Moore Theatre

Moore Theatre is a 1,419-seat performing arts venue located at the corner of 2nd Avenue and Virginia Street, two blocks from Pike Place Market in Seattle, Washington. It is the oldest still-active theater in Seattle. The Moore hosts a mix of theatrical productions, musical concerts of many varieties, and lectures. It is currently operated by the Seattle Theatre Group, which also runs the 2,803-seat Paramount Theatre and the Neptune Theater.

History

Built for Seattle real estate developer James A. Moore in 1907 and designed by E. W. Houghton, the Moore was a lavish social venue for the Gilded Age elite of early 20th-century Seattle. The Moore Theatre and the adjoining Moore Hotel were designed partly to accommodate and entertain tourists visiting the 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition; the Moore opened in time for the originally planned date of the Exposition in 1907.

The theater was initially operated by John Cort, later founder of a major Broadway theatre venue in New York. Excellent programming carried the Moore through the 1930s, but changes in entertainment gradually led to struggling to survive by the 1970s.