The Coliseum Theater lit up at night after a heavy snowfall, February 1916, with snow piled along Pike Street

About the Coliseum

Seattle’s first movie palace

The Coliseum opened at Fifth and Pike on January 8, 1916, built for a new art form: the movies. A century later the Conru Art Foundation has opened it again, free, for art and light.

Read the story Timeline Let There Be Light!

The Coliseum at 10 p.m. on February 2, 1916, a month after it opened, during Seattle’s Big Snow. The Seattle Public Library, Special Collections, public domain.

Opened: January 8, 1916
Architect: B. Marcus Priteca
Where: 500 Pike Street, at Fifth Avenue
Landmark: National Register, 1975 · Seattle Landmark, 1978
Today: The Coliseum of Art, free

1915

Built for the movies

In March 1915 the lumberman C. D. Stimson leased the northeast corner of Fifth and Pike to a new Coliseum Company, which set out to build a theater made only for the movies. Films were still called photoplays, and Seattle had never had a theater built just to show them.

Joseph Gottstein, a young developer, hired his friend B. Marcus Priteca, a Scottish-born Seattle architect in his mid-twenties who was already designing theaters for the vaudeville owner Alexander Pantages. Priteca drew a Renaissance palazzo faced in glazed white terra cotta. He went on to design Seattle’s Orpheum and Admiral theaters and the Hollywood Pantages.

The Coliseum was built by the Gottstein interests with the Greater Theatres Company of Claude Jensen and John von Herberg, who ran it in its first years.

B. Marcus Priteca’s 1915 longitudinal section drawing of the Coliseum Theater, showing the auditorium, balcony and screen — Priteca’s longitudinal section of the theater, 1915.B. Marcus Priteca · Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI 13266) · Public domain

January 8, 1916

Opening day

The Coliseum opened on Saturday, January 8, 1916, advertised as “the world’s largest and finest photoplay palace.” Thousands came on the first day, some waiting hours in a cold drizzle. A seat cost 15 cents, or 30 and 50 cents in the loge boxes.

The first feature was Cecil B. DeMille’s The Cheat. Silent films played to an orchestra of Russian musicians, said to be the best paid in the country, and a giant pipe organ. Songbirds in wicker cages hung through the hall, and on opening day they burst into song at the start of every number. The Hollywood actress Anita King dedicated the house, and a 236-pound fruitcake waited in the lobby.

A large crowd in hats and coats packed beneath the Coliseum’s arched entrance, about 1916 — Crowds at the entrance, about 1916.University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections (SEA0312) · Public domain

The Coliseum’s theater organ console with its rows of stop tabs and keyboards, about 1920 — The Coliseum’s organ, about 1920.Webster & Stevens · MOHAI (1323) · Public domain

1916 to the 1930s

A palace of light

The frieze spells the theater’s name in Roman letters, with a V for the U: COLISEVM. At night in the early years, hundreds of electric bulbs lit the name and the whole cornice, and the light glanced off the glazed terra cotta. By the 1970s the bulbs had long burned out.

For decades this was Seattle’s premier movie house. By 1928 it was also known as the United Artists Theatre. In 1931 an architecture journal called it “the first of the world’s movie palaces.”

The white terra cotta frieze of the Coliseum today, with COLISEVM carved in Roman letters between wreaths — COLISEVM in the frieze today.Coliseum of Art

The Coliseum’s corner entrance in 1928 with a marquee for the silent film Doomsday — The Coliseum in 1928, showing Doomsday with Florence Vidor and Gary Cooper.Walter P. Miller · MOHAI (8344) · Public domain

A colour poster for the Coliseum, June 1922: Katherine MacDonald in The Infidel — A Coliseum poster for The Infidel, June 1922.Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI 13571) · Public domain

1916 to 1990

Seventy-four years of movies

The Coliseum was remodeled after the 1949 earthquake and kept showing first-run films into the late 1970s. By the 1980s a single big screen downtown was losing out to suburban multiplexes.

The last picture, Tremors, played on March 11, 1990. The letters of the 1950s sign came down soon after; years later they turned up in the basement.

