The Paramount first opened on September 5, 1931, and closed forty years later in 1971. In 1972, the Greater Ashland Foundation (Foundation for the Tri-State Community), was created. Under the leadership of Ashland Oil Inc. Foundation President Paul G. Blazer, Jr. (son of Ashland Oil & Refining Company founder Paul G. Blazer) one half of the corpus of the terminating Stuart M. Blazer Foundation was gifted and used for the Greater Ashland Foundation's purchase of the Paramount Theatre and establishing it as a performing arts center. It opened that same year under the new name "Paramount Arts Center". The theater has undergone several renovations since 1972, most recently in 2002 when a new stagehouse was added and new dressing rooms, rehearsal space and banquet facility were added in a nearby building that was purchased in 1998. In addition, this renovated space was connected to the main building.