Halsam American Brick Build - The Little Theatre

In the mid-1950s' Halsam offered interlocking brick building toys made from pressed wood. I'm assembling each of the models shown in the instruction booklet for their 60/1 and 60/2 building sets. I'm calling it the Halsam American Brick Build.

The ninth build is The Little Theatre. This is another structure that looks like it belongs in a small town. I can image such a theater showing movies in the 1930s, and then falling into disrepair before being rescued in the 1970s for community theater.

The build itself was very simple. The walls just go straight up, with no gaps to span.

There were two unusual features to the theatre, though. The first is the use of offset brick. This left small openings in the upper rows. It's a good concept to remember if you want to build for height. The offset pattern uses less bricks than a solid course, letting you build more courses. 

The second concept was the ornamentation for the flat roof. In this case, it's just the triangle pieces used for roofing turned face-down. Still, they give the appearance of an ornate cornice. And they also help hold the flat roof panels in place.