Tall orange neon-style letters spelling COLISEUM, from the theater’s 1950s sign, lit up on display — Letters from the Coliseum’s 1950s sign, on show at RailSpur in Pioneer Square in 2023.Joe Mabel · CC BY-SA 4.0

1975 to 2020

A landmark, then a store

The Coliseum was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 7, 1975, and Seattle made it a city landmark in January 1978. The landmark rules protected the outside, not the inside.

In 1994 Banana Republic spent about $5 million turning the theater into a flagship store, which opened on November 14. The terra cotta was restored and new ceilings went in, with parts of the old balcony and vaulted ceiling left above them. The store closed in 2020.

The white terra cotta Coliseum building at Fifth and Pike in 2007, when it was a Banana Republic store — The Coliseum as a Banana Republic store, 2007.Joe Mabel · CC BY-SA 3.0

2024 to today

Art comes in

When the building came up for sale, Andrew Conru went inside. Above the store’s ceiling he found Priteca’s room still there: the balcony, domes and arches, and plaster in its 1916 colors. He bought the building in July 2024 and gives the Conru Art Foundation its use rent-free.

In 2026 the Foundation opened the Coliseum to everyone, free, as the Coliseum of Art. Its first show, Summer of Awe, ran from June 26 to September 28 and filled the galleries with light, glass and installations by local artists, with tours up to the balcony that had been sealed for thirty years.

“It felt like uncovering a lost tomb. This beautiful piece of Seattle’s history needs to be shared with the public again.”
Andrew Conru

Painted 1916 plaster ornament and coffered ceiling hidden above the store’s dropped ceiling — Above the store’s ceiling: 1916 plaster and paint, photographed in May 2024.Conru Art Foundation

A tall glass flower sculpture under the Coliseum’s arches during Summer of Awe, with paintings on the walls — Summer of Awe, 2026.Coliseum of Art

On film · 1:08

The hidden theater

Andrew Conru inside the Coliseum, one of the first buildings ever made for the movies, with the colors it was painted in 1916 still hidden on its walls.

Nov 27, 2026 – Feb 27, 2027

Now: Let There Be Light!

Coliseum of Art presents: Let There Be Light! Light art fills the halls, rooms and windows of the Coliseum from November 27, 2026 to February 27, 2027, open daily from 2 to 8 pm. Admission is free. A century after hundreds of bulbs lit its cornice, light comes back to the Coliseum.

About the show Events

Arched galleries inside the Coliseum, looking through two arches to a blue-lit room

Timeline

March 1915C. D. Stimson leases the corner to the new Coliseum Company. Priteca draws the theater.
January 8, 1916The Coliseum opens with Cecil B. DeMille’s The Cheat.
February 2, 1916Lit up through Seattle’s Big Snow.
June 1918A new Wurlitzer organ is installed.
1928Also known as the United Artists Theatre.
1949Remodeled after the earthquake.
July 7, 1975Listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
January 1978Designated a Seattle Landmark.
March 11, 1990The last film, Tremors.
November 14, 1994Reopens as a Banana Republic store.
2020The store closes.
July 2024Andrew Conru buys the building.
June 26, 2026The Coliseum of Art opens with Summer of Awe.
November 27, 2026Coliseum of Art presents: Let There Be Light! opens.

Part of the Conru Art Foundation

The Foundation supports working artists and creates places where art brings people together. Explore our related programs:

PublicDisplay.ART

Stories, artwork, and ways to discover Seattle’s creative community.

Art Love Salon

Art, music, conversation, and community in downtown Seattle.

Occidental Fine Arts Center

Galleries and working studios in Pioneer Square.

The Seattle Prize

Fellowships that give artists time, studio space, and support to develop their work.

Meet the Foundation

Press & media

Photographs, coverage, and a form for your story.

Visit the Press page

Sources and photo credits

The history above comes from these sources. The historic photographs are in the public domain; Joe Mabel’s photographs are shared under Creative Commons licences, credited and linked under each picture. Other photographs are the Coliseum of Art’s own.