The Strand was one of several Madison theaters built by Dr. William G. Beecroft, a local dentist. Beecroft was also the owner of the Amuse Theatre, which was converted into the Strand’s lobby. Reports about Dr. Beecroft’s theater project on East Mifflin Street began appearing in financial and construction trade publications in late 1917, and continued into early 1918. Several of these items say that the project was designed by Rapp & Rapp.
The small 1940 photo of the Delano Theatre in Boxoffice is online again at this link.
The Pacific Coast Architecture Database has a page for the Delano Theatre #1, opened in 1915, but no page for the second Delano Theatre, opened 1924. Both houses were operated by Frank Panero, but I don’t know if they were at different sites. In any case, the Delano Theatre standing today must be the house that was built in 1924 and designed by Charles H. Biggar.
This interesting document is from the diary of Gerrit Winsemius, a Dutch immigrant to Grand Rapids who installed and repaired organs. This is an entry mentioning the Empress Theatre: “1914 Aug 24 Empress theater, Bond Ave + Lyon Street first used.”
It must have been Winsemius who installed the Empress Theatre’s first organ, the Kimball mentioned in an earlier comment by lostmemory. Mr. Winsemius' terseness leaves it unclear whether the “first used” refers to the organ or to the theater itself. In any case, I’ve found references in The Billboard to acts appearing at the Empress in 1914, so that must be the year it opened. The 1915 Variety item cited earlier by JAlex must refer to the reopening of the house under the Keith circuit’s operation.
The April 30, 1930, issue of The Pittsburgh Press has this article about the takeover of the Harris circuit’s theaters by the Warners and RKO. Among the houses being taken over by RKO the article lists the Regent and Empress Theatres in Grand Rapids.
I’m beginning to doubt that this theater was ever called simply Keith’s Theatre during the 1910s or 1920s. I’ve found over 400 references to the Empress Theatre from 1915 to 1922, and only one of them refers to it as Keith’s Empress. It looks like the house only became Keith’s Theatre after RKO took over operation, but how long after I don’t know. The earliest photo I’ve seen with the name Keith’s on the vertical sign dates from 1946 (seenhere at CinemaTour.)
An item in The Construction News of August 9, 1913, not only confirms that Lee DeCamp was the original architect for the Empress Theatre, but that Robert Boller was involved in the project as well:
“Grand Rapids, Mich.—Theater, $100,000. Lyon St. and Bond Av. Archt., Lee DeCamp, Kansas City, Mo., has completed sketches and will open a temporary office in Grand Rapids in charge of Robert Boiler. Plans will be completed in two weeks. Owner, Empress Theater Co., c/o A. Rosenbloom, pres., Kalamazoo Paint Co., Kalamazoo, Mich.”
It’s possible that Robert Boller was the supervising architect for the Grand Rapids Empress, or he might have had a hand in the design of the house as well. I’ve been unable to discover how long Robert Boller headed DeCamp’s “temporary” office in Grand Rapids, but in the December, 1921, issue of The Michigan Engineer, DeCamp was still listed as a registered architect with offices in the Empress Theatre Building in Grand Rapids.
DeCamp had some later association with the Boller brothers as well, but the roles were reversed. The NRHP registration form for the Booth Theatre, at Independence, Kansas, says that DeCamp was the construction superintendent for that 1926-1927 Boller Brothers project.
This page has a photo of the XD Theatre, the current occupant of the Carlton. It might not be showing real movies, but the attraction is probably taking in enough revenue to keep the roof repaired.
The October 13, 1915, issue of Building News and Engineering Journal had an item which might have been about the original Carlton Theatre, which this house replaced in 1937:
“Another new picture theatre has been commenced in Upper Sackville Street. Dublin. The hall will be 100 ft. by 28 ft., and 26 ft. in height. There will be a tea lounge and offices in the front having a depth of 50 ft. The interior of the building will be finished in polished mahogany. Mr. T. F. Macnaniara.
Great Brunswick Street, Dublin, is the architect, and Messrs. H. and J. Martin, Grand Canal Street, are the contractors.”
