Walk down 19th Street in Allentown and you will find a theater that has been putting on shows since Calvin Coolidge was president. The Civic Theatre of Allentown was founded in 1927 by two Morning Call newspaper reporters who were caught up in the little theatre movement that was sweeping the country. Their first production was a one act play called Suppressed Desires, performed at the National Guard Armory. Nearly a century later, the curtain is still going up.
A Movie Palace Reborn
The 19th Street Theatre building opened on September 17, 1928, built by Rubin Mainker and Alex Minker. It featured a Moller DeLuxe theater organ that cost $16,000, a fortune at the time. The Civic Little Theatre purchased the building in July 1957 for $95,000, giving the company a permanent home that matched its ambitions.
In 2018, Civic Theatre completed a major restoration of the historic building, returning the space to its original beauty. The renovation earned statewide recognition and gave audiences a glimpse of what the theater looked like when it first opened nearly a century ago. The ornate details, the craftsmanship, the feeling of stepping into another era. It is all there.
Community Theater at Its Best
Civic Theatre is a community theater, which means the casts are made up of local volunteers alongside experienced performers. The quality of the productions regularly surprises people who assume community theater means amateur hour. The company tackles everything from classic musicals to contemporary dramas, and the talent that shows up on audition nights speaks to the depth of performing arts passion in this valley.
Nearly a century of continuous production makes the Civic Theatre one of the most enduring theater companies in the entire country. That kind of longevity does not happen by accident. It happens because generation after generation of Lehigh Valley residents have decided that live theater matters enough to keep showing up, both on stage and in the audience.
