in the house

Here's a slight variation on This Old House-Thursday. We're inside the Latchis Theatre, an old movie house. Though it is still used primarily to show movies, last weekend Wangari Maathai, Nobel Prize winner for her Green Belt Movement, spoke there to a full house.

Here is an excerpt from the Brattleboro Arts Initiative literature about the theater:

The Latchis Hotel and Theatre Building, completed in 1938, was built as a memorial to the life and work of Demetrius P. Latchis. A Greek immigrant, Demetrius had developed Latchis Enterprises from a single fruit stand in Brattleboro into a family chain that at one time included 15 movie theaters and three hotels along the Connecticut River Valley. After his death, his four sons decided to honor their father with a building that would be incomparable to any other in the region. 
The four-story block on Main and Flat streets featured an Art Deco exterior and an interior that honored the family's heritage with murals of Greek mythology, reproductions of the ancient Acropolis in Athens, statues of Greek gods and goddesses, and a canvas ceiling featuring all of the Zodiac constellations. The Latchis flourished with a screen montage of movies, a stage filled with bands and live performances, and a ballroom swirling with dancing. It was once touted as "The House of Distinctive Attractions," and it lived up to its name.