Poncan Theatre, Movie theater in Downtown Ponca City, United States
The Poncan Theatre is a movie house in downtown Ponca City featuring Spanish Colonial Revival style architecture with a stone base and polychrome brick walls above. The building is distinguished by a central curving gable topped with terra cotta ornaments, and large stained glass windows that frame the main entrance.
The Poncan Theatre was designed by the Boller Brothers and opened on September 20, 1927, costing $280,000 with a $22,500 Wurlitzer pipe organ. It ran vaudeville and films until vaudeville ended in the late 1940s. After closing in 1985, the Poncan Theatre Company was founded in 1990, and the renovated building reopened on September 18, 1994. It joined the National Register on November 13, 1984.
The Poncan opened in 1927 as a combined vaudeville and movie house, and the vaudeville acts continued until the late 1940s. Its name contracts "Ponca City" into a single word, the form used on the neon marquee. The Poncan Theatre Company, founded in 1990, led the renovation that returned the building to use as a performance venue.
The theater is situated in the downtown area and is easily accessible on foot for visitors exploring the city center. Before your visit, check ahead for upcoming shows so you can plan your evening accordingly.
The Poncan's 1984 National Register nomination credited John Duncan Forsyth as architect; additional documentation submitted in 2001 established that the Boller Brothers designed the theatre. It was the only site in the Downtown Ponca City Historic District already listed when the district was created in 2011.
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