Fairborn Theatre

Architects Lloyd Zeller and Herman Hunter designed the theater,[2] which is built of brick on a concrete foundation and covered with an asphalt roof.[3] Built by the C.W. Fry Construction Company,[1] it comprised a thousand-seat theater when it opened in 1948.[2] Located near an Air Force facility, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base,[4] the theater features period aviation-related elements such as an interior painting of soldiers and aircraft of World War II.[5] As an example of Streamline Moderne architecture, the theater includes elements such as streamlining and metal detailing.[2] Its location along State Route 444 makes it an example of Fairborn's automobile-related commercial development.[5]

Chakeres Theatres operated the Fairborn Theatre from 1948 until the early 1970s, when it was temporarily closed to be remodelled into a two-screen operation. Following remodelling, the theater ran until January 2000, when Chakeres ceased operating it; the company retained ownership until 2002, when it donated the building to a Fairborn arts organization. Soon afterward, more than ten years of renovation began; carried on largely by volunteers with a small budget, renovations have included ridding the building of asbestos, roof maintenance, and removing the wall separating the two theater rooms to restore them to their original one-room format.[6] Some of the estimated $5.5 million cost of restoring the theater was paid by the Ohio Department of Development, which in 2010 granted $48,000 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act money to the arts organization.[4]

In 2005, the Fairborn Theatre was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, qualifying because of its historically significant architecture. It is one of three register-listed properties in Fairborn, along with the 1924 Bath Township Consolidated School and the 1799 Mercer Log House.[1]