The December 29, 1915, issue of Building News and Engineering Journal had the following item:
“A new theatre and cafes, shops and suites of offices have been erected on the Havelock House site, Sunderland, for the Provincial Cinematograph Theatres, Limited. The architects were Messrs. Percy L. Browne and Glover, Newcastle, and the contractors Messrs. McLoughlin and Harvey, of Belfast”
Percy L. Browne and Glover were also architects for the 1923 rebuilding of the Empire Theatre at Whitley Bay.
I’ve moved the Street View to the approximate location of the theater in the 400 block of Wabasha Street North, but the pin is still in the wrong place on the map.
The 1913-1914 edition of the Cahn-Leighton Theatrical Guide lists the Empress as a Sullivan & Considine circuit vaudeville house. Given that the great majority of the houses built for that large but short-lived circuit were called the Empress, it’s likely that this theater was built for the circuit, rather than one of the many existing theaters it took over.
If the house was built for Sullivan & Considine, then the architect would most likely have been Lee DeCamp, who designed a large percentage of the circuit’s custom-built theaters.
The October 12, 1918, issue of The Moving Picture World makes a reference to the New Arion Theatre. Is it possible that 2420 Central was the address of the original Arion Theatre, replaced by this house in the late 1910s? The original Arion Theatre could have been in the small building that houses the southerly half of the Thai restaurant with the current address of 2422 Central.
Incidentally, the book cited by LAMartin earlier says that the remodeling of the Arion Theatre in 1923 was Jack Liebenberg’s very first theater project. His next theater, and the first designed from the ground up by Liebenberg & Kaplan, was the Granada.
CinemaTour gives the address of the Arion Theatre as 2316 Central Avenue, and that is probably correct. This photo, which was probably taken a year or two before the 1953 remodeling, shows the theater at left. Although most of the buildings on both sides of the street have since been demolished, the three buildings immediately south of the theater’s site are still standing and can be recognized in Street View despite some remodeling. The building that was adjacent to the theater currently uses the address 2312 Central, so 2316 was most likely the Arion Theatre’s address.
The address currently given for this theater is wrong. There is an old building housing the Durango Bakery at 2418 Central Avenue, and next door is a Thai restaurant, Sen Yai Sen Lek, at 2422 Central. The building with the bakery is obviously fairly old (probably 1920s era) and though the restaurant has a modern facade, satellite view shows that it occupies two small buildings, both of which have rather old-looking roofs. None of the three buildings with the number range 2418-2422 could have been a theater.
7720 Hampton Boulevard is now a Blockbuster Video store. I don’t know if it is the same building that housed the theater or not. As a post-war theater, it could have been built back from the street as part of a small shopping center, which is what the current building is.
This photo of the Colley Theatre is dated 1936. Aside from the loss of the vertical sign and the original marquee, and the removal a bit of the nice Art Deco detailing on the ground floor, the facade of this theater is remarkably well preserved.
Jones Institute of Eastern Virginia Medical School has the address 601 Colley Avenue, so the footprint of that large building probably includes the former site of the Plaza Theatre.
The Moving Picture World of October 4, 1912, reported that the Hyperion Theatre had begun its final season as a legitimate house. It was to be operated by the Shuberts until May 1, 1914, when the lease would expire, and then be taken over by S. Z. Poli, to be operated as a movie and vaudeville house (the new Shubert Theatre opened in 1914.) The Hyperion’s career as a stage house was not entirely over, though, as I’ve found references to a repertory season being presented there by Poli in 1920.
Here is a fresh link to the 1951 Boxoffice item with photo that Gerald DeLuca linked to earlier. The item says that the seating capacity of Loew’s recently-remodeled Poli-College Theatre had been reduced from 1,400 to 1,250.
The Rialto Theatre occupied a Greek Revival building originally built as the College Street Congregational Church in the late 1840s. The building was bought by Yale University in 1898, and it served as the University’s school of music for about two decades before its conversion into a movie theater. The house seated about 500, and was full the night of the fire. The ultimate death toll from the fire was nine, with over a hundred injured.
