State Theatre Center for the Arts

History

The State Theatre Center for the Arts is a roughly 1,500-seat house at 453 Northampton Street in Easton, in the Lehigh Valley. A bank facade from 1873 remains; Neumeyer’s vaudeville house opened on the site in 1910, and Philadelphia architect William H. Lee rebuilt it in 1925–26 as the State, with Spanish-inspired decoration. It was listed on the National Register in 1982. When demolition loomed, the Friends of the State Theatre bought it and made it a nonprofit. Since 2003 it has produced the Freddy Awards for area high-school musicals. (Wikipedia; State Theatre history page.)