CRYSTAL LAKE – The Raue Center for the Arts in Crystal Lake seats 750 people inside its glamorous theater, but with new technology available online, theater staff hope to share the beauty of the 85-year-old venue with unlimited patrons.

Anyone with access to the Internet can now take a virtual tour of the Raue Center.

Using the same technology as the ubiquitous Google Street View, search engine users can take a virtual walking tour of the theater.

The tool, a facet of Google Maps, allows users 360-degree access. Potential patrons can look down hallways, peek around corners and move about the Raue Center from their home computers and cell phones.

Formerly El Tovar, the Raue Center was built in 1929 and is famous for its restored interior architecture. A Spanish-style village facade lines the inside of the theater, and the ceiling is dotted with twinkling stars, evoking a night in Spain.

The online tour debuted this winter.

“I’d seen the tours online, and I thought it was a really cool tool for us to have,” said Melissa Thomfohrda, the Raue Center’s director of marketing.

“[The theater] is beautiful inside, but not many people, especially local people, have been inside of it.”

Those were the same thoughts Brad Lawrence had the day the professional photographer stepped inside the Raue Center for the first time.

Lawrence, owner of Fox Virtual Tours of St. Charles, was on an assignment in the area in the late 2014 when he wandered into the Raue Center.

“My jaw dropped,” Lawrence said. “It was so beautiful and striking. I just knew immediately that it was such a unique and spectacular theater that it would really make a wonderful virtual tour.”

Lawrence is a Google Trusted Photographer, a certification only a handful of photographers in the region have achieved since the program for Virtual Business Tours launched.

Lawrence had done several businesses and large venues before the Raue Center, including a project for the Kane County Cougars in Geneva. He was honored for his work in 2013 with a Google Business View Marketing and Public Relations Award.

Virtual tours typically start at $400 and increase depending on the size of the shoot, Lawrence said.

“It is really rewarding for me to capture these places and to share them with people,” Lawrence said.

“The Raue Center – it has all of those wonderful Spanish architecture elements ... to me it is one of the most enchanting theaters I have ever been in, very romantic.”

While the Raue Center commissioned Lawrence to photograph the landmark, the virtual tour is housed on Google’s servers and is accessible through Google Maps applications.

The Raue Center plans to link to the tour on its webpage once the nonprofit revamps its website in the coming months.

“We haven’t done a whole lot of marketing with it yet,” Thomfohrda said. “But we have used his images on our Facebook page and in our invites for our annual Stargazers Ball.”

The Stargazers Ball is on Friday, April 10 and raises funds for children's theater outreach programs. For information, visit www.rauecenter.org/upcoming-performances/stargazers-ball-monte-carlo-night.​