The address currently listed on this page is wrong then. The caption of the photo of the Opera House on this web page says that it was located on the north side of Second Street between Boston Avenue and Cincinnati Avenue. That’s the 100 E. block, so 115 E. Second would be the correct address, the entrance having been in the middle of the facade.
A book called “Beaver Falls: Gem of Beaver County,” by Kenneth Britten, says that the Granada was not new construction, but an extensive remodeling of the older New Colonial Theatre. This book is published by the Arcadia Publishing Company, and the author is (or has been) a member of the Beaver Falls Historical Society (Google Books preview.)
It says that the Colonial Theater was built in 1911, that it originally seated 300, and was renamed the New Colonial after being briefly closed in 1917. It was taken over by a Pittsburgh showman named only as S. Goodman in 1928, and subsequently remodeled and renamed.
I’ve been unable to find an S. Goodman mentioned in any of the trade publications from the period, such as The Moving Picture World. However, a snippet view of a 1929 issue of the trade publication The Lather mentions that architect Michael J. DeAngelis was designing a $500,000 theater project for Archie Fineman in Beaver Falls.
It does seem possible that at least parts of the 1911 Colonial Theatre building were incorporated into the Granada (the lower parts of the side walls, for example, might have dated from 1911,) but if Fineman did spend $500,000 on the project, the interior must have been quite opulent. The cost was well above the average for theaters of that size built at that time.
The street view has been “updated” a bit too far north. The theater was still standing when the aerial view they use for bird’s-eye view at Bing Maps was taken, and it looks like its north wall was on a line just about between the street lamp and the utility pole you can see if you pivot street view to the right. The south wall was probably about where the middle of the new building with the gabled entrance is located.
The Street View was “updated” too far from the theater’s entrance. Left click on the photo, then click the street arrow to move one or two turns up the block, then click the right arrow in the compass rose at upper left to pivot to a more direct view of the theater front. You can also left click on the photo and hold the button down, then move your mouse to pivot the view to either side, or up or down.
It’s possible to get decent views of most theaters, but a lot of pages have been updated with inferior views, and in some cases with no view of the theater at all. Many CT users who have updated the views seem to be unaware of the finer points of Street View’s workings (not surprising, since those workings aren’t explained anywhere on the page, and not everybody is familiar with the application.)
Given its 1910 opening, it seems likely that the New Strand is the opera house mentioned in various 1910 issues of The American Contractor. The item in the May 28 issue says:
“Opera House: 43x102. $12,000. West Liberty, Ia. Architects Dieman & Fiske, Cedar Rapids. Owner West Liberty Opera House Co., George Ganse, sec'y, West Liberty. Owner is taking bids. Brick, composition roof, oak finish, maple floors, gas & electric fixtures, lavatories, water closets.”
Architects Charles Dieman and Ferdinand Fiske maintained offices in both Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Lincoln, Nebraska, and their firm was among the busiest in the region during their late 19th and early 20th century partnership.
I’m wondering if an item in the Daily Bulletin of the Manufacturer’s Record for March 12, 1907, could be about the theater on the Palace’s site that was destroyed by an explosion in 1947? It says:
“Seguin, Texas—Theater.—E. Nolte & Sons are having plans prepared by J. C. Ayers of San Antonio, Texas, for a modern theater 60x125 feet: cost $14,000.”
The Palace looks to be about that size.
I considered the possibility that the 1907 project was the Kempenstein Opera House, which, according to advertisements reproduced in this book, opened in 1908, but the web site of the Seguin Heritage Museum says that the opera house was upstairs in a building built in 1898.
Still, the Kempenstein Theatre is the only theater listed for Seguin in the 1909-1910 edition of Julius Cahn’s Theatrical Guide, so perhaps the 1907 project was never carried out. But then maybe Julius Cahn was simply never notified of its existence by the mystery theater’s operators. Does anyone have any clues?
