Paris Theatre, Theater and concert venue in Old Town Chinatown, Portland, United States
The Paris Theatre is a live music and events venue housed in a brick building in Old Town Chinatown, Portland, on the corner of Third Avenue and Burnside Street. The building has several levels arranged around a central stage on the ground floor.
The building opened in 1890 as the Third Avenue Theatre, first operating as a burlesque house. Over the following decades it became a cinema, then passed through several other uses before becoming the music venue it is today.
The Paris Theatre sits in Old Town Chinatown, a part of Portland where old brick buildings and night venues stand side by side. The multilevel layout means that on a busy night, people can watch a show from several different angles and heights.
The venue sits on a busy corner, so arriving a little early helps to get your bearings before an event starts. Parking is available in the area but tends to fill up on event nights, so walking or using public transit is a good option.
Between 1972 and 1976, the theater ran the same adult films on a continuous loop, a practice that was common in urban cinemas of that era. This chapter of its past makes the building a rare surviving example of a now-gone type of city cinema.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 60,000 contributors worldwide.
