Hailed as "the ultimate photoplay house," the Beaux-Arts style Rialto opened September 7, 1918. Tacoma's Rialto was part of a national movie house chain and as such, the stage space, orchestra pit and dressing rooms were at a bare minimum. The lobby was also considerably smaller than the current one we see today.

These vaudeville-era theater architects concentrated on the auditorium, seeking acoustically successful theaters and concert halls as models for the ones they designed. The Rialto resembles Vienna's 1916 Redoutensaal, the first "shoe box" shaped orchestral hall. Much of the original ornate plaster decoration-including replicas of cupids and patriotic eagles-remains in good shape today.

By the 1990s, when Tacoma and the Broadway Theater District took on the task of restoring the Rialto, it had become a run-down, second-run discount movie house. Today it is once again an active player in the prosperity of downtown Tacoma.