As Edwards Street no longer exists, Google Maps is incapable of finding the location. The nearest you can get to an address for this theater on a vanished lot is Broadway Street at Park Avenue. If you look east along Broadway from Park, you’re looking directly across the spot where the Marlow stood. The west side wall of its stage house would have crossed Broadway just a few feet south of the current intersection. This web page (the same one ken mc linked to earlier) has a map showing its location. The section on the Marlow begins below two pictures of the Antlers Theatre.
As Bryan Krefft’s description of the Shadowland Theatre says that it opened in 1920, I think that the following item from March 20 issue of The American Contractor that year probably concerns this theater:
“Contract Awarded. Theater (M. P.): $25,000. 1 sty. 50x 80. Ellenville. N. Y. Archt. G. W. Betz, 61 John St., Kingston. Owner Ellenville Theater Corp., M. L. Shurter. pres., Ellenville. Gen. contr. let to N D. Higginson Co.. Middletown. N. Y.”
The photos lostmemory linked to show that the theater has a facade in an architectural style common in the 1850s and 1860s. I’d guess that the 50x80 building erected in 1920 was the auditorium, built behind the existing older building, which was adapted as an entrance. Google’s satellite view shows that the dark roof of what must be the auditorium is about 50x80, though it looks like a bit was added to the rear of it,probably when the house was converted for live theater. That part has a white roof.
The correct address for the Norbury Theatre is 73 Center Street. The current occupant of the building is Abe’s Taxi Services, the same outfit that was there in the 1988 photo lostmemory linked to.
A book called “Wawarsing,” by Pamela Kuhlmann, has a postcard photo of this theater postmarked 1913, when it was called Norbury Hall.
The caption says that it became a movie theater in later years, but it doesn’t give the dates. However, the brick and tile front seen in the 1988 photo wasn’t on the building in 1913. The tile looks art deco, and as it was quite likely installed when the hall was converted into a movie house, that probably happened during the late 1920s or early 1930s.
This building is probably very old. The 1913 era facade is of a style that was popular in the 1859s and 1860s, but it looks like it was added onto an even earlier wooden building that could easily date from the late 18th or early 19th century.
I, too, miss the comment preview function, but I miss the ability to search for theaters specifically by their previous names even more.
Google Maps still puts the pin icon for this theater on the wrong stretch of Storey Lane, about half a mile from its actual location, which is way over by Denton Drive. I managed to move the Street View to the theater anyway (take that, Google,) though I got lost in the interchange twice. Had I been actually driving, I’d have have been in a collision for sure.
Florida Memory says that the State Theatre was on the north side of College Avenue between Adams and Monroe. That’s the 100 E. block, and the historical photos show that it was on the lot west of the alley between those two streets. Today the lot is occupied by a tall office building called Highpoint Center, for which LoopNet gives an address of 106 E. College Avenue. That must have been the theater’s address as well.
Florida Memory also says that the second State Theatre opened on September 27, 1934. From the old photos it looks like the Daffin Theatre had actually been next door to the new theater’s site, so it probably had an address of 104 E. College. Now there’s a parking structure on that lot.
Also, I notice that there’s been some confusion surrounding the exact location of this theater (ken mc and Chuck’s comments of June 4, 2006.) The confusion comes from the fact that San Francisco’s numbered streets don’t match up with the address numbers (it’s the same situation as in Manhattan.) The numbered streets begin at the old shoreline of the bay, which was about half a mile inland from where the current shoreline is, but street numbers begin at the Embarcadero, along the modern shoreline. Thus 4th street marks the end of the 700 block and the beginning of the 800 block on Market Street.
The photos ken mc linked to on August 26, 2009, show that the State Theatre was definitely on the southeast corner of 4th and Market. The old skyscraper next door to the theater is the former Humboldt Bank Building, which is still standing at 785 Market.
Kewpie: The theater in the drawing you linked to is the former Loew’s house that is listed at Cinema Treasures as the Warfield Theatre. It was never called the State. It was named for Marcus Loew’s business partner, actor David Warfield, who was born in San Francisco.
