Garde Arts Center, Historic theater in New London, Connecticut, United States.
The Garde Arts Center is a theater in New London featuring Moroccan-style interior design with approximately 1,500 seats and eastern-themed wall murals painted by artist Vera Leeper. The building also contains the Oasis Room as an additional performance space and administrative offices within the connected Mercer Building.
The theater was built in 1926 as a vaudeville and movie house, then purchased by Warner Brothers in 1929 for 1 million dollars to focus on talking pictures. The company's acquisition redirected the venue toward film screenings rather than live stage performances.
The center hosts a range of performances from symphony orchestras and theatrical productions to film screenings and contemporary music concerts year-round. Visitors can experience artists working across many different disciplines in a vibrant venue for live entertainment.
The venue sits on State Street and is easy to locate with clear signage at the main entrance and ample lobby space. The property includes multiple connected areas, making navigation straightforward for visitors whether attending an event in the main theater or the smaller Oasis Room.
The building stands on the former site of a whaling merchant's mansion and preserves several original architectural elements from its construction period in the 1920s. These historical details remain visible in the building's corridors and staircases, telling of an earlier era in the city's past.
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