Tower Theater, Movie theater in Little Havana, Miami, US.
The Tower Theater stands at SW Eighth Street and Fifteenth Avenue in Miami, its yellow stucco facade topped by a stepped parapet trimmed with blue and white triangles. A 40-foot steel tower rises from the center, and a marquee sign reads "TOWER" above "THEATER" in individual letters. Two grid-paned windows flank the entrance.
The Robdendon Corporation opened the Tower Theater in December 1926 as a Wometco first-run house. After a 1931 remodeling led by Robert Law Weed, it gained an Art Deco exterior with a 40-foot steel tower and joined Wolfson-Meyer Theatrical Enterprises. From the late 1950s it added Spanish subtitles, then Spanish-language films, before closing in 1984; Miami Dade College took it over after a 2002 remodeling.
The theater sits on SW Eighth Street, Calle Ocho, where Cuban refugees settled from the late 1950s. It soon screened English-language films with Spanish subtitles, then Spanish-language films, serving as an introduction to American culture for many Cuban families.
The theater stands at the corner of SW Eighth Street and Fifteenth Avenue, on Calle Ocho in Little Havana, so it is reached on foot along the street's sidewalks. Programming is run under the Miami Film Festival, so screenings follow festival programming rather than a fixed weekly schedule; check the marquee and listings before going.
In 2011, USA Today listed the Tower Theater among the ten great places to see a movie in splendor, in its round-up of America's best old-fashioned movie palaces. The 40-foot steel tower added in the 1931 Art Deco remodeling made the building a landmark on Calle Ocho.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 93,936 contributors worldwide.
