McDonald Theatre

From Lane Co Oregon

Located on 1010 Willamette St. in Eugene.

The McDonald Theatre opened in 1925 as the grandest theater in Eugene. The community theatre currently takes up nearly half of the structure's ground-floor space. The building is on the National Register of Historic Places and is a Eugene historic landmark. The McDonald Theatre was once considered the jewel in the crown of downtown Eugene movie houses. The venue hosted everything from traveling vaudeville companies to major theatre productions. But once, the theater anchored the gut, the town's vital, bustling center. If you stood before the McDonald -- with its huge, blaring vertical sign -- you could see the competing Rex Theater, not half a block away, with the old Heilig Theater at Willamette and 6th Street. Converted to a movie house after the explosion of popularity in motion pictures, the venue today supports live music, plays, and other vibrant community gatherings.