The Jane Pickens Theater is one of Newport, Rhode Island’s many old remaining structures, whose program took a dramatic turn in the twentieth century, transforming from very conservative to just the opposite. Despite being known as the Jane Pickens Theater today, for most of the building’s life, it did not go by that name or function as a theatre. The building was erected on Touro Street in 1834, designed by well-known local architect, Russell Warren, sitting in Washington Square in downtown Newport. The structure was originally built as the Zion Episcopal Church, an extension of nearby Trinity Church on Spring Street. By 1885, the building was taken over by Saint Joseph’s Catholic Church, eventually closing in 1912 due to lack of space, and finally, in 1918, the building re-opened with its final program as the Lafayette Theatre. While the change from church to theatre seems like one so dramatic, the studying of old images helps justify why this change made so much sense, architecturally, during that major transition period. Although the churches themselves were not so long-lasting, the theatre had gone on to thrive, with the help of some architectural changes, keeping it a successful business to this day.
Russell Warren was born in Tiverton, Rhode Island, practicing mostly in Bristol, Providence, and New Bedford. Starting out as a carpenter, Warren had the advantage of having the perspective of both a builder and designer. In the early nineteenth century, he had become a well-known architect in Rhode Island and Massachusetts following his design of the iconic Providence Arcade. Warren was best known for working in the Greek revival style, something many architects around the country were also beginning to bring over from Europe, incorporating it into not just large commercial buildings, but privately-owned mansions as well. Like many of his designs, the Zion Episcopal Church was one of his refined Greek-styled buildings, having six large ionic columns in front with a pediment sitting atop (Fig.1). This was one of, if not the first Greek-revival structures to be built in Newport at the time. Rather than wrapping these columns around the sides, like most Greek structures, Warren left the columns in just the front, allowing for tall arched windows to be placed on each side, allowing light into the church. The main interior space consisted of the high altar in the back of the room with pews taking up the majority of the space. While nothing revolutionary for a church’s design, the Zion Episcopal Church made a statement by being designed by Warren and in such a forefront location, dramatizing its separation from Trinity Episcopal Church.
The Trinity Episcopal Church remains today as one of Newport’s oldest churches, founded in 1698 as the first branch of the Church of England in Rhode Island and sitting atop Queen Anne’s Square on Spring Street. While popular amongst the residents of Newport, the church faced financial issues in the 1830’s, causing many of its parishioners to call for a new building and branch for them to practice, catering to the apparent great public interest in the Episcopal Church and desire for a more reformed parish. They sought an extension of Trinity, one with “greater evangelical spirit and activity,” leading to the hiring of Russell Warren and builder William Weeden to start constructing the Zion Episcopal Church. At first, this new branch was a success, moving around thirty families from Trinity Church to Zion, but in the chaotic process, about twenty families had also left the church altogether. Despite this loss, the addition of the new building brought in about thirty new families, thus balancing out the loss of some.
Although at first the addition of the new Zion Episcopal Church was successful, it soon struggled to keep up financially. Still, not as many new families were joining as previously anticipated, leaving the parish struggling to pay Warren and Weeden, as well as those working for the church, having to constantly borrow money to do so. To help combat these financial issues between the two churches, a parish committee was started in 1839, coming up with new ways of paying these dues. They began to collect through “private and voluntary annual contributions,” selling nearby buildings it owned, as well as lowering the taxes on pews to just six dollars, trying to persuade more families to join. Despite these great efforts to come up with the maintenance costs, the church was forced to shut down by 1867.
After sitting idle for eighteen years, the new wave of Catholicism in Newport brought new life to the church, being bought by Saint Joseph’s Catholic Church in 1885 (Fig.2). Because of the religious freedom Newport offered, many people flocked to the town to practice as they wished. During its lifetime at the Touro Street location, St Joseph’s did not face the hardships like the Zion Episcopal Church did, but at the same time, nothing about the building itself changed that much. For a while, it met the needs of the parish, but eventually, with Catholicism still growing in Newport, the building became too small for the parish, causing them to move out in 1912 and into a larger building further up on Broadway.
Once again, the building that once housed two congregations had been left vacant, this time being picked back up in 1918 with new life as the Lafayette Theatre, then as the Community Playhouse in 1919, and almost finally, the Strand in 1922. It is unclear exactly why this building in its location was chosen for a theatre, as the Newport Opera House was also located right there in Washington Square. The Opera House Theater was built in 1867, clearly predating the Lafayette’s use of the building as a theatre. Also, it was not as though the Opera House Theatre was used solely for live performances, opening up a market for film, because they too adapted to showcase film as well. The Opera House Theater was meant to cater to the upper class of Newport, turning its back on much of the normal, year-round population of the working class. According to an article from the Providence News on January 11, 1919, the then-Lafayette Theater decided to operate as a “community theatre” under the operation of David J. Dugan who went on to operate the property from 1922 to 1925. Although it is not directly stated anywhere, it can be assumed that this was meant to cater to the greater population of middle-class Newport, as opposed to the Opera House Theater which was for the upper class.