You’re right, Kewpie. The 1915 Majestic always had a wide frontage, so the LoC photo depicts a different theater. Shorpy has the story on the photo you found (and includes a bonus photo of the original facade of the 1915 Majestic.) The earlier Majestic was a combination house (movies and vaudeville) opened at 231 Woodward in 1908.
I don’t know if the older Majestic is listed at Cinema Treasures under a later name, or is still missing from the database. If it’s listed under another name it would also have a different address, as Detroit changed its numbering system on January 1, 1921. I’m not positive, but I think that old address 231 Woodward ended up in the 1400 block under the new system. Here’s a page with links to information about Detroit’s 1921 renumbering.
You would probably know better than I would about date, Don. I was in Hollywood only two or three times in the 1970s and early 1980s and only knew about the name change from hearsay, and I haven’t been to the Los Angeles area since 1986. I do remember when the Hawaii closed in 1963, though, as I visited Hollywood frequently during that period, and I was very disappointed that the theater closed before I ever got around to seeing a movie there.
fieldight: The movie you saw in 1978 was probably at the theater down the block which was called the Hawaiian Gardens for while during the 1970s, but is listed at Cinema Treasures as the X 1 & 2 Theatres. The original Hawaii Theatre was definitely converted into the Salvation Army church after being closed in July, 1963.
I don’t think the address of 202 W. Main Street is correct. As can be seen in the Google Street View, the buildings currently at 202-204 W. Main Street are old, obviously predating the demolition of the theater.
I think the Princess had to have been across the street, at 203 W. Main, where there is now a business called the Java Garden, situated in a small, modern building set back behind an open area.
This photo, taken during a 1963 flood, shows the darkened marquee of the Princess at right. It can be seen that it was on a corner lot, which 203 W. Main is. I can’t find any other locations along Main Street that match the situation of the Princess.
KenLayton is correct. The Rex was at the southeast corner of Fourth and Franklin, and the building is still standing. Judging from the configuration of the building’s storefronts, the entrance to the Rex was probably at 408 Franklin Street SE. The wall there is closed up and has been plastered over, and doesn’t quite match the rest of the exterior. The entrance to the Franklin Apartments is adjacent to the south, with an address of 410 Franklin.
Here’s a link to the 1913 article about the Rex in the trade publication The Moving Picture World. There is a photo of the Rex’s entrance at the upper right corner of the page, and its clearly the same building still standing at 4th and Franklin.
The Google Street View above currently shows the State Theatre at Fourth and Washington. It will have to be reset.
The auditorium was still standing when Google’s and Bing’s satellite views were made, but it was in very rough shape. In fact there is shrubbery growing on the roof! In Google’s satellite view I actually thought the building had been demolished, the growth along the edges of the roof is so thick. Some of them appear to be young trees.
If this building hasn’t been at least stabilized since those pictures were taken, I can only imagine how bad its condition must be by now. Once large plants have taken root on a building’s roof, its collapse is very near. I doubt that there’s much hope for the Liberty Theatre’s survival.
A comment on the Noyo Theatre page says that before the Noyo opened Willits also had a 417-seat house called the Willits Theatre. Could that also have been an aka of the Colonial? If the Colonial only occupied half the width of its building it looks to small to have had 417 seats, but if the auditorium was the full width it might have been big enough.
Being on Center Street, the Grand Theatre wouldn’t have been around the corner from the Marlow Theatre. The Marlow was on Third Street just south of Park Avenue, which is the next street south of Center Street.
Odd numbers are on the north sides of streets in Ironton, and the north side of the block of Center Street between Third and Fourth is all parking lot or recent construction. The Grand must have been demolished.
In addition to the Grand and Marlow, and the Ro-Na theaters, Ironton once had a theater called the South Side (or Southside,) built in 1910; an Orpheum Theatre, opened in a former skating rink in 1920; an Empire Theatre, burned in 1920; and the Lyric Theatre, located on Second Street, which can be seen partly underwater in this photo taken during the 1937 flood.
