Detailed Information

The theatre opened in early October 1927 with the silent movie Swim Girl, Swim (1927)  starring Bebe Daniels.

The theatre was designed by Illinois-based architect Frederic J. Klein in the Atmospheric Theatre style with a Hispano-Italian theme. The theatre’s listing on the National Register of Historic Places suggests the Atmospheric theme is “Spanish Castles” noting the auditorium has a “Spanish-Moorish-Venetian flavor”. However you describe it, it is undeniably a very good example of the Atmospheric Theatre style.

The organ grilles flanking the proscenium arch are decorated with Chinese-themed dragons and oversize lanterns. These grilles replaced the original organ grilles – which resembled mirrored trellises – around a year after the theatre opened, and were necessitated due to sound issues with the smaller original grilles. The $50,000 Grande Barton Organ installed in the theatre in 1927 is still in place.

In 1970, Kerasotes Theatres purchased the Coronado Theatre. A few years later, in 1979, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. By 1984, the Coronado Theatre was forced to end the movie exhibition portion of its business due to declining revenues.

In 1997, the theatre was sold by the Kerasotes family to the City of Rockford for $10, a renovation deal which included the restriction that the city not use the theatre for the exhibition of motion pictures.

An $18.5 million renovation took place in the late 1990s, transforming the theatre into a performing arts center with additional facilities such as rehearsal, event, and technical space. The revitalized performing arts center reopened in October 2001.