Richard E. Polton

Fred Wesley Wentworth and the Wentworth era span from the 1890s to the 1940s. Starting out as a local architect designing homes, commercial buildings and institutions for leading citizens in Paterson, New Jersey, his career quickly transformed by way of a Jewish entrepreneur, Jacob Fabian, into the archetect of grand movie palaces throughout New Jersey and the movie palace prototype nationwide.  In addition, he was well know of his designs of institituions of Jewish life.  These buildings shaped generations of immigrants and their chidlren and created a place that offered a sophisticated urban life.