Box Office Brewery

Box Office Brewery is located inside the historic “Strand Theatre” in Strasburg, VA. This theatre is believed to be the first large, fully developed movie theater in Shenandoah County. Constructed around 1918, this masonry venue at first showed only silent films. It was also used by locals for community and school events as well as traveling vaudeville. The name was changed to the Strasburg Theater in the 1930’s and continued use as a theater until 1955 when the doors were finally closed. This theater was known as the “Gathering Place” by most locals. The front entrance to Box Office Brewery was known as the theater lobby. Behind the lobby is the large, one story theater auditorium. Over the front section known as the lobby was a prominent ornamental metal marquee projecting over the sidewalk with a vertical blade sign that read “Theatre.” The front facade was originally built with red brick but later roughly finished with stucco around 1960. The theaters high ceiling is finished in ornamental pressed tin sections and a tin cornice. The strand theatre seating 750 people and was heated with a wood stove in the winter. The chimney still stands on the exterior wall close to the stage. Quite possibly the most important feature of the theater is a series of landscape paintings on both side walls depicting various sites around Strasburg. They are locally important artwork believed to be the oldest known murals in not only Strasburg but Shenandoah County as well.