Gowanda Historic Hollywood Theater Lighting

The Gowanda Hollywood Theater, located in Gowanda, NY, opened on April 16, 1926. It was designed by the renowned architects Leon Lempert and Son of Rochester. It hosted live performances, vaudeville shows and motion pictures. It boasts marble floors, ornate plaster designs, softly lit ceiling dome, and 990 seats.

In 1992, after many years of entertainment, the theater closed its doors. Water, weather and lack of heat damaged the building. Fortunately, in the mid 1990’s, the Gernatt Family of Companies purchased the theater and donated it to the Gowanda community. Today, the Gowanda’s Historic Hollywood Theater Ltd., a non-profit organization that was created for this purpose, runs the extensive restoration of the theater, striving to return it to its original glory.

Grand Light was selected to completely restore the theater’s light fixtures. Among the fixtures are 12 floral accented wall sconces, 5 large flower shaped recessed lighting, more than twenty pendant lights of different sizes, and 13 exit signs. Grand Light will clean all the components and re-wire them to meet current electrical codes. Paint was also applied as needed and any broken or missing glass was replaced with glass that closely matched the originals.

Project Accolades

“A small town, cultural asset has been brought back to life after 14 years of committed efforts by Gowanda’s Historic Hollywood Theater organization and the preservation design team, to provide continued use by the Southern Tier region, as its founder originally intended almost 100 years ago.”

“A project that embodies excellence through maintenance, stabilization, repair, planning, restoration, stewardship, adaptive re-use, or rehabilitation of our built environment.”