Around this time of transition to a theatre, there was also a gap in entertainment in Newport, as the Opera House was undergoing changes to make it operable as a theatre, not reopening until 1929 as the Opera House Theater, serving both live performance and film . During this small period of time, the then-Strand was able to thrive without worrying about directly competing with the Opera House Theater. The ability for the Strand to thrive is even more impressive, as in 1929, the Paramount Theatre opened right around the corner from the Strand and the Opera House Theater, on Broadway, as a first-run movie theatre. The Paramount’s first manager ended up being no other than David Dugan, former operator of the Strand. At this point, there were now three full-functioning theatres capable of film and live performances, all within two hundred yards of one another. Although the Paramount Theatre ceased to function by 1961, the Strand and Opera House Theater still remained in Washington Square.
Aside from social reasons why the building may have been chosen to turn into a theatre, the standard layout for both a church and theatre give insight as to what the thought process may have been, from an architectural standpoint, when making this radical change. As seen in Figure 5, showing the interior of the building as St Joseph’s, the altar was raised, front and center, as a typical one would be, creating a large, open space that could easily transform into a stage and screen space. The pews are also laid out in a similar manor to seats in a theatre, having the right proportional space to cater to a decent sized audience for showings. Because theatres typically have some type of lobby or transitional space, Warren’s original design had to be compromised for the first time in, partially closing off the front portico for the addition of a marquee (Fig.3). The side windows also had to be covered up from the interior, although still visible from the exterior, to block light from entering the theatre. Although disappointing that a change had to be made to Warren’s Greek-revival building, it would have been strange to just walk straight into the theatre space and not have a formal location for crowds to enter and the purchasing of tickets; therefore, justifying the renovation.
As film was starting to become more and more popular, the Strand was able to keep up with this demand more than the Opera House Theatre, as it focused more on film than live performance. While live performances were still extremely popular, and the Strand catered to this, movies were growing high in societal demand and the addition of a new film theatre to Newport was a great asset to the community. Right from the start of film, the Strand allowed locals to see popular Hollywood films, such as a special one-week showing of “Gone with the Wind” when it came out in 1940.
The growing popularity of film and the theatre caused the building to undergo its final major renovation in 1941, this time greatly impacting Warren’s design. The original ionic columns of the front colonnade were removed so that the entire portico could be enclosed by brick from the ground up (Fig.4). Although this drastically changed the building’s appearance, this major change allowed for a complete, formal lobby space (Fig.7), as well as the addition of a balcony above in the theatre to cater to more people. The red brick it had been enclosed with related to that of the nearby Old Colony House sitting atop Washington Square, as well as the Brick Market at the bottom of Touro Street. Also keeping in mind of the original design, square columns were placed in the façade where the original ones had been before. Even though these changes were drastic, the building was able to retain a federal-like style, still fitting in with other buildings of that style in Newport, while also paying tribute to its past design by Warren as a church by keeping the pediment above.
During its lifetime as the Strand, many of the most popular films of the 50’s and 60’s were shown. Newport was thriving with both middle and high-class, full-time and part-time residents, and they were able to see these popular films right as they were first coming out. Films, such as the Misfits and High Society, set in Newport (although not entirely filmed there) were shown, starring Hollywood’s biggest names; Marilyn Monroe, Clark Gable, Grace Kelly, Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra.
Newport itself was home to some of Hollywood and Broadway’s stars, including Jane Pickens. Born in Macon, Georgia with three other sisters, Jane started her career studying music and acting, performing with two other sisters as the Pickens Sisters in live shows, movies and on radio. By 1932, they were based in New York City and in 1934, they made their Broadway debut in the musical, Thumbs Up! When the other Pickens Sisters went onto marry and start families, Jane kept on preforming, going solo and furthering her career, living between New York and Newport. During her time in Newport during summers, Jane was not performing so much, but rather being a socialite and philanthropist, as many of the part-time Newporter’s were. She constantly devoted her life to other people, both entertaining and working to help them, earning her enough praise and significance for the Strand to be renamed in her honor in 1974. To commemorate this occasion, Jane and her sister, Patti, gave a live performance at the theatre.
Since the theatre’s 1941 addition and later dedication, not much had changed about it, at least architecturally. The exterior of the building that was once white where the pediment and columns lied was painted to a grey-blue color, appearing to match what may have been the color for some time as St Joseph’s Catholic Church. As for the interior, there are now 472 typical theatre seats (Fig.6), the central staircase was removed for the addition of a food and drink bar (Fig.8), and handicap ramps were installed to make the theatre fully ADA accessible for the modern age.
To this day, the Jane Pickens Theater and Event Center continues to function as it did when first converted to the Lafayette Theater in 1919, showing both live performances, although few, as well as films. It is Newport’s own source for film, with the closest large theatre being in Middletown, and not nearly as nice of a building and experience. It is almost as though the building’s audience has switched from being middle-class Newport to a higher-class, being a more formal theatre with a more enhanced experience than a typical theatre today. Although the transition from a church to a theatre was dramatic, there was an opportunity to cater to this other group of Newporter’s that the Opera House Theatre was not catering to at first. The building, architecturally, allowed for an easy transition and the growing popularity of film created an opportunity for the theatres to thrive and Newport’s economy to grow in a new direction. Famous figures, like Jane Pickens, being involved in Newport brought success to the theatre through her involvement and later dedication, making way for the Jane Pickens Theatre to continue thriving to this day.