Schine Holland Theatre, Dutch Revival movie theater in Bellefontaine, United States.
The Schine Holland Theatre is a Dutch Revival movie house in Bellefontaine featuring Flemish-style stepped gables and Dutch cross bond brick construction on its exterior. Inside, the auditorium has exposed beamed ceilings, slate flooring, and one screen with seating for roughly 1,200 people.
The theater was built in 1931 by the Schine Circuit Theatres chain, which operated a network of roughly 185 locations across six eastern states at that time. Its construction with the distinctive Dutch design was part of the chain's expansion during cinema's peak years.
The theater displays Dutch architectural features throughout its design, with decorative windmills and village scenes that transport visitors to a 17th-century Netherlands setting. This design approach creates a space where the visual surroundings reflect a specific cultural landscape from European history.
The theater is located on East Columbus Avenue and is straightforward to navigate with its single-screen setup. Visitors should plan to arrive early during showings, as it tends to reach capacity with regular moviegoers.
This is the sole copyrighted Dutch atmospheric theater design in the United States, featuring working mechanical windmills inside the auditorium itself. These motorized elements were a technical feature that allowed the chain to create a fully immersive European village experience.
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