The Casino Theatre, constructed in 1912, was the first and only theatre built in Gunnison and is historically significant as the town’s best example of high-style architecture. Standing as a two-story rectangular building with its narrow end facing Main Street among more modest late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century commercial buildings, it served for nine decades as Gunnison’s principal center of commercial entertainment, hosting both movies and live productions. One of Utah’s most ornate examples of the Beaux Arts style, it features a symmetrical façade with large fluted columns supporting arched pediments, a heavy cornice decorated with modillions and dentils, terra cotta floral garlands, bas-relief cherubs over a recessed central entrance, and twin winged victories above second-story arched windows. Its interior includes a large auditorium with a stage on the main floor, dressing rooms in the rear basement, and a four-room apartment and projection room in the front section of the second story. The theatre owed its existence to Sims M. Duggins, an active businessman, promoter, and owner of the Gunnison Co-op and other enterprises. The Duggins family managed the building until the mid-1930s and owned it until the 1940s, and from 1936 to 1940 manager C. E. Huish made a number of changes, including changing its name from the Casino Theatre to the Star Theatre.