Burford Theatre

110-112-116-118 South Summit Street

In November 1919, J.B. Burford and his associates purchased Highland Hall, the town’s first opera house that was built in 1883, as an initial step toward their plan to build a moving picture palace.

They also purchased the Isabella Block building next door, to the south of Highland Hall.

The Saddle Rock Café had operated in the Isabella Block at 118 S. Summit St. since at least the early 1900s. 

The buildings were razed in 1924 for construction of the new Burford Theatre. 

It opened in September of that year and the opening represented an investment of $300,000.

The two-story Burford Theatre, connected to the adjacent Burford Commercial Building, has a total frontage of 125 feet. 

The theater was built as a venue for vaudeville shows, local artistic productions and movie events.

Ginger Rogers performed on the Burford stage as part of a vaudeville act in the mid- to late 1930s. 

The Arkalalah coronation was held at the theater in the 1930s, the early years of the town’s annual fall festival.

Actress Janis Carter, who starred in the movie “Santa Fe,” visited the theater in 1951 for the staging of the movie’s premiere.

The theater underwent several changes to its interior through the years.

It closed in 2004, and then-owner B&B Theatres donated the building to the Arkansas City Area Arts Council.

The council then led a 12-year, $7.5 million effort to restore the theater to its original 1920s look.

Community volunteers, professional construction workers and a New York-based restoration firm worked long hours to restore the theater, which reopened in 2016.

The prairie-style structure with Neoclassical decorative elements is a three-bay buff building with wreath and garland.