Oregon Theatre

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The Oregon Theatre, or Oregon Theater, is an adult movie theater in the Richmond neighborhood of southeast Portland, Oregon. The theater was completed in 1925 and originally housed a Wurlitzer pipe organ and vaudeville stage. It would later screen Hollywood, art-house, and Spanish-language films. The building was acquired by the Maizels family in 1967 and became an adult cinema in the 1970s. It continues to operate as the city's longest running pornographic cinema and remains owned by a member of the Maizels family.The cinema has been described as "less creepy than most of its kind" and "out of place" along the newly developed Southeast Division Street. It has also been called "the last holdout of an era", referring to both the prominence of adult film screenings in the city during the 1970s and its status as the last property owned by the Maizels family. In 2004, the building was identified as an "Investment and Identity Site" and commended for having attributes valued by the community, such as quality architecture, local ownership, and orientation to the street.Description and historyThe two-story, roughly 8700sqfoot Oregon Theatre was designed by Hubert A. Williams. It exhibits Italianate and "Streetcar Era Commercial" architecture, with plans drafted by Universal Plan Service. The brick exterior includes a glass-filled retail base, beltcourses, double-hung windows on the second story, ornamental brickwork on its parapet, and a flat roof. Upon its completion, the interior featured a $16,000 Wurlitzer pipe organ, ornate lighting fixtures attached to a high-domed ceiling, 750 high-backed chairs, a vaudeville stage, and a screen which measured 16 x 20ft. The theater cost $35,000 to construct and began operating on September 4, 1925, possibly for a showing of Steele of the Royal Mounted.