Seville Theatre

The story

Written by AI from this property's National Register nomination and the record above; every sentence is checked against its sources before it appears here. Corrections: privacy@treealive.com

The Seville Theatre is a theater building at 822-826 W. Lancaster Ave. in Lower Merion Township, Montgomery County, built in 1926 in the Beaux Arts style. William H. Lee was its architect.

Why it's listed

It was listed in the National Register in 2005 under criterion C and Criteria Consideration G, with local-level significance in architecture; the nomination gives its period of significance as 1926 to 1955, reflecting its construction in 1926.

Physical character

The building has a structural steel frame, brick walls, and a foundation of poured concrete and stone, under an asphalt shingle roof. The facade carries cast stone ornamentation, half-relief sculptural eagles, and a bronze storefront system, plus a marble base, a ticket booth, and a back-lit marquee, replaced around the 1950s and around 1978. Inside, the auditorium had a plaster groin-vault ceiling, a vaulted glass skylight and roof monitor, doric pilasters, and a terrazzo floor; in 1978 it was divided into two theaters.

Historical context

The theater opened in 1926 and operated as a single movie theater until 1978. The Bryn Mawr Film Institute, formed in 2002, bought it in 2004. At the time of its listing, the building held a theater, a specialty store and professional offices, with part of it vacant.