Jefferson Theater

Jefferson Theater

Jefferson Theater Photograph by Gerald Moorhead
1926, Emile Weil. 345 Fannin St.

Built alongside the Hotel Beaumont is the four-story Jefferson Theater. In 1925 partners Sol E. Gordon and J. C. Clemmons sold half-interest in Beaumont's Jefferson Amusement Company to the Saenger Company of Shreveport. Saenger's architect, Emile Weil of New Orleans, brought a touch of Canal Street style to downtown Beaumont. The street front of the Jefferson is a flat plane of dark orange brick framed by cast-stone quoins and belt courses. Relief panels of Art and Music cap the wall beneath a cast-stone frieze and tiled hood. Like the Hotel Beaumont and the San Jacinto Life Building, the Jefferson Theater architecturally bespeaks the golden age of downtown Beaumont in the second quarter of the twentieth century.

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