The address currently listed on this page is wrong then. The caption of the photo of the Opera House on this web page says that it was located on the north side of Second Street between Boston Avenue and Cincinnati Avenue. That’s the 100 E. block, so 115 E. Second would be the correct address, the entrance having been in the middle of the facade.
A book called “Beaver Falls: Gem of Beaver County,” by Kenneth Britten, says that the Granada was not new construction, but an extensive remodeling of the older New Colonial Theatre. This book is published by the Arcadia Publishing Company, and the author is (or has been) a member of the Beaver Falls Historical Society (Google Books preview.)
It says that the Colonial Theater was built in 1911, that it originally seated 300, and was renamed the New Colonial after being briefly closed in 1917. It was taken over by a Pittsburgh showman named only as S. Goodman in 1928, and subsequently remodeled and renamed.
I’ve been unable to find an S. Goodman mentioned in any of the trade publications from the period, such as The Moving Picture World. However, a snippet view of a 1929 issue of the trade publication The Lather mentions that architect Michael J. DeAngelis was designing a $500,000 theater project for Archie Fineman in Beaver Falls.
It does seem possible that at least parts of the 1911 Colonial Theatre building were incorporated into the Granada (the lower parts of the side walls, for example, might have dated from 1911,) but if Fineman did spend $500,000 on the project, the interior must have been quite opulent. The cost was well above the average for theaters of that size built at that time.
The street view has been “updated” a bit too far north. The theater was still standing when the aerial view they use for bird’s-eye view at Bing Maps was taken, and it looks like its north wall was on a line just about between the street lamp and the utility pole you can see if you pivot street view to the right. The south wall was probably about where the middle of the new building with the gabled entrance is located.
Here are updated links for the Boxoffice Magazine items mentioned in my earlier comment:
Photo of the Shady Oak Theatre on the cover of Boxoffice, September 24, 1955.
The article abouttheater manager Howard Albertson begins on this page of the same issue.
The Street View was “updated” too far from the theater’s entrance. Left click on the photo, then click the street arrow to move one or two turns up the block, then click the right arrow in the compass rose at upper left to pivot to a more direct view of the theater front. You can also left click on the photo and hold the button down, then move your mouse to pivot the view to either side, or up or down.
It’s possible to get decent views of most theaters, but a lot of pages have been updated with inferior views, and in some cases with no view of the theater at all. Many CT users who have updated the views seem to be unaware of the finer points of Street View’s workings (not surprising, since those workings aren’t explained anywhere on the page, and not everybody is familiar with the application.)
Given its 1910 opening, it seems likely that the New Strand is the opera house mentioned in various 1910 issues of The American Contractor. The item in the May 28 issue says:
Architects Charles Dieman and Ferdinand Fiske maintained offices in both Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Lincoln, Nebraska, and their firm was among the busiest in the region during their late 19th and early 20th century partnership.I’m wondering if an item in the Daily Bulletin of the Manufacturer’s Record for March 12, 1907, could be about the theater on the Palace’s site that was destroyed by an explosion in 1947? It says:
The Palace looks to be about that size.I considered the possibility that the 1907 project was the Kempenstein Opera House, which, according to advertisements reproduced in this book, opened in 1908, but the web site of the Seguin Heritage Museum says that the opera house was upstairs in a building built in 1898.
Still, the Kempenstein Theatre is the only theater listed for Seguin in the 1909-1910 edition of Julius Cahn’s Theatrical Guide, so perhaps the 1907 project was never carried out. But then maybe Julius Cahn was simply never notified of its existence by the mystery theater’s operators. Does anyone have any clues?
As Edwards Street no longer exists, Google Maps is incapable of finding the location. The nearest you can get to an address for this theater on a vanished lot is Broadway Street at Park Avenue. If you look east along Broadway from Park, you’re looking directly across the spot where the Marlow stood. The west side wall of its stage house would have crossed Broadway just a few feet south of the current intersection. This web page (the same one ken mc linked to earlier) has a map showing its location. The section on the Marlow begins below two pictures of the Antlers Theatre.