Hyperion Theatre was the name of the house that later became Loew’s College Theatre. Bunnell’s New Haven Theatre was a different house. The confusion may come from the fact that George Bunnell also operated the Hyperion Theatre for a time. Bunnell also operated theaters in New York City, Brooklyn, Buffalo, and Bridgeport, Connecticut.
I’m not sure if the New Haven Theatre ever operated as a movie house or not. This web page about the Chapel Street Historic District says that Bunnell’s New Haven Theatre was a legitimate house that was destroyed by a fire in 1915. However, this web page, which features a drawing by Anthony Dumas, says the the theater was destroyed in 1912.
This house was called the Music Hall, under which name I’ve found it mentioned as early as 1877, the Grand Opera House, and the New Haven Theatre. The building also housed Bunnell’s Museum. Andrew Craig Morrison’s Theatres (a book of drawings by Dumas) gives the address as 182 Crown Street.
The NRHP nomination form for the State Theatre says that it opened in May, 1929. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.
The State Theatre was built by Louis Handloff, who had operated a small theater on Main Street called the Hanark for several years. He closed the Hanark Theatre when the State opened. Handloff also bought the Newark Opera House, an 1885 theater that sometimes showed movies during the silent era.
An organization called Video Americain says that they operated the State Theatre as a repertory cinema from 1979 until mid-1986.
An April 9, 2012 article in the Modesto Bee says that the City of Riverbank has condemned the Del Rio Theatre building and it is now vacant. The redevelopment agency that was to have overseen the renovation of the house is near default and will probably be shut down. At this point, it seems unlikely that the Del Rio Theatre will be saved.
A history of Morris County published in 1914 included a biographical sketch of Antonio Esposito, an Italian immigrant who built and operated the Palace Theatre. It says the theater was opened in 1910, and that Esposito had opened an earlier movie house on Park Place in 1907, which he operated until opening the Palace.
“Energy, enterprise and perseverance have been the main attributes in the success which has attended the well directed efforts of Antonio ESPOSITO, proprietor and manager of the Palace Theatre, located on Speedwell avenue, Morristown, erected in 1910 and opened in that year, which is considered one of the finest miniature playhouses in the State of New Jersey, having a seating capacity of 700, and equipped with everything needful for the comfort, convenience and safety of its numerous patrons.
“During the winter season, in addition to moving pictures, which are of a high class, there is a vaudeville performance, which is the best that can be obtained, nothing of an obnoxious character being allowed on the boards, thus insuring to the ladies and children who patronize it a clean show in every way with nothing offensive to their senses or morals, and during the summer season, in addition to moving pictures, there is a stock company which furnishes a fine repertoire of the best plays portrayed in an excellent manner. This brief statement of facts proves conclusively that the Palace Theatre is conducted on the best known lines, and is worthy the patronage of the better class of residents, the constant aim of the proprietor being to make it rank among the leading amusement places of the county.”
This lavish encomium is followed by the news that:
“Mr. Esposito is now, October, 1913, beginning the erection of a new and more commodious play house to be located immediately in the rear of his present play house, it will have a seating capacity of 1,641 and standing room for 400 more. The theatre will be constructed along the lines the most modern, and where the best talent can appear and feel at home. It will be called the Morris Theatre.”
I’ve been unable to discover if Mr. Esposito’s 1913 project was ever completed, but it seems unlikely that it was. I’ve been unable to find any references to a Morris Theatre prior to the 1960s, and that one appears to have been a different theater housing a local community theater group.
The January 7, 1926, issue of The Film Daily said that a new theater was to be built at 16th and Corby Streets in Omaha. The November 19, 1926, issue of the same publication said that Sam and Louis Epstein had purchased the recently-completed Corby Theatre from its builder, Alexander Beck. This item gave the location as 15th and Corby Streets. From Street View, it looks like the theater building occupies the entire block along Corby Street from 15th Avenue to 16th Street.
This PDF from the fall, 2008, issue of newsletter Landmark News has a small photo of the Corby Theatre which appears to have been taken in the 1930s. The building is little changed in appearance since then, but the satellite view shows that the roof is in poor condition. This building might still be saved, but if the roof has not yet been repaired it will have to be done soon.
