Capitol Theatre

Designed by C. Howard Crane and built in 1928, the Detroit Fox Theatre is the culmination of flamboyant movie palace architectural design. Crane, who had designed over 250 theaters by 1928, considered the Fox his best effort. In its size, ornate decoration, and mechanical systems it was the premier example of what a movie palace could be.

A 1928 Detroit Free Press article stated 'Detroit's Fox Theatre has the largest clear span balcony in the world. The stage proper is larger than the Roxy Theatre in New York, and has the largest and finest projection room and equipment of any theatre in the world.' Today, the Fox holds the distinction of being the largest continually operating theatre in the country. The Fox Theatre is one of the most important products of William Fox, theatre promoter and developer. The building possesses infinite detail and variation in ornamentation.

In designing and decorating the building, every care was taken to make it interesting and delightful to the eye. A trip to the Fox was meant to be a pleasure and treat in itself, beyond the entertainment of the program being presented. While eclectic in decoration, the Fox was well equipped with every modern convenience from large elevators to a central vacuum cleaner system for efficient cleaning of the building. It had a fully equipped emergency hospital with two graduate nurses and a house physician on duty during theatre hours.

A mammoth refrigeration system of 600 tons capacity and power transformers for the theatre were large enough to operate all the street cars in Detroit. Truly, this theatre was an example of what money could buy at a reported price of $12 million for the entire building. The theatre seating capacity is 5,042 making it Detroit's largest movie palace and accounting for 20% of the total 27,550 theater seats within a half-mile radius of Grand Circus Park when the Fox opened. The Detroit Fox has sponsored a variety of well-known entertainers such as in the 1930s Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Cab Calloway, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra; in the 1950s Elvis Presley; and in the 1960s the Motown Reviews with acts such as the Temptations, Supremes and Little Stevie Wonder.

As this area of Woodward changed the theater resorted to hosting low quality films. Today it is used for special performances and organ recitals and invariably attracts a full house.

The Fox Theatre Building is a ten-story steel-framed, terra-cotta-sheathed building occupying an entire city block on Woodward Avenue at the northern tip of Detroit's Central Business District. The office building section is designed in a U-shape plan which wraps around the theater lobby with the brick-sheathed auditorium section located behind the office section. The office building section is ten stories incorporating the six-story lobby. The auditorium section behind the office section is approximately eight stories.

The exterior of the office building section is sheathed in beige terra cotta with elaborately molded terra cotta which forms window hoods above the second-floor Chicago-style windows and a cornice line crowning the vertical bands of double-hung windows. Some of the storefronts have been altered and the marquee was replaced in the 1940s; otherwise, the exterior is unchanged. The auditorium section is sheathed in brick. The interior of the Fox Theatre is an eclectic collection of Far East motifs.

It is described in a contemporary newspaper clipping as an 'ultra modern American adaptation of the old Hindu temples and deftly combines the Burmese, Indian, Chinese, Persian and Hindu motifs.' The ornate five-story main lobby space is dominated by a grand staircase leading to the auditorium. The elaborately detailed auditorium is oval in shape and seats 5,042 patrons.