Built 1905 Opened 1905 | NRHP Reference # 08000898 Added to NRHP 12 September 2008 | |
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Similar Colonial Theater, Ski Butternut, The Berkshires, Jacob's Pillow Dance, Monument Mountain | ||
The Mahaiwe Block is a commercial building in the heart of downtown Great Barrington, Massachusetts. In addition to smaller business, it houses the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, the town's only major performance space. It has been in virtually continuous operation since its construction in 1905. The building is located at 6-14 Castle St. and 314-322 Main St, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The building's condition and fate in the 1990s were a major contributing factor in the establishment of local preservation ordinances. The building takes its name from an earlier structure on the site, which its owner called "Mahaiwe House".
History
The Performance Center opened in September 1905 as a vaudeville house, it became a movie theater in the mid 1920s. The last company that showed first run films there, the Hoyts Theater chain, sold it to the Berkshire Opera Company and today shows classic films.