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Complete photos. 8.31.21.

The latest on the Expansion Project. 11.18.21.

In November, 2021, the County Theater Expansion Project has basically been completed. We have a number of minor loose ends to tie up, but then we are always working on minor adjustments and upgrades in the theater. The one significant detail to complete is our donor recognition work. Our bronze “Hollywood stars” need to be installed in the sidewalk, and we need to fabricate and install a 2021 Donor Recognition Board in the lobby. This work may take a while to finish and may not be done until Spring 2022. In the meantime, the bronze donor stars are featured in the display window. Thank you to everyone who helped make this project happen. This is your nonprofit, community-owned theater!

In October, 2021, we finished the stainless storefront of the new addition. That was the last major part of the project to be completed.

In August, 2021, we continued to make progress on final details. New yellow and blue porcelain panels were installed on the east edge of the historic theater’s facade. These new panels were required, because once the abutting Poor Richards building came down this previously uncovered corner was exposed.

We also repaired and mounted two older donor recognition boards in the lobby. We have hung some meaningful historic memorabilia, including a two-page spread in the 1938 Intelligencer newspaper congratulating the County Theater on its opening in 1938. Plus we displayed the first program (1982) of Closely Watched Films, the film society that saved the County, and the first program of the new County Theater (Feb, 1993).

In July, 2021 we installed acoustic panels in upper area of the new lobby. We hung vintage posters. We adjusted doors so that they close properly. We temporarily put donor recognition items in our new storefront display window.

In June, 2021, we worked through a lot of punch list details.  We finished installing the remaining panels on the new addition’s facade. And the theater opened and started showing films on June 18th. The first film shown on the addition’s big new screen was Casablanca.  That was following by In the Heights.

Our members and friends also had a chance to tour the theater on the weekend of June 11th during open house hours.

In May, 2021, we laid the carpet down. The new concession stand and ticket booth were both finished.  The bathrooms were completed. Signage was being installed. The first section of the new facade panels was installed. 

In April, 2021, we made steady progress.  We worked on painting and finishes.  We finished the concession stand area and most of our new ticket booth. We finished installing doors and aisle lighting in the theaters. The bathrooms were completed, as well.

In March, 2021, we finished installing our movie screens. And the screen in the new auditorium is gigantic! We also have superb new speakers in that auditorium for clean, clear, and proper-volume sound. The new projection booth equipment arrived and was mostly connected. We put in our new seats.  We reinstalled the neon tower, which has been freshly repainted and preserved with a clear coat which should last 20 years. The concession stand was almost finished and the carpet arrived and was put in storage (it will be the last thing installed). 

In February, we continued the finish work.  Painting made great progress. The ceiling in the new lobby was finished.  Acoustic insulation was installed in the theaters, and then covered with flat black fabric, ideal for movie presentations.  (If you review our posted photos, you can see that we uncovered two previous wall coverings in the historic theater - a bronze/brown pattern from probably the 60s and the original 1938 blue/silver deco pattern.) The panels for the upper portion of the addition facade were being readied in the shop. We reviewed the colors for these panels (variations on the “County blue”), which you can also see in the photos section.  Work on the new concession stand was begun. The tile in the bathrooms was finished and the stall partitions and fixtures were installed.  Finally, our new large, plush seats arrived and installation was underway by the end of the month.

In January 2021, the HVAC ductwork in the new theater was completed. Plus the rooftop ducts for the HVAC units were installed. The ceiling work in the new theater was finished, with light fixtures installed and insulation inserted. The new sprinkler system was finished. Interior painting began. We started to hang doors and hardware. The theater’s electric work was largely completed.The brick work on the facade was completed.

In December 2020, dry wall went up in the new lobby and you could see how the old lobby and new lobby seamlessly connect. The historic lobby has curved walls and that curve continues into the new lobby. It’s going to look amazing when it’s finished with a new concession stand, two deco-style chandeliers, and vintage movie posters on the walls. The County’s neon tower also came down in December! It went off to the shop to be repainted after 20 years. We hope that this repainting, with new paint technology, will last even longer. The historic marquee has been repainted in place. The marquee will have new retro-style 3-dimensional letters so it will look like it did in 1938. The brick work on the addition’s facade was largely completed. We continued to work on electric, plumbing, framing, security, and many other aspects of the job, as well. The County site is very busy!

