Residents watched as the former Warwick Theater's marquee was removed from its perch on Pleasant Street Tuesday morning.

The marquee will be restored to its original luster, in the hopes of being returned to the building, either as interior decor or as part of a proposed theater in a new building to be constructed on the site.

The new building will have about 38,000-square-feet of space. It will replace several buildings, including the old theater space, that are on six lots between Anderson Street and the Spirit of ’76 Bookstore.

The design for the largely brick building calls for a stepped-down structure with the three-story portion being near the bookstore and the one-story portion being closer to Anderson Street.

The Warwick Theater Foundation, headed by Mike McCloskey, is working to raise the more than $1 million needed to build a new Warwick Theatre in the building.