As Bryan Krefft’s description of the Shadowland Theatre says that it opened in 1920, I think that the following item from March 20 issue of The American Contractor that year probably concerns this theater:
The photos lostmemory linked to show that the theater has a facade in an architectural style common in the 1850s and 1860s. I’d guess that the 50x80 building erected in 1920 was the auditorium, built behind the existing older building, which was adapted as an entrance. Google’s satellite view shows that the dark roof of what must be the auditorium is about 50x80, though it looks like a bit was added to the rear of it,probably when the house was converted for live theater. That part has a white roof.The correct address for the Norbury Theatre is 73 Center Street. The current occupant of the building is Abe’s Taxi Services, the same outfit that was there in the 1988 photo lostmemory linked to.
A book called “Wawarsing,” by Pamela Kuhlmann, has a postcard photo of this theater postmarked 1913, when it was called Norbury Hall.
The caption says that it became a movie theater in later years, but it doesn’t give the dates. However, the brick and tile front seen in the 1988 photo wasn’t on the building in 1913. The tile looks art deco, and as it was quite likely installed when the hall was converted into a movie house, that probably happened during the late 1920s or early 1930s.
This building is probably very old. The 1913 era facade is of a style that was popular in the 1859s and 1860s, but it looks like it was added onto an even earlier wooden building that could easily date from the late 18th or early 19th century.
I, too, miss the comment preview function, but I miss the ability to search for theaters specifically by their previous names even more.
Google Maps still puts the pin icon for this theater on the wrong stretch of Storey Lane, about half a mile from its actual location, which is way over by Denton Drive. I managed to move the Street View to the theater anyway (take that, Google,) though I got lost in the interchange twice. Had I been actually driving, I’d have have been in a collision for sure.
Florida Memory says that the State Theatre was on the north side of College Avenue between Adams and Monroe. That’s the 100 E. block, and the historical photos show that it was on the lot west of the alley between those two streets. Today the lot is occupied by a tall office building called Highpoint Center, for which LoopNet gives an address of 106 E. College Avenue. That must have been the theater’s address as well.
Florida Memory also says that the second State Theatre opened on September 27, 1934. From the old photos it looks like the Daffin Theatre had actually been next door to the new theater’s site, so it probably had an address of 104 E. College. Now there’s a parking structure on that lot.
Also, I notice that there’s been some confusion surrounding the exact location of this theater (ken mc and Chuck’s comments of June 4, 2006.) The confusion comes from the fact that San Francisco’s numbered streets don’t match up with the address numbers (it’s the same situation as in Manhattan.) The numbered streets begin at the old shoreline of the bay, which was about half a mile inland from where the current shoreline is, but street numbers begin at the Embarcadero, along the modern shoreline. Thus 4th street marks the end of the 700 block and the beginning of the 800 block on Market Street.
The photos ken mc linked to on August 26, 2009, show that the State Theatre was definitely on the southeast corner of 4th and Market. The old skyscraper next door to the theater is the former Humboldt Bank Building, which is still standing at 785 Market.
Kewpie: The theater in the drawing you linked to is the former Loew’s house that is listed at Cinema Treasures as the Warfield Theatre. It was never called the State. It was named for Marcus Loew’s business partner, actor David Warfield, who was born in San Francisco.
You’re right, Kewpie. The 1915 Majestic always had a wide frontage, so the LoC photo depicts a different theater. Shorpy has the story on the photo you found (and includes a bonus photo of the original facade of the 1915 Majestic.) The earlier Majestic was a combination house (movies and vaudeville) opened at 231 Woodward in 1908.
I don’t know if the older Majestic is listed at Cinema Treasures under a later name, or is still missing from the database. If it’s listed under another name it would also have a different address, as Detroit changed its numbering system on January 1, 1921. I’m not positive, but I think that old address 231 Woodward ended up in the 1400 block under the new system. Here’s a page with links to information about Detroit’s 1921 renumbering.