In November, big progress was made on the interior framing and we began to clearly see the contours of the new lobby, hallways, and bathrooms. We also reroofed the historic theater. This is the first complete new roof for the theater in many, many years (perhaps since 1938). We continued significant work on electric, plumbing, and framing.

What’s our time frame moving forward and when will we reopen? SEE BELOW.

In October, we finished the stadium decking in the new theater and have completed pouring the concrete on top of that decking. We also poured the concrete for the new lobby floor and for the transition floors between the historic theater and the new addition. The addition and the historic theater now connect together seamlessly. Framing on the upper level continued and we opened a second floor walkway between the new and old projection booths. HVAC work was done on the upper roof.
For the historic theater, we did a comprehensive cleaning and restoration of the yellow and blue porcelain tiles – for the first time ever! A lot of new sprinkler work was completed. We added a second major beam across the lobby’s new opening to support it fully and to eliminate a vertical column in the new ticket booth area. Drywall work continued in the historic theater auditoriums.

In September, we punched through the historic theater’s brick wall to create a large opening between the historic theater lobby and the new Addition.  This was a big step. A huge beam was installed to hold up the wall of the historic theater over that opening (which required major temporary shoring in advance).  We also cut an opening for the new emergency exit out of the old Theater 1 (left side) and bricked up its old ex8t (on the west side alley).  A new water service has been tapped at the street and laid into the Addition.  This will supply our first floor bathrooms and the new sprinkler system.  We also placed the new Addition’s HVAC units on the roof. Framing continued in the historic theater.

In August, the roof was added to the Addition, and the steel work was mostly finished. We began pouring the new floor for the auditorium.  You can see the cross aisle, the stage, and some of the front aisles. The plumbing was roughed in for the bathrooms and concession stand.
In the historic theater, we made progress in building the new demising wall between our two auditoriums. We are also adding an additional wall behind the screens to isolate us from our neighbors. These new walls go all the way to the roof and are “double walls” designed for maximum sound separation. It’s a challenge to retrofit an historic theater, so we hired an acoustics specialist who has designed and inspected the work.

In July, after a pause in our progress, the steel contractor returned and began installing the Addition’s trusses and steel beams.  In the historic theater, demolition was 95% completed in anticipation of building new auditorium walls and of making the connection into the new Addition.  And the historic theater’s concrete floor has been saw cut to help prevent sound vibrations from traveling between auditoriums.

In June, the new addition’s walls were built and renovations in the historic theater began. The block walls of the new auditorium were laid to their full height. The beams for the building’s roof were delivered.  We also began renovations in the historic theater. The dividing wall in the auditorium was taken down and the stairs on the east side of the lobby were taken out. (A new center wall will provide better sound isolation.) The 23-year-old seats were removed (although we have preserved a sample of seat plaques, which will be incorporated into a new lobby plaque honoring all of our 1996 donors). Check our architectural plans below to see how things will be reconfigured. And do not worry: we are preserving all of the historic details and style of our beautiful, art deco theater.

In May, there was Major News that we would be keeping the entire theater closed for the rest of 2020 and will complete the full expansion project ahead of schedule. Read the full announcement here → Also in May, construction restarted on May 4th, subject to rigorous safety standards, including daily temperature readings for each worker and other check-in procedures, mandatory facemasks, and proper social distancing at all times.  After work resumed, there were 47 truckloads of crushed stone delivered onto the property as fill for the foundation. That was 1,047 tons of stone or over 2 million pounds!  That stone fill is in lieu of dirt, because it is more efficient and drains better.

In April, there was no construction work. Work was suspended due to COVID from March 21 to May 8, 2020.

In March, foundation work continued and the block walls started to be built. On March 21, 2020, construction was halted due to COVID.

In February, the addition site was graded and footers and foundations were poured.

In January, 2020, the County Theater Expansion Project started work. On January 6th, we began preparations to reroute the street and to put up bollards and fencing. Clearing the property began in earnest on January 16th with the razing and removal of the adjacent building. The property was completely cleared and the basement hole was dug.

Design process.

Here is a behind the scenes look at our architects office.  Input was taken from staff, theater members, borough officials, and friends at 20 meetings and in numerous informal discussions, from which the Expansion Project design was created.  Many options were examined on the way to the final design.

In the end, the design had to meet four principles: 1) the historic County Theater must remain unchanged as our centerpiece; 2) the addition must be secondary to the historic theater; 3) the addition must be in harmony with the historic theater; and 4) the addition must be in harmony with Doylestown.