Last week, I took in a view I thought I’d never see: the interior of the original Maltz Theater, hidden underneath the three built-in cinemas of the State Theater.

My generation only knew it as a three-cinema theater, with perhaps some memory of the two balconies upstairs and recollections from older family members who remembered it as a one-cinema showroom.

Clearing out years of remodels had revealed the original one-cinema design. Horse-hair plaster walls with busts adorning the tops, an old, creaky stage with remnants of the curtain high above, and a room so quiet you could hear a whisper echo through the hall. Like many others, I had always dreamed of seeing the old theater restored to its former historic grandeur — but never thought I’d see it come to reality so soon.

Last August, local developers Jeff and Tina Konczak announced they had purchased both movie theaters downtown with the intention to renovate them both and restore the Maltz Theater to its historic state.

Last Friday, they revealed what they had found in the State Theater after months of demolition in the building. The photos released on their website for Alpena Marc LLC revealed what many hoped: Underneath many years of remodeling lay a grand theater, with many of its architectural features and historic detailing left intact.

Since its 1925 construction, the theater building has seen its fair share of remodels over the years as the entertainment industry shifted with changing tastes and technologies. From traveling troupes to the first talkie that drew 4,000 audience members in a day, from W.S. Butterfield Theatres Inc. to its most recent AMC management, the theater has remained — since 1879 — the center of entertainment for the Alpena and Northeast Michigan community.

On Aug. 3, 1955, the Maltz Theater officially reopened as the State Theater, sporting the name and facade that most of us know it by today. When it reopened, it boasted the finest entertainment experience in northern Michigan, including “luxurious new carpet,” air conditioning, state-of-the-art Cinemascope technology, and its new marquee lighting up its new name.

“For the first time in seventy-six years, Alpena is without a Maltz theater– but it may be many years hence until old-timers adapt themselves of ‘going to the State’ instead of the “Maltz,” reads a 1955 Alpena News article on the State’s opening provided by the Special Collections Department at the Alpena County George N. Fletcher Public Library. “Whatever the name may be, however the Second-av theater will continue to boast a long and colorful history dating back to when the Maltz Opera House Block took shape in 1879 under George L. Maltz.

“Surviving three U.S. wars, four depressions, and a $150,000 fire in 1925, the Maltz, like some indestructible giant of entertainment, plodded on to present, growing Alpena with its first movies, first “talkies” and first Cinemascope productions.

Decked in its bright new attire, the reincarnated Maltz — sporting the name of the State Theater — opens its doors again tonight at 6:30 pm to entertain the descendants of its first customers.”

What will this new chapter in the Maltz’s long and colorful history be?

What stories, times, and changes will its walls see?

What a beautiful day it will be when its doors will open again to entertain the descendants of its first customers — and that new chapter will begin.

Anne Gentry graduated from Brown University with a degree in comparative literature and has studied in Italy and South Australia. She is currently executive director of the Alpena Downtown Development Authority.