The Circle Theatre probably occupied the lot that is currently a parking lot next door to Dillon Opticians. It has definitely been demolished.
You would probably know better than I would about date, Don. I was in Hollywood only two or three times in the 1970s and early 1980s and only knew about the name change from hearsay, and I haven’t been to the Los Angeles area since 1986. I do remember when the Hawaii closed in 1963, though, as I visited Hollywood frequently during that period, and I was very disappointed that the theater closed before I ever got around to seeing a movie there.
fieldight: The movie you saw in 1978 was probably at the theater down the block which was called the Hawaiian Gardens for while during the 1970s, but is listed at Cinema Treasures as the X 1 & 2 Theatres. The original Hawaii Theatre was definitely converted into the Salvation Army church after being closed in July, 1963.
Multiple sources on the Internet say that the Capri Theatre was rebuilt into the Paradigm Cinemas after having been closed for many years.
Multiple sources on the Internet say that the Capri Theatre was rebuilt into the Paradigm Cinemas after having been closed for many years.
Yelp says that the Paradigm Cinemas is now closed. The official web site link is dead, too.
I don’t think the address of 202 W. Main Street is correct. As can be seen in the Google Street View, the buildings currently at 202-204 W. Main Street are old, obviously predating the demolition of the theater.
I think the Princess had to have been across the street, at 203 W. Main, where there is now a business called the Java Garden, situated in a small, modern building set back behind an open area.
This photo, taken during a 1963 flood, shows the darkened marquee of the Princess at right. It can be seen that it was on a corner lot, which 203 W. Main is. I can’t find any other locations along Main Street that match the situation of the Princess.
KenLayton is correct. The Rex was at the southeast corner of Fourth and Franklin, and the building is still standing. Judging from the configuration of the building’s storefronts, the entrance to the Rex was probably at 408 Franklin Street SE. The wall there is closed up and has been plastered over, and doesn’t quite match the rest of the exterior. The entrance to the Franklin Apartments is adjacent to the south, with an address of 410 Franklin.
Here’s a link to the 1913 article about the Rex in the trade publication The Moving Picture World. There is a photo of the Rex’s entrance at the upper right corner of the page, and its clearly the same building still standing at 4th and Franklin.
The Google Street View above currently shows the State Theatre at Fourth and Washington. It will have to be reset.
The auditorium was still standing when Google’s and Bing’s satellite views were made, but it was in very rough shape. In fact there is shrubbery growing on the roof! In Google’s satellite view I actually thought the building had been demolished, the growth along the edges of the roof is so thick. Some of them appear to be young trees.
If this building hasn’t been at least stabilized since those pictures were taken, I can only imagine how bad its condition must be by now. Once large plants have taken root on a building’s roof, its collapse is very near. I doubt that there’s much hope for the Liberty Theatre’s survival.
A comment on the Noyo Theatre page says that before the Noyo opened Willits also had a 417-seat house called the Willits Theatre. Could that also have been an aka of the Colonial? If the Colonial only occupied half the width of its building it looks to small to have had 417 seats, but if the auditorium was the full width it might have been big enough.
Being on Center Street, the Grand Theatre wouldn’t have been around the corner from the Marlow Theatre. The Marlow was on Third Street just south of Park Avenue, which is the next street south of Center Street.
Odd numbers are on the north sides of streets in Ironton, and the north side of the block of Center Street between Third and Fourth is all parking lot or recent construction. The Grand must have been demolished.
In addition to the Grand and Marlow, and the Ro-Na theaters, Ironton once had a theater called the South Side (or Southside,) built in 1910; an Orpheum Theatre, opened in a former skating rink in 1920; an Empire Theatre, burned in 1920; and the Lyric Theatre, located on Second Street, which can be seen partly underwater in this photo taken during the 1937 flood.