PSTOS - Globe (Venetian) Theatre, Albany Oregon

Globe (Bligh, Venetian) Theatre - 2/6 Robert Morton
Albany, Oregon
241 1st Ave. W.
Organ installation timeframe: 1922 -

Back to the Oregon Original Theatre Installations page

Globe Theatre, date unknown

The theatre was built in 1913 as the T.G. Bligh Theatre, a vaudeville house. It was renamed the Globe Theatre in 1922 and kept that name until 1936 when it became the Venetian. The theatre may have also operated briefly as the Blue Mouse, but this cannot be confirmed.

1st Avenue streetscene, c.1946. Venetian Theatre on right.

The Globe originally had a 2/6 Robert Morton installed in 1922. According to Bob Rickett, the instrument was later moved to Linfield College in McMinnville. Its current status is unknown.

The theatre has had various non-theatre tenants including a cigar factory, a restaurant and more recently a snowmobile business in the lobby. In 1994 Rob and Cheryl Connell purchased the theatre and started to restore the exterior of the building to its original appearance. Stucco had been applied over the original brick. The building is on the national and state historic buildings registries, and work was done in conjunction with preservation planners.

1998 view of the theatre

As of 2002, owner Sam Lanahan hoped the theatre restoration would be a catalyst for the renaissance of Albany's downtown. The interior was redesigned and a number of other improvements were added to enhance the performance of live music shows.

Globe Theatre, c.2011. Tom Blackwell photo.

click for a larger version of this image (154K)

Ad for the opening concerts on the newly installed organ, March 23 & 24, 1922. Arnold Leverenz, organist.