Old Jefferson Theater
At the corner of Cordova Street and Cathedral Place in the heart of the Old City, the Jefferson Theater was originally constructed in 1907, serving as an Opera and Vaudeville House, the theater was later converted to show silent films. During the silent era, there was a large, lit roof sign proclaiming the Theater's name.
The theater is a four-story building with arched windows on the upper floor and adorned with brick lintel. In 2019, a terrorist attack resulted in a fire that gutted the front of the building and left the theater uninhabitable to its then residents, the Bright Center for Excellence.
In 1927, a small two-manual Robert Morton Theatre organ was installed, a casualty to the recent violence.
In the 1940s, the Jefferson Theater was operated by Paramount Pictures Inc. through their subsidiary E.J. Sparks. In 1955, the Theater was closed down and purchased by the Bright Holding Company, who converted it to the headquarters for the Bright Group, a self-help and social networking organization which - for a time - became the most popular religious institution in San Augustin, but was later relegated to a curiousity for most of the populace.
A number of dressing rooms and storage space from the old theater have been converted into sitting rooms, dens, and living space for Bright Group Adherents and volunteers, who remained at the theater during its operation to care for the building and manage the day-to-day operation of the organization's community outreach programs.
The ground floor consists of the theater itself, the lobby, the converted dressing rooms, now called The Den, the Lounge, and the Rose Room. On the second floor, is the upper balcony of the theater, the hall connecitng the stairs and elevators to the lobby, and the Green Room, a large, lavishly appointed, but decidedly green ball room, connected by thehallway to the kitchens, offices, and the living area for resident Adhrents on the third floor.
The upper floor houses the Boardroom, where the Child's Table (ostensibly the governing body of the Bright Center), and the Bright Room, the personal living quarters for the Bright Child - the organization's spiritual leader (until her destruction in 2019, the Salubri Dasha Bright).