The January 7, 1926, issue of The Film Daily said that architect Fred Elliott was drawing plans for a new theater at Parkersburg, West Virginia, for the Smoot Amusement Company. The house would be built on the site of the Hippodrome Theatre.
Historic references to the Jersey Theatre are few, but I found a few that reveal that the house was operating as a legitimate theater during at least part of 1946. An item in a 1946 issue of Fire Engineering mentions an incident in which a production of W. Somerset Maugham’s play The Circle was interrupted when a faulty sprinkler system soaked the cast on stage and in the dressing rooms.
A June 8, 1946, item in The Billboard said that a production of Androcles and the Lion had abruptly been canceled and the house closed on May 18, leading to a fracas with Actor’s Equity about unpaid wages.
The September 30, 1926, issue of The Film Daily lists among theaters planned or under construction a house called the Jersey in Morristown which was expected to open in early October.
Here is a direct link to the 1915 photo of the Gem Theatre.
A list of movie theaters opened in Madison between 1911 and 1914 includes the Gem.
The Strand was one of several Madison theaters built by Dr. William G. Beecroft, a local dentist. Beecroft was also the owner of the Amuse Theatre, which was converted into the Strand’s lobby. Reports about Dr. Beecroft’s theater project on East Mifflin Street began appearing in financial and construction trade publications in late 1917, and continued into early 1918. Several of these items say that the project was designed by Rapp & Rapp.
The small 1940 photo of the Delano Theatre in Boxoffice is online again at this link.
The Pacific Coast Architecture Database has a page for the Delano Theatre #1, opened in 1915, but no page for the second Delano Theatre, opened 1924. Both houses were operated by Frank Panero, but I don’t know if they were at different sites. In any case, the Delano Theatre standing today must be the house that was built in 1924 and designed by Charles H. Biggar.
This interesting document is from the diary of Gerrit Winsemius, a Dutch immigrant to Grand Rapids who installed and repaired organs. This is an entry mentioning the Empress Theatre: “1914 Aug 24 Empress theater, Bond Ave + Lyon Street first used.”
It must have been Winsemius who installed the Empress Theatre’s first organ, the Kimball mentioned in an earlier comment by lostmemory. Mr. Winsemius' terseness leaves it unclear whether the “first used” refers to the organ or to the theater itself. In any case, I’ve found references in The Billboard to acts appearing at the Empress in 1914, so that must be the year it opened. The 1915 Variety item cited earlier by JAlex must refer to the reopening of the house under the Keith circuit’s operation.
The April 30, 1930, issue of The Pittsburgh Press has this article about the takeover of the Harris circuit’s theaters by the Warners and RKO. Among the houses being taken over by RKO the article lists the Regent and Empress Theatres in Grand Rapids.
I’m beginning to doubt that this theater was ever called simply Keith’s Theatre during the 1910s or 1920s. I’ve found over 400 references to the Empress Theatre from 1915 to 1922, and only one of them refers to it as Keith’s Empress. It looks like the house only became Keith’s Theatre after RKO took over operation, but how long after I don’t know. The earliest photo I’ve seen with the name Keith’s on the vertical sign dates from 1946 (seenhere at CinemaTour.)
An item in The Construction News of August 9, 1913, not only confirms that Lee DeCamp was the original architect for the Empress Theatre, but that Robert Boller was involved in the project as well:
It’s possible that Robert Boller was the supervising architect for the Grand Rapids Empress, or he might have had a hand in the design of the house as well. I’ve been unable to discover how long Robert Boller headed DeCamp’s “temporary” office in Grand Rapids, but in the December, 1921, issue of The Michigan Engineer, DeCamp was still listed as a registered architect with offices in the Empress Theatre Building in Grand Rapids.DeCamp had some later association with the Boller brothers as well, but the roles were reversed. The NRHP registration form for the Booth Theatre, at Independence, Kansas, says that DeCamp was the construction superintendent for that 1926-1927 Boller Brothers project.
