521 W Main St

From the National Register nomination

This two-story, three-bay Georgian Revival theater is built of six-course American bond brickwork on a poured concrete foundation and features a tripartite facade treatment with a projecting central bay, brick quoins, and an elaborate modillion cornice and pediment. The second story has a pair of semicircular multi-pane stained glass windows (ten-over-ten-over-ten triple-hung sash) with cast-stone keystones and impost blocks, set within brick arches. Two end bays feature second-story brick circular panels flush with the facade that mark the locations of original lantern fixtures. The recessed ground-floor entry has a tiled floor, modern doors, and elaborate ceiling decorations including console brackets, dentil moldings, and rosettes. The ground-level stairhall entry retains an original wooden door with a large glass panel, set into a pedimented surround that features console brackets and dentil moldings. A formerly separate two-story building on the east side of the theater has been incorporated as a wing. It retains a ground-level storefront with a central display window and flanking store and stairhall entries; the second story features a pair of eight-over-eight double-hung windows and a simple wooden entablature. In the second half of the twentieth century, to accommodate another movie screen, the building was expanded to the rear with a large concrete block addition and a one-story office addition. Max Patterson and the Loth family, proprietors of the Star Theatre (see 544 W. Main), had this cinema built in 1926. The silent films were accompanied on the organ by Frank Vanderherschen, who also gave half-hour recitals before the movie. An RCA "talking machine" was installed in 1928 or 1929 and Al Jolson's The Jazz Singer was the first movie with sound to show. In the 1930s the theater marquee proudly announced the R.C.A. High Fidelity Sound System contained within. The Wayne contunued in operation as a movie theater until the 1990s. Owned by the city of Waynesboro, the building is under consideration by the Wayne Theatre Alliance for potential reuse as a performing arts center. (News- Virginian, September 19, 1967; Bowman, Waynesboro Days of Yore vol. 2, 87; Calder Loth personal communication; and "Celebrating Waynesboro's 200 Years").