an intimate look at detroit's lost mayan revival style fisher theater through newly discovered photographs

in a previous blog entry i focused on a highly unusual depression-era mayan revival fisher theater seat end - one of several non-chicago based artifacts housed in the bldg. 51 museum collection catalog. the richly colored all original theater seat end reflects late 1920's exotic movie palace architecture in the mid-west, and as an object designed for chicago architects anker graven and arthur mayger, who worked for the pretigious firm of rapp & rapp before leaving in 1926 to establish their own partnership known as graven & mayger.

this blog entry features an exceptionally rare and highly detailed architectural rendering (longitudinal section) of the fisher theater (acquired by the bldg. 51 museum through andrew schneider), along with several silver gelatin photographic prints of the theater's interior lobby and auditorium.

original fisher theater mayan mask with intact glass eyes and nose. the ornamental cast iron component was apart of a theater seat end designed to illuminate the aisles within the auditorium. the single incandescent light was mounted behind the mask. the polychrome enameled artifact was fabricated by the heywood & wakefield company. image and artifact courtesy of the bldg. 51 museum collection.

graven & mayger’s 3500-seat theater drew heavily on the mayan ruins in mexico’s yucatan peninsula." with the huge assortment of roman, greek, spanish, italian, persian, egyptian and other standard styles already in use, the chicagoans had something of a problem to find a novelty," the chicago tribune reported when graven & mayger secured the commission in sept. of 1927. "…the maya indians of the yucatan peninsula generously provided the inspiration and the new showhouse will have for its motif the bizarre adornments of that ancient race."

the figural theater seat ends featured "masks" equipped with colored glass eye and nose rondels backlit by a single low-wattage incandescent light bulb.

by the 1950’s the theater had transitioned from live vaudeville shows to being solely a movie house. slowly, the more novel elements were stripped back, and by 1960, the theater was destined to be sold and remodeled. ironically, the firm of rapp & rapp completed its last project in the remodeling, and though the new décor remained lavish, the firm obliterated original ornament, even removing the aztec statues which had once graced the outside. the firm reduced the distinctive mayan-revival style to a mid-century modern design with little shadow of its former self.

the ornamental cast iron drinking fountain shares several design elements found on the illuminated mayan theater seat ends fabricated by heywood-wakefield.

the fisher theater's lobby phone booth.

the custom door hardware was likely fabricated by russwin or sargent.

the short-lived firm of graven & mayger ceased to exist shortly after the untimely death of the principal, a.s. graven (died in a boating accident in 1932). a great deal of the firm’s work (e.g., ledgers, drawings, blueprints, etc.) survives thanks their chief draftsman, edward rupinski. the sizable cache of historically important material was recently discovered by logan square preservation society’s president andrew schneider in the basement of the building rupinski (and later his daughter) owned before it changed ownership. through schneider, this material is making its way into the public domain where it can be used for research purposes.