Strand Theater

Here is a June 18, 2006 article about some former Auburn, NY theaters.

"Reminiscing about Auburn's theaters

Source: The Citizen
By Carmelo Signorelli


In my last article, as submitted, I said that the Burtis Auditorium was on Water Street. When the article was published, Water Street somehow became West Street.

For purposes of clarification only, not criticism, I would like to again state that the Burtis Auditorium, which later became the Strand theater, was located on Water Street. All three theaters of the period I referred to - the Strand, Jefferson and Palace - were in the downtown area.

The Jefferson was on State Street, around the corner from the Strand. It was a quality theater and was built around 1910 for vaudeville and other stage shows. However, it soon added movies to its programs, and I recall being taken there several times in the late '20s to see a feature film and several acts of vaudeville.

When I was a child, our family lived for a short time on a street behind the Jefferson. Several of us mischievous neighborhood boys of 6 and 7 years of age would sometimes look in a basement window of the theater at performers in a basement dressing room. If we were seen by the performers, we would be yelled at, and we'd beat a hasty retreat. Ah well, boys will be boys.

After a few years, with the increasing popularity of motion pictures, the Jefferson became strictly a movie theater. It became part of the Schine chain of theaters and showed the better-rated films. The Strand, also a Schine theater, showed both A and B movies and serials.

The Palace, at 60 Genesee St., was another Schine theater and offered a variety of fare, including reruns. It was previously the Universal theater and before then, the Morgan theater.

During the time that there were three movie theaters downtown, there was a fourth theater, at 20 North Street, which was closed. I used to wonder about it and later learned that it had been the Burtis Grand. Originally, it was the Burtis Opera House and had been built in 1889 on the site of the Academy of Music.

The Burtis Grand was reopened around 1930 or so as a movie theater and was renamed the Capitol. It was not part of the Schine chain as were the other three theaters.

To compete with the established Schine theaters, the Capitol charged lower admission prices - 10 cents for adults and 5 cents for children. When it began getting its share of business, it raised prices so that they were more in line with those of the competition".

According to the above article, this theater should have an aka name of Burtis Auditorium.

The Strand seated 1,725.

A Marr & Colton theater organ size 3/11 was installed in the Strand Theater in 1925.

Google photos just show a parking lot at this address.