History

On November 4, 1922, archaeologist Howard Carter broke through a sealed doorway in the Valley of the Kings and discovered the intact burial chamber of the pharaoh Tutankhamun. The find—golden treasures, painted walls, the mummy of a boy-king dead for three thousand years—ignited a global fascination with ancient Egypt that infiltrated fashion, product design, and architecture almost overnight. Within two years, Egyptian-themed buildings were rising across the United States, from humble storefronts to elaborate movie palaces.

David Henry Peery, a prominent Ogden property developer, commissioned the Egyptian Theater to capitalise on this craze and give his city a landmark entertainment venue on Washington Boulevard. The theatre opened in 1924 as a silent-film house, its orchestra pit accommodating the musicians who scored the pictures. Sound arrived in the late 1920s, and the theatre prospered through the Depression as one of Ogden’s main entertainment destinations. Like many single-screen palaces, it struggled in the post-war era against the rise of the drive-in and the suburban multiplex, eventually closing as a first-run cinema.

Weber County acquired and began restoring the theatre in the 1980s—1990s, a project that addressed decades of deferred maintenance while preserving the original Egyptian decorative scheme. The restored Egyptian Theater was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and today functions as a public performing arts venue hosting touring acts, community theatre, film events, and jazz festivals.