This page has a photo of the XD Theatre, the current occupant of the Carlton. It might not be showing real movies, but the attraction is probably taking in enough revenue to keep the roof repaired.
The October 13, 1915, issue of Building News and Engineering Journal had an item which might have been about the original Carlton Theatre, which this house replaced in 1937:
The December 29, 1915, issue of Building News and Engineering Journal had the following item:
Percy L. Browne and Glover were also architects for the 1923 rebuilding of the Empire Theatre at Whitley Bay.I’ve moved the Street View to the approximate location of the theater in the 400 block of Wabasha Street North, but the pin is still in the wrong place on the map.
The 1913-1914 edition of the Cahn-Leighton Theatrical Guide lists the Empress as a Sullivan & Considine circuit vaudeville house. Given that the great majority of the houses built for that large but short-lived circuit were called the Empress, it’s likely that this theater was built for the circuit, rather than one of the many existing theaters it took over.
If the house was built for Sullivan & Considine, then the architect would most likely have been Lee DeCamp, who designed a large percentage of the circuit’s custom-built theaters.
The October 12, 1918, issue of The Moving Picture World makes a reference to the New Arion Theatre. Is it possible that 2420 Central was the address of the original Arion Theatre, replaced by this house in the late 1910s? The original Arion Theatre could have been in the small building that houses the southerly half of the Thai restaurant with the current address of 2422 Central.
Incidentally, the book cited by LAMartin earlier says that the remodeling of the Arion Theatre in 1923 was Jack Liebenberg’s very first theater project. His next theater, and the first designed from the ground up by Liebenberg & Kaplan, was the Granada.
CinemaTour gives the address of the Arion Theatre as 2316 Central Avenue, and that is probably correct. This photo, which was probably taken a year or two before the 1953 remodeling, shows the theater at left. Although most of the buildings on both sides of the street have since been demolished, the three buildings immediately south of the theater’s site are still standing and can be recognized in Street View despite some remodeling. The building that was adjacent to the theater currently uses the address 2312 Central, so 2316 was most likely the Arion Theatre’s address.
The address currently given for this theater is wrong. There is an old building housing the Durango Bakery at 2418 Central Avenue, and next door is a Thai restaurant, Sen Yai Sen Lek, at 2422 Central. The building with the bakery is obviously fairly old (probably 1920s era) and though the restaurant has a modern facade, satellite view shows that it occupies two small buildings, both of which have rather old-looking roofs. None of the three buildings with the number range 2418-2422 could have been a theater.
7720 Hampton Boulevard is now a Blockbuster Video store. I don’t know if it is the same building that housed the theater or not. As a post-war theater, it could have been built back from the street as part of a small shopping center, which is what the current building is.
This photo of the Colley Theatre is dated 1936. Aside from the loss of the vertical sign and the original marquee, and the removal a bit of the nice Art Deco detailing on the ground floor, the facade of this theater is remarkably well preserved.
The Capitol Theater now has a web site. The renovated house is scheduled to reopen on June 1.
Jones Institute of Eastern Virginia Medical School has the address 601 Colley Avenue, so the footprint of that large building probably includes the former site of the Plaza Theatre.
The Moving Picture World of October 4, 1912, reported that the Hyperion Theatre had begun its final season as a legitimate house. It was to be operated by the Shuberts until May 1, 1914, when the lease would expire, and then be taken over by S. Z. Poli, to be operated as a movie and vaudeville house (the new Shubert Theatre opened in 1914.) The Hyperion’s career as a stage house was not entirely over, though, as I’ve found references to a repertory season being presented there by Poli in 1920.
Here is a fresh link to the 1951 Boxoffice item with photo that Gerald DeLuca linked to earlier. The item says that the seating capacity of Loew’s recently-remodeled Poli-College Theatre had been reduced from 1,400 to 1,250.
Here is an article about the burning of the Rialto Theatre from The New York Times of November 28, 1921.
