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The State Theatre opened on September 14, 1927 in Marysville, California as the National Theatre. It was designed by the San Francisco firm Bliss & Fairweather, whose work included a number of commercial and civic buildings across Northern California in the 1920s. The theatre followed a Mission Revival exterior with a stucco façade, shallow ornament and a row of niches across the upper story that once held urns. It seated about 1,670 and included a full stage, orchestra pit and backstage space with eleven dressing rooms.
The theatre opened with Guy Newall’s “The Ghost Train,” also known as Der Geisterzug. A Wurlitzer organ accompanied the program, played by organist Alice Clemo during the opening engagement. The stage measured roughly forty feet wide and ninety feet deep, which gave the building the flexibility to host both film and live acts during its early years.
In 1936 the theater underwent a remodel. The interior finishes were updated and the building was officially renamed the State Theatre. By this point the theatre operated exclusively as a movie house. In 1970 the balcony was enclosed to create a second auditorium. The twinning removed much of the original upper-level plasterwork and left the façade paired with a boxy metal marquee.
The theatre closed in 1996. Since then the interior has deteriorated significantly. The owners and the City of Marysville have been in a prolonged dispute over code violations, fire-safety issues and the condition of the structure. Inspections recorded debris, damaged wiring and even vehicles stored inside the lobby. The city issued multiple notices to repair and labeled the property a public nuisance, but no substantial restoration work followed.
Today the exterior remains, although altered, while the interior is in poor condition. The surviving façade still shows the outline of Bliss & Fairweather’s Mission Revival design, but the building behind it reflects decades of neglect. It stands as one of Marysville’s last remaining large historic theaters and a reminder of how quickly a structure erodes once it falls out of use.
