Tampa Theatre Reopens After $24.5 Million Restoration in Time for Its 100th Birthday

Tampa Theatre reopened its historic Duncan Auditorium this weekend after a seven-month, $24.5 million restoration meant to make the downtown movie palace look as it did on opening night in 1926. The work was timed for the theater's 100th birthday on Thursday, Oct. 15. A members' screening of the 1985 comedy Clue on Saturday kicked off a week of classic films that ends with a sold-out centennial celebration.

The project is the first phase of the theater's Second Century Campaign. It restored the auditorium's plaster and paint, replaced aging building systems and added an education wing. A second phase, estimated for completion in 2028, would add a third public programming space and restore the theater's Mighty Wurlitzer organ.

Back to 1926, down to the paint

George Levesque, the theater's president and chief executive, told WUSF the goal of the first phase was historic accuracy in the Duncan Auditorium, the atmospheric, courtyard-style room that has made the theater one of the best-known movie houses in the country. "So for the first time since 1926, it's going to look like it did in 1926," Levesque said.

Getting there took forensic work. Artisans took about 50 core samples to work out the auditorium's original paint scheme, according to the Tampa Bay Times. Levesque said colors long thought to be one shade turned out to be others. Terracotta roof tiles on the auditorium's Mediterranean facades, which looked like a single color under a century of dust, showed about five different paint colors once they were cleaned.

The restoration was led by EverGreene Architectural Arts, a decorative arts and conservation firm whose past work includes the U.S. Capitol Rotunda. Crews worked from scaffolding that rose about 65 feet to reach the auditorium's ceiling, which is painted to suggest an open night sky. For the first time in decades, a machine will project drifting clouds across that sky, the Times reported.

Jill Witecki, the theater's spokesperson, described the aim in an interview with the Times: "How can we create a room that, when patrons walk in the front room, they are walking into 1926?"

What $24.5 million bought

Much of the money went into parts of the building patrons will never see. When the auditorium closed March 10, then chief executive John Bell told FOX 13 that the century-old building needed its plumbing, electrical and air conditioning systems replaced, much like an old house. The project upgraded stage lighting, sound and production systems along with the heating and cooling. Bell said more efficient systems should lower the theater's operating costs.

Other upgrades include new restrooms, an elevator, brighter safety lighting and new rigging to hang lights and screens. A new education wing will put film studies classrooms on the building's second and third floors. WUSF reported that the education center is set to open later this fall.

Funding came from private donors and public sources. In 2023, the Tampa Community Redevelopment Agency board voted unanimously to approve $14 million toward the restoration, according to the City of Tampa. The project is also sponsored in part by the Florida Department of State's Division of Historical Resources, the State of Florida and the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners.

Published cost figures vary. The $24.5 million covers the first phase. The second phase, mainly accessibility work and the Wurlitzer restoration, is expected to cost about $6 million more, according to the Times, which puts the overall campaign at roughly $30 million.

A century at 711 N. Franklin St.

Tampa Theatre opened Oct. 15, 1926, inside a 10-story office building on Franklin Street. Architect John Eberson designed it in the atmospheric style he pioneered, with Mediterranean plasterwork, Italian tile and a Spanish-style wrought iron box office, all built to make audiences feel they were sitting in an open-air courtyard. Eberson went on to design close to 100 atmospheric theaters. Fewer than 20 still operate today, according to the Times.

Construction took 18 months and cost about $1 million. About 1,600 opening-night tickets sold out in two hours, and Gov. John W. Martin spoke at the opening. The program featured a 20-piece orchestra, the Wurlitzer and the silent film The Ace of Cads.

The theater was also the first commercial business in Tampa with air conditioning, a selling point in a city without it. Rodney Kite-Powell of the Tampa Bay History Center told the Times: "It wasn't just a novelty. It was a miracle." Parts of that original cooling system still operate, according to FOX 13.

The building nearly did not survive the century. By midcentury, as downtown businesses declined, the theater struggled and faced demolition in the early 1970s. Residents campaigned to save it, and in 1976 the city, under Mayor Bill Poe, took over the building's lease. The theater reopened in January 1977 with the same silent film that had played on opening night in 1926. It was later listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Why it matters for downtown Tampa

The theater draws about 160,000 visitors a year, according to figures the City of Tampa cited when it approved the redevelopment money. The city said the theater supports more than 246 full-time jobs and generates more than $800,000 a year in state and local tax revenue.

It also kept operating during the closure. The 43-seat John T. Taylor Screening Room, a microcinema added off the historic lobby in 2024, kept showing films while the main auditorium was behind scaffolding.

Levesque succeeded Bell, the theater's longtime leader. Levesque previously ran the Historic Paramount Theatre in Abilene, Texas, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

Centennial week schedule

The reopening week mixes free access with programming built around films from the theater's early decades:

What's next

After centennial week, the theater returns to its regular schedule of films, concerts and events in the restored auditorium. The education wing is expected to open later this fall. Historian Andrew T. Huse will discuss his new book, Tampa Theatre: A Century of Stories, at Tombolo Books in St. Petersburg on Oct. 21.

The second phase of the campaign still has to be funded and built, including the Wurlitzer restoration and a third programming space, with a target of 2028. Theater leaders have framed that work as the next step in preparing the building for its second century.