The Rialto Theatre occupied a Greek Revival building originally built as the College Street Congregational Church in the late 1840s. The building was bought by Yale University in 1898, and it served as the University’s school of music for about two decades before its conversion into a movie theater. The house seated about 500, and was full the night of the fire. The ultimate death toll from the fire was nine, with over a hundred injured.
Hyperion Theatre was the name of the house that later became Loew’s College Theatre. Bunnell’s New Haven Theatre was a different house. The confusion may come from the fact that George Bunnell also operated the Hyperion Theatre for a time. Bunnell also operated theaters in New York City, Brooklyn, Buffalo, and Bridgeport, Connecticut.
I’m not sure if the New Haven Theatre ever operated as a movie house or not. This web page about the Chapel Street Historic District says that Bunnell’s New Haven Theatre was a legitimate house that was destroyed by a fire in 1915. However, this web page, which features a drawing by Anthony Dumas, says the the theater was destroyed in 1912.
This house was called the Music Hall, under which name I’ve found it mentioned as early as 1877, the Grand Opera House, and the New Haven Theatre. The building also housed Bunnell’s Museum. Andrew Craig Morrison’s Theatres (a book of drawings by Dumas) gives the address as 182 Crown Street.
Here are two early photos of the Community Theatre from the Library of Congress collection:
One.
Two.
The NRHP nomination form for the State Theatre says that it opened in May, 1929. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.
The State Theatre was built by Louis Handloff, who had operated a small theater on Main Street called the Hanark for several years. He closed the Hanark Theatre when the State opened. Handloff also bought the Newark Opera House, an 1885 theater that sometimes showed movies during the silent era.
An organization called Video Americain says that they operated the State Theatre as a repertory cinema from 1979 until mid-1986.
An April 9, 2012 article in the Modesto Bee says that the City of Riverbank has condemned the Del Rio Theatre building and it is now vacant. The redevelopment agency that was to have overseen the renovation of the house is near default and will probably be shut down. At this point, it seems unlikely that the Del Rio Theatre will be saved.
A history of Morris County published in 1914 included a biographical sketch of Antonio Esposito, an Italian immigrant who built and operated the Palace Theatre. It says the theater was opened in 1910, and that Esposito had opened an earlier movie house on Park Place in 1907, which he operated until opening the Palace.
Here is a link to the biography, and here are passages about the theater:
This lavish encomium is followed by the news that:I’ve been unable to discover if Mr. Esposito’s 1913 project was ever completed, but it seems unlikely that it was. I’ve been unable to find any references to a Morris Theatre prior to the 1960s, and that one appears to have been a different theater housing a local community theater group.The January 7, 1926, issue of The Film Daily said that a new theater was to be built at 16th and Corby Streets in Omaha. The November 19, 1926, issue of the same publication said that Sam and Louis Epstein had purchased the recently-completed Corby Theatre from its builder, Alexander Beck. This item gave the location as 15th and Corby Streets. From Street View, it looks like the theater building occupies the entire block along Corby Street from 15th Avenue to 16th Street.
This PDF from the fall, 2008, issue of newsletter Landmark News has a small photo of the Corby Theatre which appears to have been taken in the 1930s. The building is little changed in appearance since then, but the satellite view shows that the roof is in poor condition. This building might still be saved, but if the roof has not yet been repaired it will have to be done soon.
The January 7, 1926, issue of The Film Daily said that architect Fred Elliott was drawing plans for a new theater at Parkersburg, West Virginia, for the Smoot Amusement Company. The house would be built on the site of the Hippodrome Theatre.
Historic references to the Jersey Theatre are few, but I found a few that reveal that the house was operating as a legitimate theater during at least part of 1946. An item in a 1946 issue of Fire Engineering mentions an incident in which a production of W. Somerset Maugham’s play The Circle was interrupted when a faulty sprinkler system soaked the cast on stage and in the dressing rooms.
A June 8, 1946, item in The Billboard said that a production of Androcles and the Lion had abruptly been canceled and the house closed on May 18, leading to a fracas with Actor’s Equity about unpaid wages.
The September 30, 1926, issue of The Film Daily lists among theaters planned or under construction a house called the Jersey in Morristown which was expected to open in early October.