Rialto Theater

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker says about the Rialto Theater in Three Rivers, Live Oak County. Now settle in, because this is a story about a town that really, really wanted to watch movies. Three Rivers, Texas.

Back in 1913, folks around here weren't about to let a little thing like the absence of a proper building stop them. They set up tents. That's right, tents, and they showed movies in them all the way through the mid-1920s.

You have to admire that kind of determination. Sun beating down, wind probably doing its best, and somebody out there cranking up the projector anyway. By the 1930s, though, the town had grown enough that W.S. and J.S.

Hall Jr., owners out of Beeville, came in and built a proper one-story movie house near the railroad tracks. That served Three Rivers for a good stretch, but the Halls weren't finished yet. Come 1948, they commissioned something grander.

They brought in Jack Corgan, a renowned Dallas architect, and what Corgan designed was a streamline moderne theater, a style with clean curves and forward momentum, like the building itself was heading somewhere. This one came with air conditioning, restrooms, and a balcony. In a South Texas summer, that air conditioning alone must have felt like a miracle.

The Rialto became the place to be. Decades passed, as they do. The theater closed in 1981.

The building sat. But Three Rivers wasn't done with it. In the year 2000, the economic development corporation of Three Rivers took on the restoration, and in 2001, the Rialto reopened, this time equipped with advanced digital projectors.

From a tent in 1913 to digital projection in 2001, Three Rivers kept finding a way to keep the lights on and the pictures moving.

What the marker says

This theater traces its roots to the developmental years of Three Rivers. From 1913 to the mid-1920s, movies were shown in tents. By the 1930s, Beeville Theater owners W.S. and J.S. Hall Jr. built a one-story movie house near the railroad tracks. It served until 1948 when the halls built this theater designed by renowned Dallas Architect Jack Corgan. The streamline moderne theater featured air conditioning, restrooms and a balcony. The theater closed in 1981. In 2000, the economic development corporation of Three Rivers restored the building. Equipped with advanced digital projectors, it reopened in 2001. RECORDED TEXAS HISTORIC LANDMARK - 2016