Quonset Hut Theatres
Nortown Theatre – Chicago Heights, IL
Theatre construction in the late 1930’s and early 40’s slowed as a result of the Great Depression and World War II. But after the war exhibitors were looking for ways to boost construction and to build theatres in new areas around the country. To do this they looked to a structure that first debuted during the war, the Quonset Hut. This was a half-domed prefabricated structure made of corrugated steel that was named after the Quonset Point Naval Air Station on Rhode Island’s Narragansett Bay where it was first designed in early 1941.
Nortown Theatre – Chicago Heights, IL
After WWII theatre architects began to look at adapting this structure to theatre construction for several reasons; building permits for traditional building material were hard to come by, but more importantly this was a very cost effective method of building theatres and it could be done very quickly. Conventional theatres at the time cost on average $200-$250 per seat. Quonset Hut theatres were advertised as low as $47 per seat (though sources say that costs rarely if ever came in that low), so the savings were significant.
Fox – Sidney, NE (photo by William Ikert)
Heating and cooling were also lower than conventional theatres and the shape of the Quonset Hut provided very good acoustics. The savings on construction and operating costs allowed for this type of theatre to be built in smaller communities whose theatre going population could not previously justify a traditional 4-walled theatre.
From the 1947-48 Theatre Catalog
The first Quonset Hut theatre was the Gaiety in Inlet, NY which opened in 1946 and operated until 2012. This type of theatre construction had a relatively short life. An article in an issue of Physical Theatre from 1968 suggested that it was a stopgap design before construction of traditional theatres picked up again. The Quonset Hut represents an important link in the evolution of theatre design. It can be interpreted as a step away from the extravagance of the movie palace to a cleaner, more modern theatre akin to the designs of Ben Schlanger.
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