page_title: Fox Theatre (Detroit)
section_title: Architecture
hierarchical_section_title: Fox Theatre (Detroit) / Architecture
caption_attribution_description: Auditorium of the Fox Theatre, Detroit.
context_page_description: The Fox Theatre is a performing arts center located at 2211 Woodward Avenue in Downtown Detroit, Michigan, near the Grand Circus Park Historic District. Opened in 1928 as a flagship movie palace in the Fox Theatres chain, it was at over 5,000 seats the largest theater in the city. Designed by theater architect C. Howard Crane, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985 and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1989 for its architecture. The area surrounding the Fox is nicknamed Foxtown. The city's major performance centers and theatres emanate from the Fox Theatre and Grand Circus Park Historic District and continue along Woodward Avenue toward the Fisher Theatre in the city's New Center.
  The Fox has 5,048 seats. It is the largest surviving movie palace of the 1920s and the largest of the original Fox Theatres. The Fox was fully restored in 1988. The adjacent office building houses the headquarters of Olympia Entertainment and Little Caesars.
context_section_description: The Fox Office Building, which forms the Woodward façade of the theatre, is 10 stories in height. The front and sides of the office tower are faced with a cream-colored terra cotta. There are decorative lintels above the windows on the second and tenth floor. The building wraps around the theatre lobby creating a u-shaped floor plan. The auditorium and rear of the office tower are faced with brick.
  The current marquee was installed during the 1987 restoration but is based on the original which itself was replaced in the 1950s.
  The original configuration of the street and second floors contained 20 retail spaces on each level. Spaces featured large display windows looking into the corridors and ground floor spaces also had access directly from the street.
  Office space occupied the third through tenth floor and featured marble floors and wainscoting in the corridors. Office doors featured full-length glass with glass transoms above to allow light and ventilation into the corridors. Many of these features remained when the 1987 restoration began with the exception of the seventh floor which was altered in the 1970s to accommodate a Social Security Administration office.
  The theatre entrance on Woodward has 16 doors that open onto the storm lobby with a black and white marble floor and small ornate plaster alcoves in the ceiling. The storm lobby opens into the main lobby which is approximately 87 feet (27 m) deep and six floors high. The floor is terrazzo with brass inlays but it was unseen until the 1988 renovation. Lore says that Eve Leo, wife of Fox President William Fox, was unhappy when she learned that the theatre was to have a bare floor. She insisted it needed carpeting, so it was covered with what was the largest single-piece wool rug ever manufactured. The rug covered 3,600 square feet (330 m²) of the lobby floor and weighed 3,000 pounds (1,400 kg).
  Above the entrance doors are faux organ pipes fashioned from plaster and in a balcony to the upper left is a 3-manual, 13-rank Moller organ with the real pipes in the chamber above the console. The Fox's Moller is the only one still in situ. On each side of the lobby are eight vermillion scagliola columns. The columns rise from black octagonal bases and are adorned with eagles, flowers, glass jewels highlighted by silver leaf to a height of approximately 12 ft (3.7 m). The Corinthian capitals are also silver leafed and bear images of a variety of animals and birds. The columns support plaster beams decorated with faces, starbursts and cartouches. Between the columns are small balconies on the mezzanine and balcony levels that overlook the main floor. The ceiling is blue with a sunburst design surrounded by Fox griffins. At the rear of the lobby, the grand staircase leads to the mezzanine level. Two plaster lions with jeweled eyes guard the base of the stairs and fish-like creatures adorn the balustrades. On the mezzanine level, four additional columns frame two-story windows enclosing the auditorium. A loggia above the windows allows patrons on the balcony level to look down into the lobby.
  Beside the grand stairs are doors leading to the 2,898 orchestra-level seats. The auditorium is 108 ft (33 m) high and 175 ft (53 m) wide. An inner lobby wraps around the seating area and contains two oval stairways leading to upper seating levels and the lounges on the lower level. The walls of the auditorium are shades of beige and are adorned with molded plaster plants, human faces, geometric designs, birds and animals.
  The proscenium is 70 ft (21 m) and 30 ft (9.1 m) high. Like the side walls, it is adorned with animals, human figures, starbursts and flowers. Above the center of the proscenium is an elephant's head. Suspended below the elephant is a large quatrefoil-shaped censer that conceals speakers. The backstage area originally had 18 performer dressing rooms, offices and a broadcast booth. In the basement were staff dressing rooms, workshops, an infirmary, screening room and storage rooms.
  The orchestra pit and sections of the stage can be raised and lowered on hydraulic li
caption: Auditorium
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