West Virginia Historic Theatre Trail brochure

Victoria Theatre1228 Market St., Wheeling, WV304.233.7476www.victoria-theater.comTowngate Theatre2118 Market St., Wheeling, WV304.242.7700www.oionline.com22First opening its doors in 1904, VictoriaTheater is the oldest operating theater inWest Virginia. Located in the registeredhistoric market district of Wheeling, theVictoria is a 720 seat Victorian style theaterwith many Beaux-Arts design influences.In 1934 the Victoria Theater served fora short period as home to the WWVAJamboree. Today, the Victoria Theater, alsoknown as the Victoria Vaudeville servesas a venue for live acts, including an Elvisimpersonator, country, bluegrass, rock, andgospel music. (Listed NRHP 1979)Built in 1850 as the Zion Lutheran Church,Towngate was acquired by the Oglebay Institutein 1969 for use as a community theatre. The twostory Gothic, Greek and Italianate Revival stylebuilding has a façade with a central tower andlarge Gothic Revival windows. Early renovationsinvolved removing pews from the nave andreplacing them with theatre seats from an areamovie house. A stage replaced the altar area andthe church’s balcony became a lighting booth.Since then, the building has been upgraded andrefurbished with particular care to preserve itsarchitectural integrity. The theatre seats 166 andoperates year round with 10 theatrical productions,25 weekend movie screenings, 2 film festivals and5-6 unplugged music events. (Listed NRHP 1984)REGION 4 | NORTHTowngate Theatre