Paramount Arts Center — Ashland, Kentucky

The Paramount Arts Center is an Art Deco movie palace built in 1931 in downtown Ashland, Kentucky, at the northern end of the U.S. 23 Country Music Highway. Originally opened as a cinema during the golden age of movie palaces, the theater was saved from demolition in the 1970s and restored as a performing arts venue.

Ashland sits in the heart of a region that produced a remarkable concentration of country music talent. The Judds — Naomi and Wynonna — grew up in Ashland, and Billy Ray Cyrus was raised just across the river in nearby Flatwoods and Ironton. The Paramount now hosts national touring acts, regional theater productions, and community events, serving as a cultural anchor for the eastern Kentucky corridor that gave rise to so many of country music’s biggest names.