhibitions the Kahn galleries could not hold.
• National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame — 2.4 mi
  A hall of fame begun in Hereford in 1975 to honor rodeo women, widened in 1977 to Western heritage, and housed in Fort Worth's Cultural District since 2002.
• Fort Worth Stockyards — 2.8 mi
  The brick-street cattle market where Armour and Swift built packing plants in 1902, now a National Register district with a Coliseum, a museum and a longhorn drive twice a day.

More markers nearby

• General William Jenkins Worth (1794-1849) — steps away
• Ephraim Merrill Daggett — steps away
• Shelton Building — steps away
• Winfield Garage — steps away