Paramount Theatre

Middletown, United States

Open to visitors

The interior is normally open, possibly ticketed.

Strollie cannot guarantee access — always check before you travel.

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Located at 17 South Street in Middletown, New York, the Paramount Theatre is a 1930 Art Deco movie palace designed by the renowned firm Rapp and Rapp. Built by Paramount-Publix Corporation and opened on June 12, 1930, with a gala celebration featuring the Paramount Symphony Orchestra and the feature film *The Big Pond* starring Maurice Chevalier, it was designed as a twin to the Paramount Theater in Peekskill across the Hudson River. The theater was sold following the 1948 Supreme Court decision requiring studios to divest their theater chains, and after decades of changing ownership and closure, the Arts Council of Orange County acquired and renovated it in 1981, reopening it in 1985 as a performing arts center with an expanded stage and new dressing room facilities. The venue now hosts a diverse program of theatrical performances, concerts, lectures, and film screenings, and houses a Wurlitzer organ installed from the Clairidge Theater in Montclair, New Jersey. The Paramount was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.