Colvin & Earle, San Antonio

The soil beneath Charline McCombs Empire Theatre has nurtured the arts for more than 130 years. Following a decade when the Turner Opera House bloomed with song, the Charline McCombs Empire Theatre took root in that topsoil, becoming San Antonio’s beacon for vaudeville, theatre, and motion pictures. Designed as a European palazzo with lush draperies, a charming floral interior with gold leafing, and the most modern steel construction of its time, the Empire survived nine feet of water during the flood of 1921, but couldn’t survive the '70s. Years of gradual decline and unwanted drafts culminated in the theater finally closing its doors in 1978.

In the decades after, the painstaking restoration efforts of the Las Casas Foundation returned the luster to this downtown jewel. Today, six pounds of gold leaf couple with refinished mahogany and autumnal tones to bring warmth to every production while a copper eagle above the entrance welcomes audiences. In 1999, the venue was added to the National Register of Historic Places and still continues drawing in audiences to its intimate 856-seat interior.