Historic Elitch Theatre

John and Mary Elitch opened Elitch Gardens on May 1, 1890, on a 16-acre former farm in Denver's Highland neighborhood, with an open-air theatre inspired by Shakespeare's Globe. The theatre was enclosed and rebuilt the following year, and in 1893 it became home to the Norcross Company, organized as the first resident summer-stock theatre troupe in the country. John Elitch died in 1891, leaving Mary to run the gardens and theatre; she managed the operation successfully for years before selling it in 1916, retaining the right to keep her own viewing box and to continue living on the property until her death in 1936.

Under new ownership the Elitch Theatre built a reputation as a proving ground and destination for major stage and screen talent. Sarah Bernhardt performed there in 1906 after the San Francisco earthquake canceled her scheduled California engagement, and the theatre's summer stock seasons brought through performers including Douglas Fairbanks (who first worked there sweeping the stage for tickets in 1905), Grace Kelly, Robert Redford, Mitzi Gaynor, Patty Duke, and Jose Ferrer over the following decades. In 1953 the building was used to film scenes for "The Glenn Miller Story."

The Elitch Garden Theatre Company incorporated separately from the amusement park in 1963 and continued producing through the 1970s and 1980s, but the building fell into disrepair as the culture around single-run touring shows changed. The park's Trocadero Ballroom was demolished in 1975, and fearing the same fate the community placed the theatre on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. The theatre company's last full season ran in 1987, with a single centennial performance in 1991 before the building closed. Elitch Gardens itself relocated to a new site in the Platte Valley in 1994, leaving the theatre and its carousel pavilion as the only structures remaining at the original site, sold to a private developer in 1996 under conditions that both buildings never be demolished.

The nonprofit Historic Elitch Gardens Theatre Foundation formed in 2002 to restore and reopen the building. A 2006 grant of roughly $5 million, plus additional city, state, and private funding, financed exterior restoration completed by 2010; the interior reopened to the public in stages starting with Doors Open Denver in 2012. Restoration has continued since, funded largely through volunteer effort and donations, with live shows returning to the stage for the first time in more than three decades starting in 2024. The building has also weathered setbacks, including hail damage in 2018 and a string of break-ins by local teenagers in 2025 that prompted the volunteer-run Foundation to add security cameras.