FLORIDA PLACE TO EXPLORE
Sunrise Theatre
St. Lucie County · Atlantic Coast
A 1923 vaudeville house in downtown Fort Pierce that closed in 1983, was rescued, and reopened in 2006.
ABOUT THIS PLACE
The Sunrise opened on August 1, 1923, at 117 South Second Street, designed by John N. Sherwood in Mediterranean Revival style and built by C.E. Cahow. It had the largest stage between Jacksonville and Miami at the time, and it took vaudeville, plays, films and variety, which made it the cultural center of the town. It declined through the middle of the century and closed in 1983. The St. Lucie Preservation Association bought the building in 1997. A restoration grant of 750,000 dollars got part of it open again in 1999, and the full renovation with proper support spaces finished in 2005, with the theater fully reopening on January 6, 2006. It went on the National Register of Historic Places on December 7, 2001. Willie Nelson, Diana Ross and Bryan Adams have played here since. A federal grant in 2021 kept it running through the closures of the pandemic, and it anchors the downtown around it
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