Guild Theatre (Portland, Oregon)

The Guild Theatre (originally the Taylor Street Theatre) is a historic former theater building in downtown Portland, Oregon, in the United States. The theater was completed and opened in 1927. It closed in 2006 and was converted for retail use in 2018–2019. Since 2019, a Kinokuniya bookstore has occupied the space.

Guild Theatre
The former theater in 2019, now a bookshop but with the historic marquee restored
Former namesTaylor Street Theatre (1927–1947)
Address829 Southwest 9th Avenue
LocationPortland, Oregon, United States
Coordinates45.519°N 122.682°W / 45.519; -122.682
OwnerTMT Development[1]
Capacity400[2]
Construction
Opened1927 (1927)
Renovated1956 (1956)[3]
Closed2006

History
The former theater's main entrance in 2013, seven years after its closure

The Guild was the last remaining single-screen theater in Downtown Portland, completed in 1927. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the Guild screened classic films, advertised as "Oregon's finest film classics theater". Later, it changed to showing second-run films. The theater has been closed and out of use since 2006, but a renovation began in 2017, for an unknown purpose.[4] The 5,000-square-foot (460 m2) building was originally called the Taylor Street Theatre until 1947, when J.J. Parker changed the name to the Guild after purchasing the theater.[5] It closed in 2006.[2]

The Guild was the home of the Northwest Film Center and the center's Portland International Film Festival from 1998 to 2006.[2] The center had been allowed to lease the theater from its owner, Tom Moyer, for just $1 a year.[6] A proposal in 2010 to renovate and reopen the theater did not come to fruition.[1]

2017 remodel
The restored marquee at dusk in 2018

In late 2016, Tom Moyer's company, TMT Development, the property's owner, began work on remodeling the building.[4] TMT also owns the adjacent Studio Building (a nine-story office building), and the work on the theater building is part of that $8 million project to renovate both buildings. In January 2017, the company told the Portland Business Journal that the former theater space is being remodeled for a new tenant whose identity could not yet be revealed, due to a non-disclosure agreement.[4] At that time, TMT was forecasting that its part of the remodeling work would be completed by early spring 2017, and the new tenant would then take over the site, in preparation for its own work on the former theater.[4] Renovation of the marquee took place later in 2017.

In May 2019, the Japanese bookstore chain Books Kinokuniya announced that the former theater would be the site of its new Portland store.[7] The bookstore opened in August 2019.[8] After the remodeling and conversion of the space, the Portland Tribune described the modified interior as "light and airy, to the point of being sparse. The high ceilings are decorated with long strands of fiber, and the upstairs balcony, once the domain of the projectionist is given over to tightly packed rows of Japanese comics and graphic novels."[9]

In 2019, Behind the Museum Café's owner Tomoe Horibuchi confirmed plans to open a second location called Book of Tea Café, within Kinokuniya.[7] The cafe opened on August 21, 2019.[8]

References
  1. Stabler, David (October 7, 2010). "Guild's curtain won't rise on performance space". The Oregonian.
  2. Levy, Shawn (June 25, 2006). "Before flying off with Superman, a good-bye to the Guild". The Oregonian. p. O2.
  3. "The Guild Theatre". TMT Development. Archived from the original on February 28, 2017. Retrieved 2021-06-19. The Guild was designed as a 450 seat recital hall for the musicians renting studio space in the neighboring Studio Building. Until the Guild was renovated in 1956 the entrance to the theater was through the Studio Building lobby off Taylor Street. After renovation the entrance was moved to 9th Street making the theater a reverse theater, the area that is now the lobby used to be the stage.
  4. Bell, Jon (January 20, 2017). "Exclusive: Downtown's long-dormant Guild Theatre getting a big remake". Portland Business Journal. Archived from the original on January 31, 2017. Retrieved March 12, 2018.
  5. Fehrenbacher, Lee (March 5, 2012). "Historic Guild Theatre sits empty in wait of tenant". Daily Journal of Commerce. Archived from the original on February 13, 2014. Retrieved January 2, 2014.
  6. Leeson, Fred (June 17, 2006). "Guild Theatre may have shown its last picture". The Oregonian. p. B5.
  7. Gormley, Shannon (May 21, 2019). "The Japanese Bookstore Moving into the Former Guild Theatre Will Open This Summer". Willamette Week. Archived from the original on November 27, 2020. Retrieved June 19, 2021.
  8. Gormley, Shannon (August 22, 2019). "The Japanese Bookstore in the Former Guild Theatre Is Now Open". Willamette Week. Archived from the original on August 11, 2020. Retrieved June 19, 2021.
  9. Gallivan, Joseph (September 16, 2019). "Kinokuniya bookstore makes the leap from Japan to Portland: Japanese books and cute stationary store Kinokuniya opens in the former Guild Theater space on Director Square". Portland Tribune. Archived from the original on September 18, 2019. Retrieved June 19, 2021.
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