Majestic Theatre

The Majestic Theatre features an elaborate facade of Spanish Colonial Revival plasterwork and a marquee that hangs over Houston Street with thousands of glowing bulbs. Built in nineteen twenty-nine by architect John Eberson, it was designed as an atmospheric theater meant to transport patrons into a Mediterranean courtyard under an artificial starlit sky. During the Great Depression, the owner, Bob O'Donnell, kept the doors open by showing films around the clock to give the unemployed a place to stay cool and escape.