AMC Mountain Farms 4

Word on the street is that Barnes & Noble will be opening in the space once occupied by the ancient AMC 4.

what has happend to this theater?

At last glance, the old AMC 4 is still closed. It has not yet been redeveloped, and the old AMC 4 roadside marquee remains.

With the recent acquisition of General Cinema by AMC, American Multi-Cinema Inc. has returned to New England with a vengeance.

As for this old AMC, it is still closed and has not yet been redeveloped. The nearby Cinemark, meanwhile, has become a hit.

AMC officially returned to the New England area with the acquiring of the General Cinema chain. It officially took place March 29, 2002. For more information , go to www.amctheatres.com

I may be from philly, but DeadMalls.com has some more pictures of this (go to the mountain farm mall)

Does anyone know if this theatre has been demolished? If not, I need to go up and take photos of it next time I go to Massachusetts.

One of the essays on the DeadMalls.com Mountain Farms page makes mentions of a Barnes & Noble being open for business as part of what is now a strip shopping center; is it, as per what Ross reported in his September 30, 2001 posting, occupying the former AMC 4-screen multiplex space?

The remains of the old Mountain Farms Mall have been slowly rebuilt the past 5 years. The last store... Manny's Appliances is being torn down as I write this.

The result is it's no longer a mall but a shopping center. The center concourse has slowly been gobbled up by those new stores which have rebuilt the front of the old mall and expanded inward.

But the rear section of the old mall has not been so radically altered. I was in that rear section today. I followed a hall which would have led to the front of the mall. Walled off, but with some gaps in the sheetrock, I found myself in the lobby of the old Mountain Farms 4 Cinemas. They may be a mess, but they are intact.... all the seats remain in the theaters as do the snack bars and restrooms. I'd first gone to the MF4 back when I was at UMass in 74-77. I never thought I'd see the inside of them again after they closed. Imagine my surprise!

I continued to explore the old AMC4 over the next few weekends. I said it was intact. Let me clarify: it's mostly intact. When the new EMS expanded in from the front of the old mall it utilized the space that was once the old concourse. It's rear sheetrock wall extended to the edge of the old AMC entrance... blocking part of it. This sheetrock wall is evident in the old storage room so I have to assume the original wall that was demolished. There's evidence in the theaters of other such construction encroachment... at the end of the hall leading to the theaters and in the last cinema itself. Wherever these walls were built the drop ceilings in the theater were ripped down and the remains left hanging. Otherwise the cinemas are intact. All the projectors are there as well as supplies... not food but everything from AMC popcorn bags, old ad copy, to the letters used on the road signs to advertise movies. Some desks were moved into the hallway, presumably moved from areas of the theater that were being cannibalized. The whole place is covered in construction dust. As I said in the last entry, what's left of the old entrance has been walled in but there was a gap leading in. I assume that soon the entrance will be either walled off or a door placed in that wall. Just how much of the old cinemas will eventually be cannibalized for new stores or storage... who knows. The theater floors are angled and dip below grade making such expansion more costly. Who knows. The remains of these theaters may still be there 10 years from now.

Thanks for the update Robb -- I have a lot of memories there. :)

I show the address for the Mountain Farms 4 as 335 Russell St., Hadley, Ma.

I worked at this theater during my college years at UMass/Amherst. It's sad to hear it's gone. The name "The Dead Mall" was extremely fitting as it did indeed feel like an abandoned building out of "Night of The Comet" with the much larger Hampshire Mall right next door.

But the theaters were always the bright spot in the building.

The AMC road sign still stands with "For Lease" displayed. Could be for the theaters or the space they once occupied. Don't think it is the latter since large shopping centers don't usually promote available space that way. If that lettering was put up upon the theater's closing, wouldn't the center's owners haved the sign taken down?

The road sign is still there with a for lease sign on it because there is a small explorable walkway between EMS and Barnes and Noble that I believe to be the sole remaining part of the Theater
there is nothing much there at all but there is a small room in the very back next to barnes and noble side which would seem to me as though it was definately part of the theater in one capacity or another and currently is abandoned. I believe this to be there are for lease and it is so tiny that I highly doubt one will take it. In fact, the EMS next door build up such a wall between it and this space, including a windowed area that it almost seems like you are staring at the outside of a building, not the side of an adjacent store. I have pictures I have yet to develop and hope to eventually post on the web somewhere. but there is definately still leasable space there that was a tiny part of the theater. As far as the movie sign itself, it is blocked by bushes now if i recall correctly. Why it is still up is beyond me, but imo it adds flavor to the plaza.

The road sign is still there with a for lease sign on it because there is a small explorable walkway between EMS and Barnes and Noble that I believe to be the sole remaining part of the Theater
there is nothing much there at all but there is a small room in the very back next to barnes and noble side which would seem to me as though it was definately part of the theater in one capacity or another and currently is abandoned. I believe this to be there are for lease and it is so tiny that I highly doubt one will take it. In fact, the EMS next door build up such a wall between it and this space, including a windowed area that it almost seems like you are staring at the outside of a building, not the side of an adjacent store. I have pictures I have yet to develop and hope to eventually post on the web somewhere. but there is definately still leasable space there that was a tiny part of the theater. As far as the movie sign itself, it is blocked by bushes now if i recall correctly. Why it is still up is beyond me, but imo it adds flavor to the plaza.

As of early 2007, nothing much has changed. The hallway that enters the mall builting left of EMS is still bare sheetrock - unpainted - they are probably waiting until they get a tenant before doing any more work. The explorable walkway mentioned abofe is not where the theater used to be, it's the space to the right of that walkway in the back half of the building, right behing EMS - that space should still be intact at this point. The door was locked any time i tried to go in.

For years this was the main theater in Amherst until Hampshire Six opened and shortly after that opened both went to first run movies (finally!). But Mountain Farms Four was really built at the nadir of cinema construction - shoebox theatres, approx 300 seats each, plain red & orange curtains - long and narrow, with really small screens up front. We'd make occasional visits to the Calvin in Northampton or the Amherst Cinema to get a real cinema experience - they were still doing 2nd run then.

Forgot to mention - the Mountain Farms Four opened approx. January of 1974 a few months after the mall opened. The Hampshire Six across the street opened in June of 1979.

used to love this place.
used to take my girlfriend here during college
1993-1997