Sous-fonds SF1 - C. Howard Crane, Architect

C. Howard Crane, Architect was the private practice of the architect Charles Howard Crane. Crane's practice officially began around 1911, though his career as a draftsman and architect sometimes overlapped, with plans listing him as an architect as early as 1906. Crane was frequently hired to refurbish storefronts into motion picture theatres. Some of his earliest buildings were the Majestic Theatre, the Empire Theatre, and the Empress Theatre, all in Detroit. In 1911, Crane designed the Columbia Theatre, which was the first major motion picture house in the Detroit area, complete with an orchestra pit and pipe organ to accomodate the films with musical accompaniment. Crane went on to design several more theatres in Detroit including the Vaudette, the Comique, the Hippodrome, the Garden Theatre, and the Palace. Crane's success in designing theatres in Detroit led to commissions across Canada and the United States, including Buffalo, NY, Toronto, ON, London, ON, Montreal, QC, Winnipeg, MB, Vancouver, BC, Halifax, NS, Edmonton, AB, and Cleveland, OH, among others. Theatre commissions made up the bulk of Crane's work up until the early 1930's. Some of Crane's more high-profile clients included Irving Berlin, Sam Harris, and Archie and Edgar Selwyn. In the mid-to-late-1920's Crane became the principal architect for two minor film studios: United Artists and Fox Film Corp. By 1927, Crane had two associates and his firm built theatres for the two studios across the United States throughout the rest of the 1920s. Though Crane continued to receive theatre commissions in the early 1930s, his business had mostly dried up by 1932. In 1932, Crane moved to London, England where he operated an office out of both Detroit and London and continued to primarily build theatres. The firm closed shortly after the Second World War when Crane retired.