Dixie Crystal Theatre | |
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| Location | 100 E. Sugarland Hwy., Clewiston, Florida |
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| Coordinates | 26°45′14″N 80°56′04″W / 26.75389°N 80.93444°W |
| Area | less than one acre |
| Built | 1941 |
| Built by | Anderson, Earl Anderson Contracting Co. |
| Architect | C.A. Cone |
| Architectural style | Moderne |
| NRHP reference No. | 98001202[1] |
| Added to NRHP | September 25, 1998 |
The Dixie Crystal Theatre (also known as the Clewiston Theater) is a historic site in Clewiston, Hendry County, Florida. It is located at 100 East Sugarland Highway. It first opened in 1941.[2][3] In 1998, it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.[1]
It is a flat-roofed one-story masonry movie theater, built in a simplified Moderne style – one of the few buildings in the area to feature this type of architecture.[3] In 1940, the building was commissioned by Mary Hayes Davis, a newspaper publisher and businesswoman who operated a chain of movie theaters in south Florida and the Lake Okeechobee region.[3] It was her second theater in Clewiston with that name.[3] Davis had opened the first Dixie Crystal Theatre at the corner of Sugarland Highway and Central Avenue in 1934.[3] The theaters got their name from the local sugar industry product.[4]
The architect of the new Dixie Crystal Theatre was Chester A. Cone of West Palm Beach and Palm Beach, who also designed the Prince Theatre in Pahokee.[3][5] The builder and contractor was Earl Anderson.[6] It is 45 by 93 feet (14 m × 28 m) in plan.[3]
The Clewiston Theater was integrated peacefully on July 20, 1964, when five African American youths attended an evening show there for the first time.[7] A Hendry County sheriff's deputy and a Clewiston policeman were present for the duration of the film.[7]
The theater closed briefly in 2011, but soon reopened, featuring live bands, first-run movies, and independent films.[8] By early 2015, the Clewiston Theater had closed.[8] As of 2023, the theatre has been converted into a dentist office.
