Fox Theatre, Art Deco performance theater in Spokane, United States

The Fox Theater is a 1931 Art Deco movie palace in downtown Spokane, Washington, designed by Robert C. Reamer with interiors by Anthony Heinsbergen. Its concrete exterior carries incised bas-reliefs: stylized eagles on the Sprague Avenue facade and butterflies facing Monroe Street. Inside, the carpet stands for the ocean, the ground floor and lobby for an underwater seascape, the balcony for treetops, and the ceiling for celestial bodies, centered on an 18-metre sunburst light fixture with nine smaller star chandeliers.

The building was designed by architect Robert Reamer and opened in 1931, during the years following the stock market crash. A thorough restoration in the 2000s brought the technical equipment up to date while keeping the original decorative elements intact.

The Fox was built as a movie palace at the end of the vaudeville and silent-film era, so it was fitted for live stage acts as well as films: a full-height proscenium stage, stage house, orchestra pit, dressing rooms, fly system and a Wurlitzer pipe organ. It closed as a cinema on September 21, 2000, after a run of Gladiator, and now serves as a performing arts venue and home of the Spokane Symphony.

The theatre sits in the heart of downtown Spokane and is easy to reach on foot from most central hotels and restaurants. Arriving a little before the show starts gives you time to look around the decorated interior before the hall fills up.

Workers discovered an original hand-painted fire curtain hidden above the stage during the restoration, where it had gone unnoticed for decades. It was carefully restored and can still be seen during certain events at the venue.