Originally opened in 1929 as a vaudeville house and saved for posterity by a preservation movement that began with the Orpheum's purchase by the City of Phoenix in 1984, this gracious facility reopened in early 1997. Now on the National Register of Historic Places, the building's checkered past includes stints as a member of the Paramount moviehouse chain, a Spanish-language cinema, and a rock venue. The remodeled interior is lush and classic, a showy, almost campy -- and assuredly unlikely -- mix of Colonial Revival and Spanish Baroque that somehow works.
