The Colorado Theater’s Sign Carried 1,000 Bulbs. The Theater Opened in 1926 on the Opera House Corner.
The National Register form describes a 35-foot sign and a Publix movie house. County records show the building changed hands in 2024.
According to the National Register of Historic Places form for the Colorado Building, the Colorado Theater’s original vertical sign stood 35 feet high and 5 feet wide. It held 1,000 orange and white light bulbs that spelled out “Colorado Theater.” The form says the sign is no longer in place.
The form says the Sunday Pueblo Chieftain of November 21, 1926, “headed the opening” of the theater. It does not give the opening night itself.
The building
The form, prepared in May 1991, credits Denver architect William N. Bowman with the Colorado Building and gives 1925 as its significant date. It cites the Pueblo Daily Chieftain of October 9, 1925, which described a four-story fireproof building with stores and a theater on the first floor and 160 office rooms above.
The form says the building went up in place of the old Opera House, destroyed in a March 1, 1922 fire. It calls the theater “actually a separate building on the Northwest corner of the site.” It describes the Colorado Building as one of two known buildings in Pueblo with Sullivanesque influence, and notes that Louis Sullivan designed the opera house.
The first two major tenants, the form says, were the Southern Colorado Power Company and the Publix Theater Corporation. It quotes the Chieftain calling Publix “the largest theater operating company in the world.”
Inside, as of 1991
The form describes murals in surrealist designs on the auditorium walls and a center projection booth with 1940s equipment still in place. All balcony seats had been removed. The orchestra pit was covered, but dressing rooms remained under the stage.
A painted Turkish scene above the stage, by local artist Charles Schoor, was already gone. The original auditorium chandelier was removed sometime before 1960. The lobby had been “greatly altered.” The form calls the theater “long vacant” and says it might be replaced by a parking lot. That did not happen, so far as the sources we opened show.
The sign, marquee and ticket booth were replaced around 1950, when J. J. Newberry bought the building, according to the form.
Ownership and sale
A Pueblo County parcel record for 401 N. Main, which states it is current as of October 17, 2026, lists the owner as Two Khings Development LLC. It shows a special warranty deed dated May 13, 2024, with a stated price of $1,785,000, from Pueblo Land LLC.
An undated trade report said the building, listed through Denver-based Unique Properties, was for sale at just under $1.9 million. It said the theater seated more than 1,000 when built. The Pueblo Film Commission also says the theater has been closed for decades and is “now back on the real estate market,” but that page is undated. Neither establishes whether the building is for sale as of October 17.
What we don’t know yet
- The opening night. The form gives only the November 21, 1926 Chieftain.
- The current condition of the interior. The form is from 1991.
- Whether any listing is active today.