Garde Arts Center

It owns and operates the Garde Theatre, a historic movie palace and current concert venue with approximately 1,500 seats.

It has a Moroccan-style interior featuring middle-eastern themed wall murals by Vera Leeper.

The Garde was named after Walter Garde, a Hartford and New London businessman; it opened on September 22, 1926 with the silent film The Marriage Clause starring matinee idols Francis X. Bushman (1883-1966) and Billie Dove (1903-1997).

The Garde was closed in 1977 under the ownership of RKO-Stanley-Warner and sold to a local business family.

It was in danger of being demolished until 1985 when the Garde Arts Center was founded to save and reuse the theatre.