If you’ve ever sat inside the Plaza Theatre and looked up at that fake starlit sky while the Mighty Wurlitzer rose from the orchestra pit, you already know there is no place in El Paso quite like it.
With the Plaza Classic Film Festival returning for its 19th year July 16 to 26, 2026, it felt like the perfect time to revisit the wild, dramatic, almost-didn’t-make-it history of our city’s most iconic landmark.
The Plaza Theater Was Built During The Great Depression
The Plaza Theatre was built in 1929 to 1930, in the midst of the Great Depression. Which is already kind of remarkable if you think about it. While the rest of the country was scraping by, El Paso was about to get one of the most spectacular movie palaces in the American Southwest.
In February 1927, the owner of the principal El Paso theaters, Louis L. Dent, bought the property on Pioneer Plaza with the stated intention of doing something good for the city. Upon purchase, he told the El Paso Times, “El Paso has been good to me, and I am going to put something everybody will be proud of.”…