Urbana – Gloria Theatre

Historic Theaters
CASE Studies

Current Name of Theater: The Gloria Theatre
Current Type: cinema
Seats: 600
Website: http://www.gloriatheatre.com/
Historic Names of Theater: Clifford Theatre, Urbana Cinemas
Address: 216 S. Main Street, Urbana, OH 43078
Contact:
Email: admin@grandworks.com
Year Built/Style: December 25, 1941
Original Architect:
Original Cost:
Listed on National Register:
History of Theater: Opened as the Clifford Theatre in 1905, it was destroyed by fire and rebuilt in 1941, opening as the Gloria Theatre on December 25, 1941. The theatre was built by Warren Grimes, the owner of Urbana-based Grimes Manufacturing Company. It was named for Mr. Grimes’ daughter, Gloria. It has always been operated, to my knowledge, as a Chakeres theatre. A unique feature of the Gloria Theatre was “Grimes Booth.” This was a private viewing room on the second floor of the theatre that was reserved for the Grimes family.
The building reflected the architecture of the 1940’s, with rounded corners, indirect lighting, and sweeping, Art-Deco style lines. It had an outer lobby and a huge inner lobby, in which new automobiles were often displayed. The auditorium was quite large for a small-town theater. It probably contained about 600 seats. There was no balcony. The Gloria Theatre was twined on December 25, 1968 and renamed the Urbana Cinemas. It was still in operation as a Chakeres Theatre.
Cost of Rehabilitation:
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Renovation Story: The theatre was ‘temporarily closed’ for renovations in April 2010. It was reopened in October 2015 with “Ghostbusters”.
Urbana’s historic theater was originally constructed in 1904 by famous vaudeville actor and Urbana native Billy “Single” Clifford. The theater cost approximately $80,000 to build – the modern-day equivalent of over $2 million – and was the first theater in Ohio with a street-level entrance. The Clifford Theater opened on October 18, 1904.
In the early morning hours of May 12, 1918, the Clifford Theater caught fire. The damage was extensive: the fly-space above the stage and third floor of the building were both completely destroyed and much of the first and second floors sustained significant damage.
Billy Clifford lost his fortune in the fire. With no money to fix the damage, the building fell into disrepair in the 1920s and 1930s.
It was around this time that Urbana-based Grimes Manufacturing was rapidly expanding. The company’s founder, Warren Grimes, was known for his philanthropic endeavors and in 1941 purchased the theater. At a cost of $100,000 (around $2 million in today’s dollars), he coordinated a complete renovation of the theater. He reopened the theater on Christmas Day 1941 – as a Christmas “gift to our community” – and named it “Gloria” for his youngest daughter.
In 1966, Grimes sold the Gloria Theatre to Chakeres Cinemas, a theater operator based in nearby Springfield. The single auditorium was converted into the “Twin Cinemas” in 1977 to allow the theater to show two separate shows simultaneously.
As technology began to evolve, it became harder for smaller theater chains to make the investment to upgrade their 35mm projectors to the new standard of digital projection. In the earlier years, a digital projector could cost up to $150,000 and required expensive auxiliary equipment for operation. Chakeres closed the Urbana Twin Cinema in 2013 and put the building up for sale.
The Urbana United Methodist Church purchased the building in 2014 and formed the GrandWorks Foundation to operate the theater on its behalf. The theater was renamed “Gloria” to honor the Grimes legacy and with hope that the theater will again be a gift to our community just as it was 75 years ago.