The F.M. Kirby Center for the Performing Arts started life as a movie theater in 1938. It was a lavish art deco establishment with 5 lobbies and seating for 2000 people. The giant Lavaliere chandelier can still be seen in the foyer. The Paramount Theater, as it was known, took a battering in the 1970s and 1980s. The flood of 1972 destroyed many downtown buildings and commercial activity moved elsewhere. For a while the grand old building was a boxing arena. When it was threatened with demolition, it was saved by concerned residents but remained abandoned until 1986 when F.M. Kirby, the co-founder of Woolworths, and other sponsors restored and remodeled it.
71 Public Square, Wilkes-Barre, Phone: 570-826-1100