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Roxy Theatre
Major Alterations and Additions
HABS No. UT-102, page
2, Library of Congress
The southern half of the Roxy Theatre site was originally occupied by
Rosenbaum Hall. This early Brigham City landmark served as an assembly
hall, school, and religious meeting place quite early in Brigham City's
history. (It appears on the earliest Sanborn Map, produced in 1884.) In
1897, the hall was purchased by the Fishburn family, who by 1890 had apparently
reinforced the original adobe structure with stone. They operated the building
as a dry goods store.
In 1904, the Fishburns undertook a major remodeling of their store. They
built a one-story brick addition onto the north side of the old two-story
hall, filling in the space between the hall and the Compton building, which
had been built in 1900. They also made a two-story brick addition
on the south side of the old Hall, which served as a fruit packing plant. Although
it appears that the original Rosenbaum building was also substantially
rebuilt in brick at this time, evidence (in the form of an affidavit) still
exists
that at least part of the wall and foundation of the old Rosenbaum Hall
was left intact, and that it still stands at the time of this writing (November
1980). The 1907 Sanborn map indicates that the Fishburn buildings
in all had 70 feet of frontage on Main Street and were uniformly about
80 feet
deep.
The next major alteration in the structure appears to have been made about
1930. Apparently, the roof on the Rosenbaum Hall portion of the structure
was raised to make one continuous second-story roof over all of what is
now the Roxy Theatre. The building was also extended about 25 feet farther
westward (see sketch). It continued operation as the Fishburn store only
for about a year after this, for in 1931, it was purchased with the intention
of converting it into a movie theatre. Due to lack of funds for remodeling,
it was again sold in 1932. These new owners completed the theatre conversion,
bricking in the buildings' windows and removing the wall between the old
assembly hall and the northern addition. The New Grand Theatre opened on
Christmas day 1932, showing Marlene Deitrich in "Blonde Venus".
In 1936, the theatre underwent a change of management. The new operators
brought the "Roxy" marquee down from Logan and renamed the theatre
accordingly. Another major remodeling took place in 1949. Most of the Art
Deco facade was added at this time. Little appears to have changed since
then.
The southern portion of the Fishburn operation, which was never a part
of the theatre, eventually became a bank. This building was extended westward
about ten feet to accommodate a new vault in about the early 1950's. More
recently, it has been a stereo equipment store. Like the theatre, it is
scheduled for demolition in December 1980. However, due to considerable
alteration of this building in recent years, it has already lost much of
the historical significance still attached to the Roxy Theatre, and is,
therefore, not described in detail.
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