The Oriental Theatre was a movie theater located at 828 SE Grand Street in the East Portland commercial district of Portland, Oregon. Built in 1927, the Oriental was a 2,038-seat movie palace designed by Lee Arden Thomas and Albert Mercier. The building's exterior was in the Italian Renaissance style. The interior had an "almost surreal appearance" created by interior designer Adrien Alex Voisin. It was built by George Warren Weatherly. Demolished in 1970, the theater was located next to the Weatherly Building, which remains standing.Architecture and constructionWalter Eugene Tebbetts is listed as "the promoter who persuaded Weatherly to build a theatre," and was the first lessee and manager of the theater. Tebbetts previously managed the Italian Opera House in Chicago before arriving in Portland around 1909, after which he ran the Empire Theatre and a series of movie theaters, including the Hollywood Theatre. Tebbetts presumably visited the East Indies while travelling abroad in the late 1920s, and wanted a theatre designed to look like an East Indian temple.Thomas and Mercier were chosen for their "association with East Portland" and their previous theatre design experience with the Bagdad Theater in Portland, McDonald Theatre in Eugene, and the Egyptian Theatre in Coos Bay. They moved into the Weatherly Building upon its completion. The building cost was "variously reported between $300,000 and $500,000." The general contractor of the building was Robertson, Hay, and Wallace. While under construction, the project was called the "Crystal Ice & Storage Co. Office & Theatre Building."
