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Dillon pretzinger
The Pretzinger name belongs to a family of architects and engineers in Dayton, Ohio. Albert Pretzinger (born February 28, 1863) started the family's architectural legacy.
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In 1892 he was with Peters, Burns & Pretzinger. He established his own firm Albert Pretzinger Architect by 1906. He was part of Pretzinger & Musselman in 1913 and Pretzinger & Pretzinger in 1928. The firm became Freeman A. Pretzinger Architect in 1941 before switching to Pretzinger and Pretzinger by 1962, and Pretzinger and Pretzinger Architects and Engineers in 1968. In 1980 the firm became Robert B. Pretzinger, Consulting Engineer, changing in 1982 to Pretzinger and Klenke, Inc. Consulting Engineers. After Thomas Klenke retired in the mid-1990s, the firm's name reverted to Robert B. Pretzinger, Consulting Engineer. The firm closed in 2010 with the death of Robert Pretzinger.
Dillon Pretzinger 2010
Colonial Theater, Dayton
Albert Pretzinger's work included the Colonial Theater (later the RKO Colonial Theatre) on Ludlow Street. It featured premium reserve balcony seating, twenty individual dressing rooms, and two chorus rooms. Showings changed from vaudeville to movies, and then western movies and burlesque shows as management sought to capture a profitable audience. The 1,800 seat theater hosted Dayton's first "talkies" on September 22, 1928 with showings of Lights of New York bringing in the throngs. The theater had its own chorus, the Colonialettes, and a band during its prime, and acts who took the stage included the Three Stooges, Jimmy Durante, and Ozzie & Harriet.
In 1930, the Colonial became part of RKO and started showing second-run and B movies. By 1964 the theater was sold to St. John's Lutheran Church and was demolished to build a new church.
Records from the Pretzinger firms were donated to Wright State University by Robert Pretzinger in 1994.